{"id":363378,"date":"2026-06-16T22:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363378\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:30:47","slug":"police-expert-testifies-to-k-street-shooters-alleged-deep-ties-to-sacramento-gangs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363378\/","title":{"rendered":"Police expert testifies to K Street shooters\u2019 alleged deep ties to Sacramento gangs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shooters in the deadly K Street massacre<\/a> moved within the complex orbit of criminal gangs and their offshoots that make up Sacramento\u2019s underworld, an expert on the capital city\u2019s gang culture testified Monday.<\/p>\n

The weeks-long murder trial of Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin is expected to conclude this week.<\/p>\n

Sacramento County prosecutors on Monday pressed their theory that Payton and Martin were involved in a shootout with rival gang members on the downtown street corner rather than defending themselves from a spontaneous volley of gunfire<\/a> as nightclubs closed April 3, 2022.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors questioned former Sacramento police officer Zach Eaton, now a Lincoln police captain, who spent 16 years tracking, investigating and studying Sacramento\u2019s complex gang networks \u2014 including alliances and rivalries, offshoots and subgroups, language and symbols \u2014 as a Sacramento police detective.<\/p>\n

Eaton testified that the men were involved in rival gangs \u2014 G-Mobb in south Sacramento, Garden Blocc Crips in North Sacramento and others that have battled over the decades \u2014 and crossed paths with deadly consequences at 10th and K streets.<\/p>\n

\"Murder<\/p>\n

Murder suspect Mtula Payton listens to opening statement during the K Street mass shooting trial at the Tani Cantil-Sakauye Sacramento Courthouse on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

(HECTOR AMEZCUA\/hamezcua@sacbee.com)<\/p>\n

Downtown blocks, including K Street, were neutral territory in Sacramento gangs\u2019 ongoing shooting war, Eaton testified. K Street, in particular, was a hotspot where rival gangs would send scouts to gather intelligence on their foes.<\/p>\n

Scouts scoured the streets in the hours before the chaos erupted \u2014 what Sergio Harris\u2019 cousin, Ike Harris, called a \u201ctemperature check\u201d \u2014 Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to know how many people are with that group, what they look like,\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

They included the Harrises, scouting for the Martin brothers and watching for rivals before the shooting started, Eaton testified, citing the K Street security videos played for jurors throughout the trial.<\/p>\n

Six people died, including three who opened fire: Sergio Harris, Joshua Hoye-Lucchessi and Davazia Turner. Three bystanders \u2014 Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57, also were killed in the seconds after the shooting started, unable to escape the barrage.<\/p>\n

Another 13 were wounded, including Payton and Martin\u2019s brother, Smiley. Smiley Martin later died at the Sacramento County Main Jail in 2024 while awaiting trial in the shootings.<\/p>\n

Payton attorney Reed Kingsbury argued earlier in the trial that videos from the scene showed Payton did not kill Martinez, Alexander or Davis while he exchanged gunfire.<\/p>\n

Testimony resumed Monday afternoon and was expected to continue through the week before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shooters in the deadly K Street massacre moved within the complex orbit of criminal gangs and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[147605,109192,147606,109195,147604,121,123,122,9123,147607,147535],"class_list":["post-363378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-criminal-gangs","tag-dandrae-martin","tag-ike-harris","tag-mtula-payton","tag-rival-gangs","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-police","tag-yamile-martinez","tag-zach-eaton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}