Man arrested in knife attack that left 2 dead to face murder charges in Sacramento court
The man suspected of attacking four people in a knife rampage last week in Carmichael will face murder and attempted murder charges Thursday in Sacramento.
Martin Raymond Lackey-Garcia was arrested Friday at a psychiatric health facility after the attack left two people dead and sent two others to the hospital. Family of the two treatment center employees killed in the attack, Eileen Stanwick and Paul McIntyre, awaited the arraignment Tuesday before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White. That was not to be. Continued psychiatric evaluation of Lackey-Garcia pushed his court date, his attorney, supervising Sacramento County Public Defender Norm Dawson, said outside court.
“I’m shocked that he’s not here. I wanted to see his face for my own closure,” Stanwick’s sister, Eliza Emmons, said of Lackey-Garcia. Emmons met with reporters outside court. She said she received word of her sister’s slaying early Saturday morning.
Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office prosecutors filed the charges in a five-page complaint Tuesday morning ahead of a scheduled afternoon arraignment in Sacramento Superior Court.
Lackey-Garcia, 39, is being held without bail on the charges at Sacramento County Main Jail. He was arrested Friday afternoon at the Wellness and Recovery Center in the 3600 block of Mission Avenue.
Sgt. Tess Deterding, spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday afternoon the two other victims were recovering at area hospitals and were expected to survive. All four worked at the center.
Stanwick worked at the center for about a year and was a popular figure, Emmons said, adding that her sister had a way of putting people at ease and was often called upon to deescalate heated situations.
“It was supposed to be safe. I’m shocked that she was at work and this happened,” Emmons said. “They really loved her. They were all hurt.”
Stanwick was 53 and McIntyre was 57, according to news reports. Employees, family and friends of Stanwick and McIntyre gathered outside the center for a vigil to remember the two, television station Fox40 reported.
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies described a chaotic scene. Some 20 to 30 people were in the center Friday at the time of the attack. Sheriff’s officials said investigators believe Lackey-Garcia knew his victims, but did not yet know how he was connected to the center or what triggered the rampage.
“People were running out asking for help, pointing to where they thought victims were or where the suspect was,” sheriff’s Deputy Lacey Nelson told reporters.
The Wellness and Recovery Center offers psychiatry, rehabilitation and other clinical services as well as peer support groups for Sacramento County residents, according to information on its website.
Investigators are still trying to determine what triggered the deadly spree, but Sacramento Superior Court records and transcripts of a recent preliminary hearing connected to a disturbance at Lackey-Garcia’s mother’s Rancho Cordova residence paint a picture of a man long in trouble with the law who grappled with anger at home.
Lackey-Garcia has a string of criminal violations – 16 on file in Sacramento County – dating to 1998, records show. Many of the arrests were either for drug possession, corporal injury to a cohabitant, battery or assault, leading to several stints in Sacramento County custody or state prison.
Lackey-Garcia faced a preliminary hearing late last year on charges connected to a violent scene at his mother’s home. He was angry and was “destroying” her house, Cherise Lackey testified, Sacramento Superior Court records show.
The scene became so dangerous, Lackey testified, that she fled the home in her car and called 911 for Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies to get her son out of the house. Deputies testified that Lackey-Garcia was “extremely agitated” when he was taken out of the house and that several deputies were needed to remove him from the premises.
Lackey desperately wanted her emotionally troubled son to be checked into treatment instead of jailed, she testified.
She told attorneys from the witness stand that she didn’t want to testify against her son. She just wanted Lackey-Garcia to check into a treatment facility “to get him on his right spot” through medication and counseling.
“I just wish everything would go right for him. It’s hard for him,” Lackey testified. “I just want him to be back with my family. I want him to be back with us. I don’t want him like this.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 1:44 PM.
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