Man sentenced in killing

The bullet that killed Rochelle Carter wasn't meant for the 37-year-old mother of five.

Carter was driving on Interstate 15 near U.S. 95 on April 29, 2005, when another vehicle pulled alongside her Chrysler sedan and fired through her tinted driver's side window.

On Monday, District Judge David Barker sentenced 28-year-old Kashif Spratt to 10 years to life behind bars for the killing.

Spratt had entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in the case. An Alford plea acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to win a conviction but does not include an admission of guilt.

During the sentencing Monday, Spratt maintained his innocence and said his cousin shot Carter.

"I didn't shoot her," Spratt said. "I did not take this woman's life."

His cousin, Brandon Frazier, was driving the rented Lincoln Navigator used in the drive-by shooting, police said.

Frazier told police that Spratt, "without warning, rolled down the passenger window and began firing" a 9 mm Beretta handgun at Carter's car, according to a Las Vegas police report.

Frazier said Spratt fired on the sedan because he thought it held gang members who got into a fight with Frazier and Spratt at a nightclub in the Luxor earlier that morning.

Police wrote that Ratasha Gaston told officers that the morning of the shooting, Spratt bragged about the shooting when an item about it appeared on the local news. But Spratt looked "visibly shaken" after he learned a woman had been killed in the sedan.

Spratt returned to his home in San Bernardino, Calif., after the shooting and was arrested for it there on June 6, 2006.

Spratt's mother, who drove to Las Vegas from California to attend the sentencing, disagreed with the sentence. "I don't think it's fair," she said.

Authorities did not charge Frazier with any crimes related to the shooting. Frazier is behind bars for other crimes, including illegal possession of a firearm.

Public defender Alzora Jackson, who represents Spratt, described him as the not-too-bright cousin who often was blamed for Frazier's misdeeds.

"He (Frazier) basically gets away with murder," she said.

Prosecutor Jim Sweetin said Spratt had a history of criminal activity, including arrests for drug offenses, robbery and burglary. Spratt, a known associate of the Crips gang, had reached the age of 27 without ever holding a job, Sweetin said.

"He is a person who will kill without regard," the prosecutor said.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.