ABC 30
February 15, 2015
Police reports are revealing disturbing new details about the murder of a popular Merced taxi driver. Court documents portray the murder as an attempted robbery that turned into a senseless shooting. Dean Barker, 59, was killed during an overnight shift on January 5th.
In the video, you’ll see the parking lot where a nightmare began for the family of Barker, after the former Dos Palos police officer was shot in his taxi. His son was working at Mercy Medical Center that night.
Dean’s son, Michael Barker, said, “I have flashbacks from when they brought him into the hospital, and I’m standing there, and I keep seeing him bleeding to death.”
Merced police arrested Joseph Castrillo and Dante Woods for the murder, and now court documents paint a chilling picture of how it happened. Woods told detectives he planned to pay for the ride to an apartment complex, but Castrillo pulled out a revolver and hit Dean on the side of the face before shooting him once, and then two more times. Woods said the back doors were locked, so he crawled over the bleeding victim and out the driver’s side then opened the door for Castrillo. Michael had told his father to use the child safety locks to keep customers from running away without paying.