PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A man charged in the accidental shooting death of his 4-year-old daughter pleaded guilty to lesser charges Friday morning, sobbing in a Philadelphia courtroom as he listened to details about the day she died.
It was around 11 p.m. in April 2020 when 4-year-old Kastari Nunez was in the living room of her father’s home on Secane Drive near Dunks Ferry with her 2-year-old brother and a woman, when a shot rang out. The girl’s mother was in the kitchen and her father was upstairs.
Kastari was shot once through the back and her parents raced her to the hospital, where she died.
Her mother, Iris Rodriguez, and the other woman, Ashley Gushue, were arrested along with the girl’s father, Alhakim Nunez.
Charges against Rodriguez and Gushue were dropped.
Alhakim has two previous drug charges and three DUIs and was not allowed to have or be near a gun.
As part of a negotiated deal, Alhakim pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a firearm prohibited, and was sentenced to 1 1/2 to five years in prison.
He’s already served 16 months but has been out on bail and working.
Judge Glenn Bronson questioned the reason behind the deal, and prosecutors said they acknowledged that Alhakim waived his preliminary hearing in an effort to expedite the process.
They said he wanted to spare the child’s mother from reliving that horrific night, something she had said would have been traumatic. Prosecutors also said they had some holes in the case — unsure of exactly what happened.
Bronson called the incident a “difficult and tragic case” and said he believed Nunez felt genuine remorse in the death of his daughter.
Nunez will surrender on Oct. 20.
Free gun locks are available for anyone who has a firearm in their home by request from the Sheriff's Office or Temple University’s Safety Net program, no questions asked.