Sacramento paid $7,500 to mass shooting suspect before massacre

A new report shows that one of the Sacramento mass shooting suspects was paid more than $7,000 after reaching a legal settlement with the county just weeks before the April 3 mass shooting that left six dead and 12 others injured.

"The county’s decision to settle was purely economic, as the trial date was approaching and it was likely the trial would be pushed out for many months given the court calendar backup due to COVID. A decision was made to put an end to the case, as the costs going forward would multiply," a county spokesperson said of Smiley Martin's settlement, according to CBS Sacramento. 

Before his involvement in the Sacramento massacre, Martin racked up a number of criminal charges, including his most recent sentencing in 2018 to 10 years in prison for domestic violence and assault with great bodily injury after punching his girlfriend and dragging her from her home by her hair before whipping her with a belt, Fox News reported.

In a 2018 lawsuit, Martin claimed that a jail guard at the Sacramento County jail was to blame for an attack by rival gang members which left him injured and in a “dangerous predicament.”

"I had hot water thrown on me and second degree burns," he wrote in the lawsuit. "I was hurt and feel he left me in a dangerous predicament."

Representing himself before the court, Martin claimed the guard had threatened him after he made his complaints public and said he was not offered medical attention immediately after being attacked with the hot water. Ultimately, the county settled the case and agreed to pay Martin $7,500 – although a county official said on Wednesday that Martin has yet to receive the payment, adding that a “check will be delivered to Mr. Martin’s counsel.”

"It’s really difficult to sue, and to prevail is just as difficult," said Sacramento Attorney Mark Reichel. "The laws are kind of slanted toward the correctional officers."

"No matter how reprehensible that the public may feel of someone, we as a society in America don’t therefore torture, we don’t violate their rights," he added.

Martin was arrested earlier this month in connection to the April 3 shooting that left six people dead and 12 others injured. He was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2018 but was released early thanks to California’s increasingly lax criminal code.

Prior to his release, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert wrote a letter to the parole board, urging them not to release Martin, warning of his life-long criminal career.

“Inmate Martin has, for his entire adult life, displayed a pattern of criminal behavior. While the current case on review may not be ‘violent’ under the Penal Code, Inmate Martin’s criminal conduct is violent and lengthy,” she wrote.  

“Inmate Martin has committed several felony violations and clearly has little regard for human life and the law, which can be shown by his conduct in his prior felony convictions of robbery, possession of a firearm and prior misdemeanor conviction of providing false information to a peace officer,” she added.

Backlash to leftist soft-on-crime laws has been growing steadily across the country amidst a crime wave involving criminals with lengthy arrest records that have been released early in states like New York and California.