Sacramento pays $500K to family of unarmed man who died while deputies held him down

Sacramento County has paid a $500,000 settlement to the family of an unarmed Black man who died after he lost consciousness as deputies held him face down on the ground trying to handcuff him.

The payout, which the county agreed to in March, settled a 2023 lawsuit filed by the mother and children of Sherrano Stingley, who died after deputies detained him in a south Sacramento driveway in December 2022.

Stingley, 48, was experiencing a mental health crisis when he attempted to go into a vehicle and a house, thinking they were his daughter’s, who lived nearby, according to the suit.

A resident of the house called 911, and Deputy Freddy Martinez responded, according to a District Attorney’s Office report, published in December 2024. Martinez found Stingley standing near the front door of the house, according to body camera footage the Sheriff’s Office released on YouTube two days after the incident.

Martinez shined his flashlight on him and said, ‘show me your hands,’ the video shows. Stingley then started to run off, and Martinez said, ‘get on the ground,’ which Stingley did, as Martinez stood above him in the driveway. Stingley then grabbed Martinez’s flashlight, which Martinez was using, the video shows.

Deputies Brittany Linde, Rachell Villegas, Kristofer Eilers and Nevin Thomas then arrived to assist Martinez detain Stingley, according to the DA’s Office report.

The Sheriff’s video footage appears to show two deputies at various times holding Stingley down, as they tried to bring his arms behind him and handcuff him while he moved around and yelled. The deputies yell at Stingley, in prone position, to stop resisting and at various times, one deputy kneels over Stingley, straddling his back and pressing his knee down on Stingley’s buttocks. Another deputy appears to punch Stingley in the back of the head and later calls him a “dick.”

After the deputies get handcuffs on both of Stingley’s wrists, he stops moving and yelling, the video shows. The deputies then stand him up and yell at him to stand up on his own and wake up; they then realize he’s unconscious and call for an ambulance, according to the footage.

While the ambulance was on the way Thomas located a pulse, the DA report said. However, when medical personnel arrived, they were no longer able to find a pulse. At the hospital, Stingley never regained consciousness. He died Dec. 16.

The cause of death was “sequelae of cardiopulmonary arrest due to methamphetamine intoxication during physical restraint complicating hyperintensive heart disease,” according to a report from the coroner. An investigation by the DA concluded in 2024 the deputies’ conduct in the incident was reasonable, and that they would not face criminal charges.

“Applying the controlling legal standards to the factual record in this case, we find no credible evidence to support an allegation of criminal negligence or excessive force against Deputies Martinez, Linde, Villegas, Eilers, or Thomas,” the report said. “Rather, the objective evidence supports a finding that the deputies’ conduct was reasonable given the circumstances they encountered.”

The lawsuit alleged the deputies did in fact violate state and local law enforcement procedures when they placed so much of their body weight on Stingley while he was faced down, with limited ability to breathe. Villegas pushed his head into the ground with such pressure that the teeth on the right side of his jaw became loose, as he called out for his daughter, the suit alleged.

Stingley had experienced similar mental health crises before, and was prescribed psychiatric medication, the lawsuit said.

“He was obviously a disoriented scared man who is confronted in a strange situation and you have deputies who immediately respond with force,” said Mark Merin, who filed the suit on behalf of Stingley’s mother, daughter and minor son. “Their reaction was to immediately get the guy on the ground, jump on top of him, use the masses they had to physically control him without realizing they were actually killing him.”

Martinez, Linde, and Villegas are named as defendants in the suit, along with the county, the Sheriff’s Office, and then-Sheriff Scott Jones. Eilers and Thomas are named as being involved in the incident in the DA’s report, but are not defendants.

County spokeswoman Kim Nava declined comment on the settlement. Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Edward Igoe, as well as Martinez, Linde, Villegas, Eilers and Thomas did not respond to emails seeking comment on the settlement. Igoe did not respond to an email asking if the deputies were still employed or had been disciplined due to the incident.

The Sheriff’s Office has so far failed to release records in the incident, despite a state law that requires law enforcement agencies to release materials related to the investigation and discipline of officers involved in incidents where a person is killed or seriously injured.

Tanya Faison, founder of Black Lives Matter Sacramento, which held news conferences following the death, said the deputies should have been disciplined.

“These are the same patterns we’ve seen over the years for how the Sheriff’s Office responds when people are Black and in a mental health crisis,” Faison said. “The settlement amount is too low to replace an actual life they took. We need to know the officers have been reprimanded at the very least. The Sheriff’s Office has a history of killing Black people in mental health crises. We’re not going to see change unless the Sheriff’s Office determines it’s a priority.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 11:51 AM.