Man sentenced for deadly Sacramento shooting in feud with former coworker
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge sentenced Julian Brooks to 79 years to life in prison for the 2023 shooting.
- Brooks shot former coworker Mark Moton during a confrontation tied to a feud.
- A jury found Brooks guilty of first-degree murder.
A judge last week sentenced a man to 79 years to life in prison for the shooting death of a former coworker and friend in a feud that led to gun violence two years ago at the victim’s south Sacramento home.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Arguelles sentenced Julian Maurice Brooks for the death of Mark Anthony Moton, 53, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Prosecutors said Brooks and Moton were former coworkers and friends, but the two men had become involved in an “ongoing feud.”
The deadly shooting occurred on the morning of June 1, 2023, at Moton’s apartment in the 7400 block of Stockton Boulevard. Prosecutors said Brooks went to the apartment and waited for Moton to head out for work.
Brooks then confronted Moton and forced him back into his apartment at gunpoint and threatening to kill him, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Moton tried to retrieve his own handgun to defend himself, prosecutors said, then Brooks shot Moton twice.
Brook then attacked Moton with his hands, before Moton’s family fought off Brooks until he left the apartment, according to the D.A.’s Office. Authorities found Brooks at the apartment complex and took him into custody.
Medics took Moton to a hospital where he died from his injuries later that morning.
Sacramento County sheriff’s officials have said that Moton returned fire with his own handgun, which he legally owned. Brooks suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the neck during the exchange of gunfire.
A jury on May 1 found Brooks guilty of first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm, along with an enhancement for using a firearm causing death. Prosecutors said Brooks had a previous robbery conviction considered a strike under California’s “three strikes” law.
Brooks, 52, remained in custody Tuesday at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove awaiting transfer to a state facility.
