The trial of two men accused of carrying out the deadliest shooting in Sacramento, California, ended in a mistrial on Tuesday. Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin faced up to 15 years to life in prison for their role in the April 2022 shooting on K Street, which killed six people and injured at least a dozen. While not convicted for the deaths, they were found guilty of possessing firearms despite prior felony convictions.
The jury could not reach a consensus on the murder charges. It is now up to Sacramento County prosecutors to decide whether to pursue a retrial on those charges.
Lengthy trial with extensive evidence
The trial lasted more than two months and included dozens of hours of shooting footage, testimony from responding officers and witnesses, and statements from the two men prosecutors allege planned the gun battle against rival gang members.
The shooting took place just blocks from the state capitol, rocking Sacramento in 2022. It was one of the few such events to be the subject of a major trial. Leia Schenk, a victims' advocate supporting three families who lost loved ones, said gang-related shootings rarely command sustained attention, but the shooting's lethality and high-profile location attracted global media coverage.
The night of the shooting
In the early morning hours of April 3, 2022, rapid gunshots from multiple directions broke through the sounds of hundreds of people leaving bars and clubs along K Street. Crowds heading to cars and ride-shares quickly turned to sprinting and ducking as people ran for their lives. By the end of the chaos, six people were dead: bystanders Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; and men allegedly involved in the conflict: 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 found by police in Las Vegas and arrested in late May 2022. All three were charged with murder. In 2024, Smiley Martin was found dead in his cell at the Sacramento County Main Jail from a methadone overdose, a coroner later determined.
Prosecution and defense arguments
Investigators argued the shooting resulted from a conflict between rival groups. Prosecutors said Martin and Payton went to K Street to kill rivals, while the defense argued they fired in self-defense out of fear from unexpected gunfire. Although both were armed, the defense said neither planned to shoot anyone or sought to settle a gang conflict.
The pair were initially charged with first-degree murder, but prosecutors later downgraded the charges to second-degree murder after jurors became deadlocked, according to the Sacramento Bee.
During the trial, Payton testified about his life as a member of a local gang, which he joined at age 11, and claimed he was afraid for his life during the shooting. “Everybody was running in the same direction as me. People were getting shot around me. I was scared,” Payton told his attorney. Martin said he was never affiliated with a gang, but his deceased brother was.
Impact on victims' families
Since opening arguments in late April, scores of witnesses testified, and families of the victims viewed surveillance footage of people firing guns as bystanders ran for cover. The jury took a two-week break in early July, prolonging the trial and making the grieving process harder for families, Schenk said. “Ultimately, justice would be to have their loved ones back. But there’s no such thing as justice in a case like this,” Schenk said in a post-verdict press conference. “Now we’re starting all over again. So the families can’t begin to heal because every time they come here it’s ripping the Band-Aid off.”
If a new trial begins, Schenk said she hoped the district attorney's office would offer compensation for the time victims' families took from work and money spent on gas commuting to court.
