SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2022 drive-by shooting in Sacramento that resulted in the targeted killing of a local resident. Devonte Lee White was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of 30-year-old Matthew Salas-Keen. Additionally, he was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, along with an enhancement to the murder charge for firing a gun from a vehicle and causing death.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge James McFetridge handed down the maximum prison sentence for the charges. White is currently in custody at the Sacramento County Mail Jail awaiting transfer to prison. The deadly shooting was the result of a confrontation that occurred two weeks prior when White got into an argument with a group of people the victim was with at the time, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
The fatal shooting occurred on Jan. 25, 2022, in the 3700 block of Dayton Street, just south of Grand Avenue. Security camera footage showed a vehicle passing Salas-Keen, who was on his front porch, and then making a U-turn to pass his home a second time before backing up. The vehicle’s driver then shot Salas-Keen at point-blank range, with the victim being struck by three bullets out of the eight fired at him.
Following the shooting, Sacramento police officers were called to Dayton Street and found Salas-Keen wounded by gunfire. He was taken to a hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. Investigators found a stolen handgun at White’s apartment, and the District Attorney’s Crime Lab matched the firearm to expended shell casings found at the scene and in the vehicle used in the drive-by shooting. Traces of White’s DNA were also found on the gun used to kill Salas-Keen.
White was arrested on suspicion of homicide in Salas-Keen’s death on Feb. 24, 2022, after being in jail custody since Feb. 2, 2022, on a charge of being a felon in possession of a weapon.