Mistrial declared in case over Sacramento’s deadliest shooting | California

Trial of two men The case of the man accused of committing the deadliest shooting in California’s Sacramento city ended in a mistrial on Tuesday.

Suspects Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin were tried together and face up to 15 years to life in prison for their roles in the shooting that left six people dead and at least a dozen injured. Although they were not convicted of the deaths found guilty possession of a firearm despite previous crimes.

The jury could not reach a consensus on murder charges. It will now be up to Sacramento County prosecutors to decide whether to seek a retrial on the murder charges.

The trial, which lasted more than two months, included dozens of hours of footage of the shooting and testimony from police officers who responded to the incident, witnesses to the shooting and two prosecutors who alleged he planned the shooting against rival gang members.

The 2022 shooting rampage, which took place just blocks from the state capital, has shaken Sacramento. And this was one of the few incidents of its kind that was the subject of a major lawsuit. Leia Schenk, a victims’ advocate in Sacramento who has supported three families who lost loved ones, said gang-related shootings rarely receive sustained attention. But he said the attack attracted media attention from around the world because of its lethality and prominent location.

In the early morning hours of April 3, 2022, rapid gunfire from multiple directions interrupted the murmurs of hundreds of people streaming out of the bars and clubs lining K Street in Sacramento. Moving toward parked cars and rideshares quickly turned into running and ducking as people ran for their lives and tried to protect themselves from bullets.

By the end of the chaotic scene, six people were dead. Three in the audience were women: Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21. The others were three men who were allegedly part of the confrontation that later led to the melee: Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and DeVazia Turner, 29.

Martin and his brother, Smiley Martin, were arrested days after the shooting, and Payton was located by police in Las Vegas and arrested in late May 2022. all three is accused of murder. Smiley Martin in 2024 found dead in his cell The medical examiner later determined that he died of a methadone overdose at the main Sacramento County jail.

While the investigation was ongoing, investigators maintained that the shooting was the result of a conflict between rival groups that culminated in the shooting. While prosecutors argued that Martin and Payton went to K Street to kill their rivals, the defense argued that the duo opened fire in self-defense and because they were afraid of unexpected gunshots. And although they were both armed that night, their defense maintained that they neither planned to shoot anyone nor were they trying to settle any gang disputes.

The couple was initially charged with first-degree murder. But prosecutors later reduced the charges to second-degree murder after jurors found themselves deadlocked. The Sacramento Bee reported.

At trial, Payton testified about his life as a member of a local gang he joined when he was 11 and claimed he feared for his life at the time of the shooting. “Everyone was running in the same direction as me. People were getting shot all around me. I was scared,” Payton said he told his lawyer during his testimony.

Martin claimed that he was never affiliated with a gang, but that his dead brother was.

Since opening arguments in the trial began in late April, scores of witnesses have testified about what they saw the night of the shooting, and families of the victims have experienced tense moments inside and outside the courtroom as bystanders showed surveillance footage of people firing guns as they ran for cover.

The jury also took a two-week recess in early July, contributing to the protracted nature of this trial, Schenk said, making the grieving process much more difficult for the families of the dead.

At the press conference he held in front of the courthouse after the decision, Schenk said, “In the end, justice will be to get their loved ones back. However, there is no such thing as justice in such a case.” “Now we’re starting all over again. That’s why families can’t begin to heal because every time they come here the Band-Aid is ripped off.”

Schenk added that if a new trial begins, he hopes the district attorney’s office will offer compensation to the victims’ families for the time they spent from work and the money they spent on gas to get to and from court.