DA drops charges against defendant in 2022 downtown Sacramento shooting who died in jail
Prosecutors on Friday formally dismissed criminal charges against Smiley Martin, who died in jail in June as one of three men accused of murder in a 2022 suspected gang-related shootout in downtown Sacramento that killed six people and wounded 12 others.
Deputies found Martin, 29, dead in his cell about 2:15 a.m. June 8 before at the Sacramento County Jail. Authorities have not determined how Martin died. On Friday, Sacramento County Coroner Rosa Vega said the cause and manner of Martin’s death were still pending.
At the time, Sacramento County Public Defender Amanda Benson, whose office was representing Martin in the murder case, said they contacted the sheriff’s command staff at the jail. Benson said that sheriff’s officials will likely not provide any details about the death investigation until its completed, a process that can typically take a year or more.
Martin had been in custody, held without bail, since his arrest in April 2022. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to return to Sacramento Superior Court this week to resume a preliminary hearing in his case.
Martin, his younger brother Dandrae Martin and Mtula Payton were charged for their alleged roles in the brazen shootout April 3, 2022, at 10th and K streets. Police believe members of two rival groups of gang members fired guns at each other, with 100 to 200 people in the crossfire as they exited nearby downtown nightclubs.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office charged the Martin brothers and Payton each with three counts of murder stemming from the downtown shooting deaths of three women killed in the crossfire. Authorities have said Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57, were innocent bystanders struck by stray bullets fired by two groups of shooters.
No charges were filed in the deaths of three men shot that April night. Court documents indicate Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32, DeVazia Turner, 29, and Sergio Harris, 38, were involved in the gunfight or appeared to be armed.
In court Friday morning, Deputy District Attorney Brad Ng told the judge that prosecutors were dismissing the charges against Smiley Martin “in the interest of justice.” It was first time the attorneys and the remaining defendants in the murder case had been in court since Smiley Martin’s death.
The preliminary hearing, in which evidence and testimony is presented to determine whether the defendants should stand trial, began in January and has continued with hiatuses as the court works around scheduling conflicts for those involved in the case.
More testimony in murder case
Testimony resumed Friday with Ike Harris, a cousin of Sergio Harris, who was at the scene when gunshots rang out that night. Ike Harris began his testimony in early April, when he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against testifying in court until Judge Maryanne Gilliard ordered he be granted immunity to testify and instructed him to answer questions while on the witness stand.
The focus of his testimony Friday was on what he did in the first moments after shots were fired. Prosecutors showed video captured on a security camera as Ike Harris crouched behind garbage cans, each only a few feet tall, as he ducked for cover.
Ng pointed to a small black object highlighted in the video image. Ike Harris testified that object, his phone, had fallen out of one of his pockets. He said on the witness stand that the object, that he momentarily left behind and went back to retrieve, was not a gun.
Linda Parisi, Dandrae Martin’s defense attorney, asked Ike Harris whether there anyone who could corroborate that the object he dropped wasn’t a gun. The witness answered, “I don’t know.”
He also testified that he didn’t see anyone with a gun that night, including his cousin, but he couldn’t “recall” why he told investigators someone else had the murder weapon that night. Ike Harris went on to testify that he received that information from an anonymous person who sent him a message on Instagram.
Parisi asked Ike Harris whether he was offering up answers to divert blame away from his cousin as the instigator in the deadly shooting.
“I don’t care about anything that has to do with this case. It doesn’t matter to me,” Ike Harris told the defense attorney. “I don’t recall a gun you keep referring to.”
He testified he left the shooting scene, leaving behind his wounded cousin lying on the ground, after police arrived and started telling people there to get back.
“Once I seen my cousin wasn’t breathing anymore, I left,” Ike Harris said in court. “They were clearing the area, telling everyone to move.”
Testimony in the preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume Aug. 23 and will likely continue Aug. 30. Dandrae Martin and Mtula Payton remained in custody at the jail.
This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 3:08 PM.
