Opening statements began Monday morning in the trial of two men charged in connection to Sacramento’s 2022 K Street mass shooting.
More than four years after the downtown shooting left six people dead and 12 others wounded, Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin are now facing a jury for the first time.
The trial, which began with opening statements at the Sacramento County Courthouse, laid out competing narratives from prosecutors and defense attorneys about what led to the deadly gunfire.
Prosecutors are expected to rely on video evidence, witness testimony and years of investigation as they work to show who they believe is responsible. Defense attorneys, meanwhile, are expected to challenge that version of events, raising questions about who started the violence and whether self-defense could play a role.
During opening statements, prosecutors and defense attorneys presented sharply different accounts of what happened that night.
Deputy District Attorney Brad Ng told jurors the shooting stemmed from a gang-motivated confrontation involving multiple shooters near 10th and K streets.
“Just over four years ago, on April 3 of 22, at 2 o’clock in the morning, these two defendants, Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin, were involved in a gang-motivated confrontation at 10th and K,” Ng said.
Ng said the conflict escalated into a standoff between two groups from different gangs and argued the case is not one of self-defense. He said video evidence will be presented to support that conclusion.
“At the end of it, you’ll be left with one inescapable conclusion, that these two men are guilty of three counts of murder without a reasonable doubt,” Ng said.
Attorneys for the defense pushed back, describing a more complicated series of events. Attorney Reid Kingsbury told jurors that Payton was in downtown Sacramento to meet women and knew some of the people involved from childhood, not as rivals.
He said individuals including Devazia Turner, Sergio Harris, Smiley Martin and Joshua Hoye were present, and that some had grown up together in the same neighborhood.
“The evidence will show that they are not gang rivals to Mr. Payton; they are not on opposite sides of a gang war. Rather, they are childhood friends. They grew up in the same 29th street neighborhood, and they haven’t seen each other in a number of years,” Kingsbury said.
Dandrae Martin’s attorney, Linda Parisi, argued the shooting unfolded rapidly and blamed Sergio Harris for starting the violence. She said Harris, who was killed in the shooting, acted alone in initiating the confrontation and that Martin fired in fear.
“The evidence is going to show an individual, Sergio Harris — he’s not here. He was killed in the event. — he’s a very violent man with a very quick temper, the one who ignited this entire event,” Parisi said.
Before the trial, Sacramento attorney and former prosecutor Michael Wise, who is not directly involved in the trial, said cases like this can be especially complex for jurors to follow.
“You get these two sides, if you will, who, by the time things really jump off, they feel like they’re both justified in their violence and their decisions. And that is part of the gang culture, if you will. And it makes it very hard for prosecutors to put the case on, and it creates a lot of work for counsel, for the defendants as well,” Wise said.
Wise said the presence of multiple shooters and the dynamics of gang-related violence can complicate efforts to determine who is legally responsible. He also explained that prosecutors often have to reconstruct events step-by-step, working backward from the outcome.
“They start with the ultimate result, which is a homicide, and then with the benefit of video witnesses, any other recordings they might obtain, or photographs, social media, communications and posts, then they kind of go backwards to see what created the problem in the first place, and they look at the beginning of the incident that night to see who did what first and who was responding,” Wise said.
The trial comes after years of legal delays, which experts say can add additional challenges, including fading memories and witness availability.
With multiple people involved and competing accounts of what happened, attorneys say the case may not be straightforward for jurors to untangle.
Wise expects the trial to last at least several weeks, given the amount of evidence and number of witnesses expected to be presented.
Jurors are expected to begin hearing testimony from witnesses and officials as the trial continues.
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