1 Sacramento mass shooting suspect released from custody
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - One of three men arrested in connection with the weekend mass shooting in Sacramento has been released from custody, jail records show.
The Sacramento Bee reported Daviyonne Dawson, 31, paid a bail of $500,000 from Sacramento County Jail. Records show he was released on Tuesday.
Dawson was seen carrying a handgun immediately after the shooting was arrested on a weapons charge, though police said his gun was not believed to be used in the crime.
Sacramento Superior Court filings show Dawson has felony cases from 2012, 2014 and 2015, and documents say he was charged in 2014 with the Halloween assault on a man as a member of the Starz street gang. He also was charged with being a street gang member who "engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity and did willfully promote, further and assist in felony criminal conduct by said gang members," according to court documents reported by the Bee.
The first suspect arrested – Dandrae Martin, 26-- is still in custody with no bail; he was arraigned on Tuesday with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was arrested as a "related suspect" on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being a convict carrying a loaded gun. He was not seriously wounded and made a brief appearance Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court wearing orange jail scrubs. As of Tuesday, he had only been charged on the latter.
In an email, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said that this is a "very complex case with a lot of evidence. As the investigation is ongoing, our ethical obligations as prosecutors prevent us from commenting on the evidence or the initial charging decisions."
Linda Pariso, Dandrae Martin's lawyer, said her client is innocent until proven guilty and she has to review all the evidence prosecutors have.
"What can they prove? Can they support the charges?" she asked.
His older brother – and the second suspect arrested – Smiley Martin, 27 – is not yet in jail custody, records showed on Wednesday.
Sacramento police had said he would be booked into jail once he was well enough to leave the hospital. He was among the 12 injuries suffered early Sunday when multiple shooters – including possibly him – were said to have shot into a crowd during a fight as clubs were letting out which ended up in six people also dying.
Smiley Martin will be booked for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun when his condition improves enough for him to be jailed, a police statement said.
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Both brothers have criminal histories and a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Smiley Martin had posted a live Facebook video of himself brandishing a handgun hours before gunfire erupted.
Smiley Martin was released from prison on probation in February after serving his term for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt, prosecutors said.
Smiley Martin may have been released sooner, but a Parole Board rejected his bid for early release in May after prosecutors said the 2017 felony assault along with convictions for possessing an assault weapon and thefts posed "a significant, unreasonable risk of safety to the community."
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Authorities are trying to determine whether the weapon seen in the video was used in the shooting, said the official, who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to publicly discuss details and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators believe the brothers possessed stolen guns. They are reviewing financial documents, call records and social media messages to determine how and when they procured weapons, the official said. Authorities have searched several locations in connection with the shooting and the firearms investigation.
Dandrae Martin was freed from an Arizona prison in 2020 after serving just over 1 1/2 years for violating probation in separate cases involving a felony conviction for aggravated assault in 2016 and a conviction on a marijuana charge in 2018. Court records show he pleaded guilty to punching, kicking and choking a woman in a hotel room when she refused to work for him as a prostitute.
In an interview with a close friend of Smiley Martin, a man who asked to remain anonymous said the brothers grew up in Sacramento surrounded by gang violence.
"Everybody's hurting and everybody's lost somebody," the man said. "It's sad that we all grew up together. We all know each other. We all are parents. And it takes for someone to die for everybody to be like, ‘Oh, we need to change. We need to stop.’ "
None of the three have actually been arrested with the mass shooting itself.
The Sacramento County coroner identified the people killed in the shooting as Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and De’vazia Turner, 29.
This story was reported from Oakland, Calif.
KTVU's Amanda Quintana and the Associated Press contributed to this report.