OAKLAND — An Alameda County jury couldn’t decide whether or not the suspect in a 2023 homicide was guilty, restarting a murder case that spilled into two other homicide investigations.
Marco Leiva-Saucedo, 23, was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm on the same day that prosecutors allege he shot and killed 25-year-old Johnathan Carballo. But jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the much more serious charge of murder, and Judge Jason Chin declared a mistrial on Sept. 25, releasing the jury, court records show.
Prosecutors allege that Carballo and Leiva-Saucedo, who lived near each other, argued about loud music on Aug. 28, 2023, prompting Leiva-Saucedo to produce a gun and kill Carballo. They say he had pointed a pistol at Carballo before and threatened him. But in a police interview, Leiva-Saucedo would only admit to “finding” a gun near the scene of the homicide after hearing gunshots and investigating, and said that a mysterious person he knew only as “Junior” took the gun from him later that day.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Leiva-Saucedo said in a police interview, according to a transcript that was translated from Spanish to English and filed in court. When police asked him who the real killer was, he replied, “I couldn’t tell you.”
Leiva-Saucedo’s lawyer argued he was innocent and had told police the truth. Leiva-Saucedo was not allowed to possess a gun because of a prior conviction for receiving a stolen car — pled down in a carjacking case — so even possessing a pistol for a few minutes would have been a felony, according to court records.
Before declaring themselves hopelessly deadlocked, jurors sent two notes out to the judge, on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, which give some hint to the confidential deliberations. The Sept. 23 note laments that “the jury is at an impass (sic)” after reviewing all the evidence. After Chin sent them back to deliberate forward, they sent another note, requesting “to review/examin (sic) the murder weapon.”
It was a pistol responsible for at least two homicides, according to police.
On Sept. 27, 2023, Maricela Urias-Martinez used the same gun to shoot her ex-boyfriend, Walter Mancia Menjiva, 25, in an Oakland drive-by shooting. Both shootings happened on International Boulevard, with Carballo being killed on the 2300 block and Mancia Menjiva being shot on the 5700 block. Urias-Martinez later received a six-year prison sentence in a plea deal.
Leiva-Sacuedo was not arrested until six weeks after the shooting, at an Oakland motel. On that day, police were looking to arrest another man, Lester Villatorro, for his alleged participation in the Oct. 10, 2023 Oakland killing of Alberto “2Kan” Servin-Ortega. Leiva-Saucedo allegedly refused to exit a motel room. Police sent in a K9, which bit him. He was treated for dog bite wounds then interviewed by police, according to court records.
Last year, Villatorro pleaded no contest to accessory and was released from jail, records show. Servin-Ortega’s suspected killer was sentenced to 21 years, after police arrested him while conducting surveillance on yet another murder suspect, who had killed a man on Oct. 11, 2023, according to court records.