Inset: Mandiko Kwadzo (Sacramento County DA’s Office). Background: The area where his girlfriend’s car went over the rail and into the Sacramento River with her four young kids inside (KXTV)
A 31-year-old man in California will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his 23-year-old girlfriend while she was driving with her four young kids in the car, causing the vehicle to crash into a river and sink as he did nothing to save the children. A jury in Sacramento County on Wednesday found Mandiko Kwadzo guilty of first-degree murder, using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the 2020 slaying of Carliena Clayton, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, officers with the West Sacramento Police Department on July 27, 2020, responded to a 911 call reporting shots being fired inside the residence Clayton had recently moved into with her four kids who ranged in age from 2 to 6.
Upon arriving, first responders said they entered the home and were able to find evidence that someone had fired a gun inside the residence.
Moments after the 911 call, a witness told investigators they saw Clayton and Kwadzo arguing on the driveway of the home. The witness said that Clayton then got into the driver’s seat with her four children in the back, and Kwadzo got into the passenger seat before the car pulled out and drove away.
Later that evening, at about 9:30 p.m., a man was at Cliff’s Marina on the Sacramento River when he heard the sound of at least one gunshot followed by a car crashing into the river. With the help of a friend, prosecutors say the two men rushed to the scene of the crash and “saw the victim’s car partially submerged in the river.”
One of the men spoke to Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV about the incident and said, “I saw little hands trying to poke out” of the car, which prompted him and the other man to jump in and help get them to safety.
“Kwadzo was standing nearby the car not doing anything to help,” the release states. “When they looked into the car, they found the victim unresponsive in the driver’s seat and her four children in the back seat. The oldest 6-year-old child had already unbuckled all their seat belts, but the youngest 2-year-old child was still in her car seat. The two men got the children out of the car to safety.”
Troopers with the California Highway Patrol were the first to arrive at the site of the crash and found that Clayton was unresponsive without a pulse. She also had “severe bleeding from her head.”
Authorities initially believed that Clayton’s injuries were the result of a car accident, but her 6-year-old child clarified to CHP that Kwadzo had shot his mother before the crash. Police then took Kwadzo into custody.
A subsequent autopsy determined that Clayton had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. The murder weapon was never recovered.
Kwadzo is scheduled to appear in court before Judge Kenneth Brody on the morning of Sept. 6 for his sentencing hearing. He faces a maximum sentence of 53 years to life in a state correctional facility.
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