BEACH — A Beach man has been charged with murdering another man three weeks after he allegedly shot him in the head.
Though details about the incident are slim, court documents state Gabriel Alexander Castro, 22, shot Richard Young, 24, of Beach, on June 6 with a 1911 model .45-caliber pistol.
Young died from his injuries on June 10 in a Bismarck hospital.
Castro was officially charged with Class AA felony murder on June 24, the day he made his initial appearance in Southwest District Court, and is being held on $500,000 bond at the Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center in Dickinson. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Court documents state Castro also intentionally interfered with law enforcement’s investigation by “altering the firearm and removing items with fingerprints.” He faces charges of hindering law enforcement, a Class C felony, and providing false information to an officer about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, a Class A misdemeanor.
Castro has a preliminary hearing before Southwest District Judge Dann Greenwood on July 28.
Golden Valley County Sheriff Scott Steele said he could not provide details about the case as it remains under investigation.
Steele added that he could not comment on whether or not the pistol Castro used was legally obtained.
Golden Valley County State’s Attorney Christina Wenko said both the sheriff’s office and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation are investigating the shooting.
Beach Mayor Walt Losinski said it has been decades since the last murder charge in Beach. He recalled a murder happening sometime in the 1970s, but none since.
He said he doesn’t know much about the shooting and neither do many others in the southwest North Dakota town of about 1,100 people just 1 mile from the Montana state line.
“They’ve sure kept quiet about it because I haven’t heard anything,” he said, referring to law enforcement.
The two men both came to Beach from other states. Castro’s Facebook page states he was working in the deli at the Pilot Flying J Travel Center in Beach and that he attended high school in Phoenix.
A Flying J spokesperson said she could not comment on Castro’s employment. A GoFundMe page dedicated to Young states that he was originally from Oregon, was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and had a child.
Dustin Monke 