SACRAMENTO — Sacramento authorities on Tuesday charged three alleged gang members with murder in a rampage that killed six and wounded 12 in a barrage of bullets outside a Sacramento nightclub strip in the early hours of April 3.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said Smiley Martin, his brother Dandrae Martin, and rival gang member Mtula Payton are each charged with the murders of three women — Melinda Davis, Johntaya Alexander and Yamile Martinez-Andrade — struck in the crossfire of their shootout.
Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said Payton remains a fugitive. “We have currently a team of detectives doing everything they can do to locate Mr. Payton during the course of this investigation,” she said.
The three suspects charged Tuesday were not charged with the murders of the three others killed in the shootout, Sergio Harris, Devazia Turner and Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi. Those three, authorities said, were also involved in the shooting themselves.
“The law says that when individuals are involved in a gun battle and they kill innocent bystanders, all participants in that gun battle are responsible for the death of the bystanders,” the district attorney said “It doesn’t matter whose bullet killed who.”
All three also face allegations of special circumstances in the fatal shooting, the nation’s deadliest gun rampage this year. That means they could be eligible for the death penalty, although the death penalty is essentially outlawed in California.
The announcement comes exactly one month after the shootout unleashed more than 100 bullets on a crowded street just as patrons were leaving downtown clubs in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
Within days, police had announced that they believed the shooting was gang-related and that at least five people had drawn weapons and opened fire.
That conclusion was based on an analysis of more than 200 videos of the crime scene, which allowed police to develop a detailed timeline of the rampage, some of which was included in a motion prosecutors filed in court last month as part of a bid to keep Martin locked up pending additional charges. Martin, who was hospitalized with bullet wounds after the shooting, was initially charged with being a felon in possession of a gun.
Police determined that the incident began about 1:57 a.m., when a large crowd of about 70 to 80 people were congregated on the northeast corner of 10th and K streets, just blocks from the State Capital, as clubs were letting out for the night.
Smiley Martin was standing on the northeast corner with his brother, Dandrae Martin and at least one other man, Joshua Hoye-Lucchessi. One of the men, whom police describe as “wearing all black” but do not otherwise identify, raised his right arm parallel to the ground pointing north, according to the timeline laid out in the prosecutors’ motion.
In response, a group of men, including Payton and another man later shot to death that night, Devazia Turner, began walking toward Martin and his companions. Payton, according to a police review of the video, “reached toward his waistband.”
The crowd suddenly began to flee, on foot and in vehicles. A hot dog vendor ran from his cart.
One minute later, Sergio Harris crossed 10th Street and joined Turner and Payton, according to the motion. Harris was also later shot to death.
Less than 20 seconds later, Smiley Martin turned and faced the group. Shortly after that, a camera captured an image of him holding a handgun with an extended magazine in his left hand, down by his leg, according to prosecutors’ motion.
An explosion of gunshots rang out less than 15 seconds later.
Preliminary analysis of ballistics indicated that Martin filed “approximately 28 rounds.” Next to him, Hoye-Lucchessi was shot and killed. Dandrae Martin was wounded.
Smiley Martin and his brother Dandrae fled northbound on K Street toward the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Martin allegedly ditched the gun, which police later recovered. Police also managed to get surveillance footage showing Martin dropping it, according to the prosecutors’ motion —just moments before encountering officers responding to the shooting. It was a Glock 19 handgun with an extended 30-round magazine, a tactical laser right, and a full automatic switch. In short, an illegal machine gun.
Back at the crime scene, Alexander, who had just hopped out of her car to try to pick up her sister, was killed. So was Martinez-Andrade, a young woman from Fresno County who happened to be walking by on K Street. A block away, Davis, a homeless woman, was later found dead as well. Police do not say whether the bullet traveled all the way down the block from the main crime scene.
Just hours before the shooting, Hoye and Smiley Martin ventured into rival territory — a Del Paso Heights apartment complex — to film a video in which they displayed firearms, flashed gang signs and “discussed going to downtown Sacramento while armed to loiter outside nightclubs,” according to prosecutors. They referenced the “29th,” a subsect of Garden Blocc Crips, and boasted about “shooting gang rival members.”
The Martin brothers and Hoye-Lucchesi are part of the the Garden Blocc Crips, prosecutors said. The other three men were associated with G-Mobb, a rival gang.
The carnage quickly became a talking point in California’s contentious battle over criminal justice reform. Republicans and some police advocates argued that it illustrated the need for stiffer sentences for gun and gang crimes and an end to early release from prison.
Many progressives, including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, said it proved the need to spend more on crime prevention and other community services.
