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The trial of two men accused of carrying out the deadliest shooting in the city of Sacramento, California, ended in a mistrial on Tuesday.
The suspects, Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin, were tried together and faced up to ۱۵ years to life in prison for their role in the shooting, which killed six people and injured at least a dozen. While they were not convicted for the deaths, they were found guilty of being in possession of firearms despite having prior felonies.
The trial, which lasted more than two months, included dozens of hours of footage of the shooting and testimony from responding officers, witnesses of the shooting, and the two men prosecutors allege planned the gun battle against rival gang members.
Taking place just blocks from the state’s capitol, the ۲۰۲۲ shooting rocked Sacramento. And it’s one of the few events of its kind that were subject of a major trial. Gang-related shootings rarely command sustained attention, said Leia Schenk, a victims’ advocate in Sacramento, who is supporting three of families who lost loved ones. But the shooting’s lethality, and its high-profile location, meant it attracted media from all over the world, she said.
In the early morning hours of ۳ April ۲۰۲۲, the sound of rapid gunshots from multiple directions broke through the rumblings of hundreds of people pouring out of bars and clubs that line K Street in Sacramento. Milling toward parked cars and ride-shares quickly turned into sprinting and ducking as people ran for their lives and tried to shield themselves from bullets.
By the end of the chaotic scene, six people were dead. Three were women who were bystanders: Johntaya Alexander, ۲۱; Melinda Davis, ۵۷; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, ۲۱. The others were three men who were later alleged to have been a part of the conflict that led to the melee: Sergio Harris, ۳۸; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, ۳۲; and DeVazia Turner, ۲۹.
Martin and his brother Smiley Martin were arrested days after the shooting, and Payton was found by police in Las Vegas and arrested in late May ۲۰۲۲. All three were charged with murder. In ۲۰۲۴, Smiley Martin was found dead in his cell at the Sacramento county main jail from a methadone overdose, a coroner later determined.
As the investigation continued, investigators argued that the shooting was the result of a conflict between rival groups that climaxed with the shooting. Prosecutors argued that Martin and Payton went to K Street to kill their rivals, while the defense argued that the pair fired shots in self-defense and out of fear of the unexpected bursts of gunfire. And while the pair were both armed that night, their defense argued that neither planned to shoot anyone nor were looking to settle any gang conflict.
Initially, the pair were charged with first-degree murder. But prosecutors later downgraded the charges to second-degree murder after the jurors found themselves deadlocked, the Sacramento Bee reported.
During the trial, Payton testified about his life as a member of a local gang, which he joined when he was ۱۱, and claimed that he was afraid for his life at the time of the shooting. “Everybody was running in the same direction as me. People were getting shot around me. I was scared,” Payton told his attorney during his testimony.
Martin claimed that he was never affiliated with a gang, but that his deceased brother was.
Since opening arguments in the trial began in late April, there have been scores of witnesses testifying to what they saw the night of the shooting and tense moments in and outside of the courtroom as the families of the victims showed surveillance footage of people firing guns while bystanders ran for cover.
The jury also took a two-week break in early July, adding to the protracted nature of this trial , which made the process of grieving that much harder for the families of the deceased, Schenk said.
“You can’t even begin to heal until this is over. Every time they try to move on with life or get past that day every time and then they come into court, they’re reminded,” she said.
Ultimately the jury could not come to a consensus on the murder charges. Now it will be up to Sacramento county’s prosecutors to decide whether they will pursue a retrial for the murder charges.
