A Merrillville man who admitted killing two and wounded three others when he opened fire outside the Portside Pub in Whiting last year was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole.
Caprice Cashaw, 32, pleaded guilty in a plea deal last month to two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the March 2025 deadly rampage.
He admitted killing bartender Paul Olivares, 25, of Whiting, and longtime patron Lorraine Reyna, 59, of Whiting. Cashaw’s then-girlfriend, Ciera Jamison, who survived with two others, was shot 10 times.
Court records show Cashaw lost at least $7,000 on March 30, 2025 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond. He was “mad” and took it out on Jamison and started beating her while driving back from the casino.
He pulled over randomly in front of the Portside Pub, 1516 Indianapolis Blvd., to keep assaulting her. Four people in the bar stepped outside to help her — setting the evening’s events in motion.
When the girlfriend tried to run, he opened fire, killing Olivares and Reyna.
In addition to Cashaw’s girlfriend, police found another man on his hands and knees, who was shot multiple times. Another woman was shot in the leg while hiding in a walk-in cooler.
The courtroom Wednesday was packed with emotional and grieving relatives, who wanted Olivares and Reyna remembered for their lives — who stepped in as Good Samaritans to help Jamison — rather than their deaths in a high-profile shooting.
“They made it possible for me to come home to my kids,” Jamison told the court.
After the hearing, Reyna’s sister, Liz Reyna, said Lorraine was less than five minutes from leaving the bar with friends. She stayed longer that night, wanting to make sure Paul, a former co-worker at another brewery, would get to his car safely.
“That’s what gets me,” she said.
David Olivares, Paul’s cousin, said in court he “stood up for others” and “stood up for what he believed in.”
They had a small tiff not long before the shooting and he didn’t respond to one of Paul’s messages, figuring he’d reply later. He never got the chance, he told the court.
“The impact of what you’ve done will last far beyond this courtroom,” David told Cashaw.
Paul was “heroic” and “stoic,” said his sister Marcilena Cabello, a mother of two, who said he treated people “as if he knew them their whole life.”
She saw so much of her own two children in their relationship, noting how he cried when she told him she was pregnant with her first child and how he sang a song from “Frozen” at karaoke.
Emmeline Raines, Paul’s mother, told the court he was “fearless,” “adventurous,” “musically talented” and “completely irreplaceable.”
She watched the video that showed his death in recent days, she said in court, and hailed her son as a hero.
“I saw Paul get a mother away from a situation that would have killed her,” she said.
“I won’t tell (others) not to help people,” she later said. “His courage will not become a cautionary tale.”
Earlier, before the hearing, Raines turned around to admonish Lake County Prosecutor Bernie Carter, who was sitting behind her, informing him that she was “Paul’s mom” and he shouldn’t be talking about the case right near the family.
Carter apologized.
David Castillo, Reyna’s brother, read a letter from their elderly mother. Her daughter was “funny,” “caring,” and “big-hearted.”
“I know her and Paul … died helping someone,” Castillo recalled telling his crying mother. If that didn’t get them in heaven, he didn’t know what would. Cashaw would be “in hell,” he said. “God will have his turn with you.”
Prosecutors said Reyna was parked near Cashaw’s vehicle on the street when she saw him attacking Jamison, then ran back into the bar for help.
“She died how she lived,” Castillo said after the hearing. “There was no way she was going to jump in that car.”
Danielle Hudson, Reyna’s niece, told the court as a child she was “filled with excitement” at going to Reyna’s house for a sleepover. Her aunt treated her like a “princess.” Cooking was her love language, and Reyna was known for Puerto Rican rice and barbacoa tacos.
Most of their family wanted the death penalty, she said.
Jamison said she was left with plates and rods in her body. Reyna “said her last words to me,” she said emotionally.
“I am truly sorry,” Jamison told the court.
Prosecutors played an edited video stringing together the security footage from across the street — showing the shooting — video inside the bar, police bodycam footage, and multiple 911 calls.
Cashaw appeared to open fire several times, eventually getting back into his car and leaving. A couple of people living nearby called 911 separately, saying they heard at least eight gunshots in a row.
“I thought it was hailing outside for a minute,” one man told a dispatcher.
“I need help. I’m shot,” one man on a 911 call said.
The courtroom murmured in disbelief as the dispatcher asked multiple times for an exact address.
“Portside Pub,” he responded. “Indianapolis Boulevard.”
Jamison was soon on the line, pleading for help.
It was “horrifying” and “tragic,” said Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg. “This was a mass shooting.”
Cashaw, even without criminal convictions, had a history of domestic violence with Jamison, “clear alcohol problems” and gambling issues, she said.
Four people came to Jamison’s aide, she said. “They saved Ciera…that night.”
Cashaw “ran out of ammo,” she said. “(Without that) I do not believe a single person in that bar would have survived.”
Defense lawyer Bob Varga told Judge Samuel Cappas the videos “speak for itself.”
His client “never tried to hide” from what he did, the lawyer said.
Cashaw spoke briefly in court. Several members of both families walked out.
“I never meant to do something like that,” he said.
Cashaw’s actions were “abhorrent” and “reprehensible,” Cappas said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”
Cashaw has a pending case where he allegedly nearly hit a gaming agent in January 2022 on the way out of AmeriStar in East Chicago. A hearing is scheduled later this month.