Three suspects charged with murder in California gun fight that left 6 dead

Smiley Martin, Dandrae Martin and Mtula Payton have each been charged with three counts of murder in the shooting last month that also wounded 12.

Three men were charged with multiple counts of murder Tuesday in a mass shooting that left six people dead and 12 injured in what authorities called a gun battle between rival gangs in California’s capital city.

Smiley Martin, Dandrae Martin and Mtula Payton have each been charged with three counts of murder in the April 3 killings of Johntaya Alexander, 21, Melinda Davis, 57, and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters.

Smiley Martin and Dandrae Martin, who are brothers, have been in custody since last month, when they were accused of illegally possessing firearms. Payton remains at large.

Schubert said the suspects were not charged in the deaths of three other people because those victims — Devazia Turner, 29; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and Sergio Harris, 38 — were allegedly armed and involved in the gun fight.

Documents filed by the prosecutors’ office last month alleged that the fight was between the three gang groups, NBC affiliate KCRA reported.

“It doesn’t matter whose bullet killed who,” Schubert said. “What matters is that this was a gun battle between rival gang members who came armed to this scene in downtown Sacramento and innocent bystanders died,” Schubert said.

A lawyer who has represented Smiley Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It wasn’t immediately clear if his brother had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

Relatives of Turner, Hoye-Lucchesi and Harris couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Harris’ mother has previously described her son as a “vivacious young man” who was fun to be around and was always smiling.

Turner’s relatives described him as a family man with four children who was “out just having fun with his friends” when he was gunned down.

The gunfire erupted in Sacramento’s main entertainment district as bars and nightclubs were closing.

Schubert attributed the lengthy gap between the April 3 shooting and Tuesday’s charges to “factual and legal complexities,” noting that over 100 shell casings were recovered from a scene that stretched across a large swath of downtown Sacramento.

Between 70 and 80 witnesses have been interviewed in an investigation that she described as ongoing.