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In a stunning turn, a Sacramento Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the K Street mass shooting murder trial of surviving suspects Dandrae Martin and Mtula Payton after jurors failed to reach verdicts on the remaining charges.
The decision came days after prosecutors dropped first-degree murder charges against Martin and Payton in the deaths of Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57, who were killed shortly after 2 a.m. April 3, 2022, in Sacramento’s deadliest-ever mass shooting.
Jurors last week were instructed by Judge Michael Bowman to return Tuesday to deliberate the lesser included offenses of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. They returned to court Tuesday and reported they remained deadlocked. Bowman then declared a mistrial.
The case hinged on whether Sacramento’s deadliest-ever mass shooting was triggered by a planned confrontation between rival gang members or whether Martin and Payton fired their weapons in self-defense after the shooting began.
In all, six people were killed - Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchessi, 32; and Davazia Turner, 29, the three men alleged to have participated in the gunfight, and the three women who were caught in the crossfire. Thirteen other people were wounded. Martin also faced weapons-related counts.
Over weeks of testimony before Bowman, the seven-woman, five-man jury considered competing accounts of what happened and reviewed painstaking frame-by-frame surveillance video showing the hours and minutes leading up to the chaos at 10th and K streets. Jurors also heard testimony from investigators and gang experts about the rivalries, alliances and subgroups that make up Sacramento’s street gang landscape.
And, they heard from Martin and Payton themselves. Both took the witness stand in days of testimony as defense attorneys Reid Kingsbury and Linda Parisi argued that Sergio Harris fired the first shots that killed Payton friend Turner and set the massacre in motion.
“There is no evidence anyone agreed to do this,” Parisi said. “Without an agreement, all you have is Sergio Harris acting independently and people reacting to it. ... There’s gunfire in all directions and (shell) casings everywhere. This is not a standoff.”
“Mr. Martin did not create the chaos, he became part of it because of what Mr. Harris was doing,” Parisi said.
But Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office prosecutors repeatedly rejected that argument during closing statements.
“They were firing weapons they weren’t allowed to possess; weapons they carried for protection. Protection from who? Gang rivals and gang conflict,” Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Brad Ng told jurors in June before the panel began its deliberations.
“They’re not motivated by fear; they’re motivated by animus,” Ng told jurors of Martin and Payton. “They escalated the terror on K Street and now, they’re looking for an excuse. They escalated at every opportunity. These are gang members who were arming themselves. These two men are guilty of murder.”
Families of victims say mistrial denied them justice
Outside the courthouse Tuesday, relatives of those killed in the shooting said the mistrial left them feeling that the justice system had failed them after years of waiting for accountability.
Families said they had been told jurors had reached a hung jury before arriving at the courthouse and learning that Bowman had declared a mistrial. They said they were uncertain what would happen when the case returns in October, including whether prosecutors would offer a plea agreement or take the case to trial again.
Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, in a statement Tuesday afternoon, said it would soon decide on next steps in the case.
“Unfortunately, the jury was unable to reach a verdict, and a mistrial has been declared. We will make a decision in the near future as to our next steps, which will include a decision to retry the case,” the statement read. “As this case is still pending, we will have no further comment.”
Sacramento City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, whose district includes downtown, called the mistrial “deeply painful” for the families of the victims, survivors and community members who have waited more than four years for accountability.
“While we respect the judicial process and the work of the jury, the inability to reach a verdict leaves many without the sense of closure they have sought for years,” Pluckebaum said in a statement, adding that “Sacramento deserves safe communities, meaningful violence prevention efforts, and a justice system that honors victims while upholding the rule of law.”
John Alexander, the father of Johntaya Alexander, said he believed his family had been denied justice.
“I did not get justice today,” Alexander said outside Tani Cantil-Sakauye Sacramento Courthouse following the hearing. “I did not get justice in these four years. I did not get justice in these two months of being in the courtroom. I got a slap in the face.”
Stevante Clark, the brother of Stephon Clark, who was killed by Sacramento police officers in 2018, was also outside the courthouse Tuesday. Clark, who became an activist focused on violence and community issues after his brother’s death, said he believed public attention surrounding the K Street shooting had shifted over time.
“The community support switched. At first, the community was like, man, this is horrible. This is a mass shooting, Sacramento’s largest mass shooting, and then it’s just gangbanging. It’s just gang violence. Gun violence is gun violence,” Clark said.
Alexander said his family had placed its trust in the jury to hold those responsible accountable and said the shooting had affected the public’s sense of safety in downtown Sacramento.
“We put our trust and belief into 12 jurors to seek justice for my daughter,” he said. “Anyone that stepped in that courtroom can see that we deserve justice. And what I mean by justice is, as a family, as individuals, as human beings, we have the right to go downtown and enjoy ourselves. Whether you’re Black, you’re white, you’re Hispanic, it doesn’t matter. You have the right to go (to) downtown Sacramento, the capital, and enjoy yourself without the fear of violence.
“Now, for my daughter to witness her sister lose her life at a time where they’re supposed to be enjoying themselves, and for the jury to not give us justice, is intolerable.”
Johntaya Alexander’s sister, Johntezha, said the mistrial compounded the loss of her sister and left her without the hope she said the defendants still had.
“I had my best friend took from me. I had my heart ripped from my chest, and there was nothing I could do about it, and I had nothing else to do but to put my faith in a justice system that did not prevail,” Johntezha Alexander said. “These defendants get to walk away with something I don’t get to walk away with, and that is hope - hope that they will see the sun again, hope that they will breathe air again, hope that they will be free. Their families get that hope. I don’t got that hope. My hope is six feet in the ground.”
Pamela Harris, Sergio Harris’ mother, said she struggled to understand how jurors reached a deadlock after four years of waiting for a trial.
“One juror - one - decides to say they’re not guilty,” she said. “Well, I hope that individual can sleep tonight. Because I damn sure can’t, knowing that I thought for sure that we were going to get some justice in this. After four years of pain and suffering, we’re still going through pain and suffering.”
The Bee’s Jennah Pendleton contributed to this story.
