Three charged with murder in Sac mass shooting
SACRAMENTO — Prosecutors have filed the first murder charges in the April 3 gang shootout downtown, charging brothers Smiley Martin and Dandrae Martin and fugitive Mtula Payton each with three counts stemming from the shooting deaths of three women killed in the crossfire.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester announced the charges Tuesday afternoon as prosecutors filed court documents outlining the precise details of the 2 a.m. shootout that killed six people and wounded 12 gathered near 10th and K streets.
“This was a gun battle between two rival gangs,” Schubert said. “The evidence shows that the rival gang members armed themselves with weapons.”
The Martin brothers, who are currently in the Sacramento County Main Jail on weapons charges, and Payton, who is still being sought by police, are each charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57, who authorities believe were innocent bystanders cut down in a hail of bullets between two groups of shooters.
Schubert’s office filed the charges along with special circumstances that the suspects allegedly committed multiple murders, a filing that could lead to a death penalty prosecution if Schubert’s office decides to pursue that.
Payton also was charged separately with $45,000 in Employment Development Department fraud allegedly committed while he was in prison in 2020.
No charges were filed in the deaths of three men shot that night, with court papers saying they were involved in the gunfight or appeared to be armed. A 47-page arrest warrant filed with the charges says Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32, is seen on video “holding a dark object in his hand that could be consistent with a black firearm,” that DeVazia Turner, 29, is seen on video firing a gun and that Sergio Harris, 38, was later found to have gunshot residue on his hands.
The shootout appeared to stem from a confrontation near Sharif Jewelers at 10th and K streets between two groups of gang members on the streets, according to the arrest warrant, which is based on video from a dozen cameras downtown and witness statements.
In all, according to the police document, investigators recovered 114 spent casings.
“Investigators located approximately 51 spent nine-millimeter (9mm) caliber shell casings near the apex of where the east 10th Street sidewalk curves east turning into the north K Street sidewalk,” the warrant says. “An additional 18 spent 9mm caliber shell casings were located along the east 10th Street sidewalk heading north toward J Street.”
One witness told detectives that he was standing along the west wall of Sharif Jewelers just before the shooting when “he heard a group of individuals cursing at each other at the corner,” the warrant says.
The witness told police he saw a man identified later as Payton “pull up their white hooded sweatshirt and brandish a black semiautomatic handgun in their waistband” just before 2 a.m., and that moments later the crowd of 70 to 80 people began running.
“At 1:57:10 a.m., the crowd around the corner of Sharif Jewelers continued to run from the area,” the warrant says. “Individuals ran across the street, cars backed away from the corner before their passengers could get inside, and food (vendors) left a cart unattended.”
The warrant says the three men charged with murder, as well as three men killed in the shootout — Harris, Hoye-Lucchesi and Turner — were all convicted felons who were prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition and that each was a gang member.
One group of men consisted of the Martin brothers and Hoye-Lucchesi, who recorded a video posted on social media hours before in which they could be seen waving handguns and a rifle, the warrant says, while the other group included Harris and Turner.
The two groups converged after some of them emerged from the District 30 nightclub at 10th and K and were walking toward the London nightclub, according to the warrant.