Finally Getting Some Details on the Sacramento Mass Shooting

Two weeks of wondering what the hell happened:

At 1:57:02 a.m. April 3, surveillance cameras at 10th and K streets caught a crowd of 70 to 80 people gathering on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Eight seconds later, the crowd began to run. Some drove away in cars. A hot dog vendor ran away from their cart.

But Smiley Martin, his brother Dandrae and Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi stayed. They stood near Sharif Jewelers as a man dressed in black and standing next to Smiley Martin pointed north toward two other men: Mtula Payton and DeVazia Turner.

In less than three minutes, the shooting in downtown Sacramento began, with Smiley Martin reportedly firing 28 rounds from a fully automatic Glock 19 handgun and others returning fire until more than 100 shell casings littered the streets and 18 people were shot — six of them dead including Hoye-Lucchesi and Turner. Twelve others, including Smiley Martin, were wounded.

This description of how one of the largest shootouts in Sacramento history unfolded is contained in newly filed Sacramento Superior Court documents, which are based on homicide detectives scouring numerous video files and studying the events second by second as they search for the five people they say were involved in the gang battle.

The documents, filed Friday afternoon by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office, are largely focused on Smiley Martin, a recent parolee officials say they will charge with being a felon in possession of a handgun and of carrying a machine gun — the Glock with aftermarket auto sear — that night.

Martin is recovering at a Sacramento hospital. Deputy District Attorney Brad Ng filed the documents in a bid to see that Martin does not win his release on bail once he is booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, where his brother Dandrae, 26, is being held on a weapons charge.

The court documents outline the gang affiliations attributed to five men at the scene that night, including the three who were killed, and provide a glimpse at how police came to decide the incident resulted from a gang dispute involving five shooters. Besides Turner and Hoye-Lucchesi, the four others killed in the melee were Sergio Harris, 38; Johntaya Alexander, 21; Yamile “Yami” Martinez-Andrade, 21; and Melinda Davis, 57.

The documents do not reveal the precise nature of the dispute, but note that three men — the Martin brothers and Hoye-Lucchesi — were seen together on an Instagram video posted hours before the shooting several miles away on Traction Avenue in Old North Sacramento.

The three were seen posing with two black handguns, one equipped with a high-capacity magazine, as well as a rifle, the documents say.

“In the video, filmed while the three men were in north Sacramento (territory claimed by the Del Paso Heights Bloods), both Joshua Hoye and defendant Smiley Martin discuss going to downtown Sacramento while armed to loiter outside nightclubs, display gang hand signs to the camera, point firearms at the camera, openly and repeatedly state their allegiance to the Garden Blocc Crips (“GBC”) and boast about shooting rival gang members,” the 13-page document says.

In the video, Smiley Martin can also be seen saying he cannot go into any downtown nightclubs because he is not carrying identification. The document identifies Smiley Martin, 27, and Hoye-Lucchesi, 32, of Salinas, as validated members of the Garden Blocc Crip, a gang that includes the 29th Street Crips.

After posting the video, the three made their way downtown, where cameras picked them up near Sharif Jewelers just before 2 a.m., the documents say.

SHOOTING BEGINS

“At 1:57:28 a.m., an individual in all black clothing, standing next to Smiley Martin, raised their right arm parallel to the ground while pointing northbound on 10th Street in the direction of Mtula Payton and Devazia Turner,” the documents say.

Payton, 27, is being sought by Sacramento police as one of the shooters and is identified in court papers as once having been a Garden Blocc Crip but later being validated as a G-Mobb member, which the documents say includes the Starz or Guttah Gas gang.

Turner, 29, of Carmichael, also is named in court papers as a G-Mobb member.

Five seconds after the man in black is seen pointing toward Payton and Turner, Payton turns to face the northeast corner of 10th and K and reaches toward his waistband, the documents say.

Then, Payton, Turner and two other people start approaching the corner where the Martin brorthers and Hoye-Lucchesi are standing, the court papers say.

At 1:58:36 a.m., Sergio Harris joins Payton, Turner and the other two men. Smiley Martin turns to face them, the documents say.

Harris, a father of three, is identified in the documents as a Del Paso Heights Blood, an ally of the G-Mobb gang.

One of the female victims pulls up in her car as the groups face off. Alexander, of Elk Grove, parks her car and walks to get her sister, who is standing near Harris by the jewelry store, the documents say.

“At 2:00:21 a.m., detectives observe that Smiley Martin is holding a handgun with an extended magazine in his left hand beside his leg,” the court papers say. “Three seconds later, Smiley Martin moves west toward the corner of the intersection.

“At 2:00:38 a.m., Devazia Turner and Smiley Martin are observed exchanging gunfire. During this exchange of gunfire, detectives were able to observe that Johntaya Alexander, Sergio Harris, Joshua Hoye, Yamile Martinez-Andrade (who was walking along K Street at the time of the confrontation between the two groups of men), and Devazia Turner were all struck by gunfire.”

The documents continue: “In the video surveillance footage, detectives observed that Smiley Martin fired multiple rounds from his firearm. A preliminary ballistics analysis indicated that the defendant Smiley Martin fired approximately 28 rounds.”

After the shooting, the Martin brothers ran toward the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and detectives saw Smiley Martin on video tossing his handgun away in front of 1029 K St. just before officers stopped him in front of the cathedral, court papers say.

“While securing the scene, officers located the firearm that defendant Smiley Martin discarded: a Glock 19 handgun with an extended 30-round magazine, a tactical laser sight, and a full-automatic selector switch, making the firearm an illegal machine gun.”

The court filing is aimed at convincing a judge that Smiley Martin should not be released on bail once he recovers enough to be booked, and notes that another man arrested after being seen carrying a handgun near the scene was released before arraignment on $500,000 bail. Police have said they do not believe the man was involved in the shootings.

The court papers note that Smiley Martin “has demonstrated a life-time commitment to violence” and cannot be safely released into the public.

Judge Michael Savage agreed, signing an order Friday that says Smiley Martin cannot be released before he is arraigned and a hearing on the motion by the District Attorney’s Office to deny bail is heard

The DA’s filing contends Smiley Martin was not going downtown to visit a nightclub, but to commit crimes.

“As the defendant told his social media audience, he had no intention of going to nightclubs or bars that evening,” the documents say. “Instead, based on his lack of identification, his clothing, his prior gang-related statements, and his decision to come to downtown Sacramento with a loaded, illegal full-automatic machine gun equipped with an illegal high-capacity magazine, there is clear and convincing evidence that defendant Smiley Martin intended to engage in armed criminal action with an illegal firearm.

“Inevitably, when a conflict presented itself at the intersection of 10th Street and K Street, the defendant did not leave the scene. Instead, with a full-automatic Glock 19 drawn out in his left hand, the defendant stayed in front of the Sharif Jewelers, waiting for a confrontation with Mtula Payton, Devazia Turner, Sergio Harris and the other men they were with.”