Attorneys: Alleged K Street shooters fired in self-defense in manslaughter bid
Attorneys for the two surviving defendants held in 2022’s deadly K Street mass shooting were seeking manslaughter charges in the slayings, saying Deandre Martin and Mtula Payton acted in self-defense when the shots rang out.
Martin and Payton appeared Friday before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman. Martin’s attorney, Linda Parisi, on Friday and in a motion filed this week, said the shootout at 10th and K streets early April 3, 2022, between alleged gang rivals that killed six people and wounded 12 was a “spontaneous event,” and that Martin and Payton fired back to defend themselves.
“There are no sufficient facts to support mutual combat. This was a spontaneous event that erupted,” Parisi argued before Bowman. Defense attorneys later said the two “responded to that spontaneous eruption of hostilities” with gunfire.
Martin and Payton each face three counts of murder in the barrage that killed bystanders Yamile Martinez, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57. Sacramento County prosecutors said three others shot dead — Joshua Hoye-Lucchessi, 32; Sergio Harris, 38; and Devazia Tuner, 29 — were involved in the gun battle.
Deandre Martin’s brother, Smiley Martin, 29, who was also charged in the shootings, died in Sacramento County Main Jail in June 2024 and charges against him were dropped.
Sacramento County deputy prosecutor Brad Ng “strongly disagreed” with defense attorneys’ argument, arguing Payton flashed a handgun tucked in his waistband at the rivals in the moments before the gunfire.
“This was mutual combat, not an excited quarrel,” Ng said.
Bowman was expected to rule on the defense motion in writing in March. Meantime, the parties were scheduled to return to the courtroom Feb. 6 on a separate defense motion to move the trial out of Sacramento County amid concerns of pretrial publicity in the high-profile case.
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