Man guilty of murder for shooting mother in front her children before crash, Sacramento DA says
A jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of first-degree murder for shooting a woman in the head as she drove a vehicle with her children in the back seat before it crashed into the Sacramento River, prosecutors said.
Mandiko Rahsaan Kwadzo, 30, was convicted in the 2020 fatal shooting of Carliena Clayton, 23, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The murder charge also had an enhancement for using a gun in Clayton’s death. The jury also found Kwadzo guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of a gun.
Sacramento County sheriff’s officials have said homicide detectives determined Kwadzo and Clayton were in a “domestic relationship and had children in common.”
The deadly shooting occurred on the evening of July 27, 2020. Earlier that night, West Sacramento police officers responded to a report of shots fired inside a home. Moments later, a witness reported seeing Clayton and Kwadzo arguing in the driveway of that home, prosecutors said.
Then, Clayton was seen getting into a vehicle with her four small children, along with Kwadzo in the front passenger seat as she drove away. The West Sacramento officers arrived at the home and discovered evidence indicating a shooting had occurred there.
The vehicle crash involving Clayton, Kwadzo and the four children was reported later that night about 9:30 p.m. in the Sacramento River near Elk Grove. Sheriff’s officials said the vehicle was spotted leaving the road along the 8700 block of River Road.
Prosecutors said a witness at nearby Cliff’s Marina told authorities he heard a gunshot followed by a vehicle crashing into the river. He called a friend, and they both headed to crash site. When they arrived, they found Clayton’s vehicle partially submerged in the river.
Kwadzo was standing on the river’s edge not doing anything to help, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The two men who went to help looked in the vehicle and found Clayton unresponsive in the driver’s seat with her four children in the back seat. Prosecutors said Clayton’s oldest child, a 6-year-old boy, had already unbuckled all their seat belts except for his youngest sibling, a 2-year-old still in her child safety seat. The two men got the children out of the vehicle.
California Highway Patrol officers found Clayton did not have a pulse and was bleeding from her head. Prosecutors said that authorities at the time believed the crash was an accident until Clayton’s oldest child told officers Kwadzo shot his mother.
Officers took Kwadzo into custody. Investigators later determined Clayton suffered two gunshot wounds to her head. Authorities never found the gun used to kill her.
Prosecutors said Kwadzo faces a maximum sentence of 53 years to life in prison. A sentencing hearing for Kwadzo is scheduled for Sept. 6 in Sacramento Superior Court. He remained in custody Thursday at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
