Murder suspect Mtula Payton, center, listen to prosecutor Brad Ng, left, question a cousin of victim Sergio Harris during a preliminary hearing in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, April 4, 2024, in the case of the April 2022 mass shooting in downtown Sacramento.
Nathaniel Levine
nlevine@sacbee.com
Trial in the deadly 2022 K Street mass shooting will begin April 21 in Sacramento, four years after the gun battle that killed six people and wounded 12 others, a judge ruled Monday.
The two defendants, Deandre Martin and Mtula Payton, each face murder charges stemming from the April 2022 barrage. Martin’s brother, Smiley Martin, 29, died in Sacramento County Main Jail in June 2024 while awaiting trial in the case. His charges were later dropped.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman in February denied Martin and Payton’s motions to reduce their charges to manslaughter. Attorneys for the pair argued the lethal gunfire between alleged rival gangs was triggered spontaneously and that Martin and Payton returned fire in self-defense.
Martin and Payton each face three murder counts in the shooting deaths of bystanders Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57. The three others who were killed — 32-year-old Joshua Hoye-Lucchessi, Sergio Harris, 38, and Devasia Turner, 29 — were involved in the shootout, according to Sacramento County prosecutors.
The deadly shooting outside a downtown nightclub near 10th and K streets just after closing time April 3, 2022, was widely considered the worst mass shooting in Sacramento history.
Bowman gathered attorneys Monday to finalize dates for the roughly 10-week trial, which is expected to run into early June. Bowman had earlier decided the trial would remain in Sacramento County, rejecting defense attorneys’ arguments that extensive and prejudicial news coverage following the shooting had tainted the jury pool.
Attorneys will draw from a pool of 130 Sacramento County jurors when jury selection is scheduled to begin April 13.
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The Sacramento Bee
Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.