SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The first suspect charged in connection with the mass shooting in Sacramento early Sunday made a brief court appearance Tuesday on a single count of illegal possession of a firearm, with no charges tying him directly to the shootout that killed six and wounded 12.
Dandrae Martin of Blythe was arrested Monday and is being held in the Sacramento County Jail on a felony charge that he was found in possession of a firearm despite a 2017 domestic violence conviction in Phoenix that prohibits him from having access to guns.
Court files say Martin, 26, had been “duly and legally convicted of a felony, to wit, the crime of Aggravated Assault — DV Impede Breathing” in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Sacramento police earlier had said he was also being held for assault with a firearm, but that was not included in the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors.
He appeared in a cage in a jailhouse courtroom and spoke only once to confirm his name to Superior Court Commissioner Ken Brody.
“Yeah,” Martin said, when asked if that was his name.
The public defender’s office declared an overload, and the case was assigned for now to lawyer Linda Parisi, who said there would be a decision later on which defense attorney would represent Martin and other defendants.
After court, Parisi described her client as “very somber, very somber.”
“You saw in court, this is very serious,” she said.
He will appear in court again April 26.
Martin is one of two suspects arrested in the wake of Sunday night’s shooting.
His older brother, Smiley Allen Martin, 27, was wounded during the gunfight and was arrested in a Sacramento-area hospital early Tuesday on charges of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and possession of a machine gun.
The machine gun charge stems from Sacramento police’s discovery of a stolen handgun at the scene near 10th and K streets that had been altered so it was capable of firing as an automatic weapon, a law enforcement source said.
Smiley Martin also has a case pending in Sacramento Superior Court charging him with a felony count of impersonating someone else, and has a lengthy criminal history that included a 10-year sentence handed down in 2018 for domestic violence and aggravated assault causing great bodily injury, a conviction that prevents him from possessing a firearm.
That case led Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office to file a letter with the parole board last April strenuously opposing an early release for Martin.
Despite that, Martin was out of custody and in Sacramento Saturday night where he posted a Facebook Live video hours before the shooting showing himself brandishing what appears to be a handgun. The video has since been deleted.
Authorities have said they are looking for multiple shooters who may have been involved and the investigation is continuing.
After the shooting unfolded, police say they arrested Daviyonne Dawson, 31, at the scene on suspicion of possessing a firearm despite being prohibited from having one.
Dawson on Tuesday did not face any criminal charges “directly related” to Sunday’s melee, police said, and detectives do not believe the gun recovered during his arrest was used in the shooting. But detectives continued their investigation to identify additional suspects.
Dawson has since been released from the Sacramento County Main Jail after posting a $500,000 bail bond. Police said detectives identified Dawson as a man who was spotted carrying a gun in the “immediate aftermath of the shooting.”
____
