Discovered gun leads detectives to two arrests in Sacramento man’s 2022 shooting death
Sheriff’s detectives on Thursday arrested two men suspected in the shooting death of a Sacramento man whose body was found last year in a houseboat.
Jimmy Ray Carnes, 63, and Dustin Gilbert Noyes, 41, were arrested on suspicion of homicide in the shooting of 41-year-old Matthew Allen Wakeham, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday. Wakeham was found dead May 5, 2022.
Deputies were called that day to a houseboat off of Garden Highway, the Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post. Sheriff’s officials said a caller discovered his friend, later identified as Wakeham, dead inside the boat.
The caller told sheriff’s officials that he had been trying to reach his friend for weeks, so he became worried and went looking for him. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office lists Wakeham’s death date as May 5, 2022, the same day his body was found.
Homicide detectives determined Wakeham had been shot to death and “began an exhaustive months-long investigation,” sheriff’s officials said.
In June, detectives were informed that a resident in the eastern part of the county discovered a gun in a bush at his house. Sheriff’s officials said detectives “discovered this gun was used in Matthew’s murder.”
The discovered gun helped detectives identify Carnes and Noyes as suspects in Wakeham’s homicide, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Carnes and Noyes on Friday were being held without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail. Noyes was already in custody at the jail when he was arrested on the homicide charge.
Noyes was initially booked at the jail on Oct. 19, 2022, more than five months after Wakeham’s body was discovered. In a separate criminal case, Noyes faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon, corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, kidnapping and being a felon in possession of a gun, jail records show.
Carnes is scheduled to appear for his arraignment on Monday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court. Noyes appeared for his arraignment on the homicide charge on Thursday. Jail records show Noyes is scheduled to return to court Nov. 2.
