A 31-year-old Mandiko Kwadzo from California was found guilty after he shot his young girlfriend and drove a car full of her four children into a lake, intending to drown them. A 31-year-old California man was found guilty of murdering his 23-year-old girlfriend while she was driving with her four young children in 2020, likely to get the maximum sentence for this crime.
On that fateful day, Mandiko Kwazdo shot his girlfriend Carliena Clayton, causing the car to crash into a river while he did nothing to save them. Heartbreaking witness accounts say that ‘little hands tried to poke out’ – causing the crowd to rush to their rescue.
The children survived the harrowing incident, but their mother did not. Now, on Wednesday, a Sacramento County jury convicted Kwadzo of first-degree murder, use of a firearm during a felony, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
West Sacramento police officers responded to reports of gunshots on July 27, 2020. A witness reported seeing an argument between Kwadzo and 23-year-old Carliena Clayton in her driveway.
Clayton was seen getting into a car with her four children, with Kwadzo entering the passenger seat as they left the driveway. Upon arrival at the scene, officers discovered evidence of a shooting inside the house.
According to a press release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, West Sacramento Police Department officers responded to a 911 call on July 27, 2020, reporting gunfire inside the residence Clayton had recently moved into with her four children, aged between 2 and 6.
First responders reported finding evidence of a discharged firearm inside the home upon their arrival. Moments after the 911 call, a bystander reported seeing Clayton and Kwadzo in a heated argument on their driveway. The witness saw Clayton get into the driver’s seat with her four children in the back, while Kwadzo took the passenger seat before the car drove off.
Later that night, around 9:30 p.m., a man at Cliff’s Marina on the Sacramento River heard what sounded like a gunshot followed by a car crashing into the river. With the help of a friend, they rushed to the crash site and “saw the victim’s car partially submerged in the river.”
One of the men recounted the incident to Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV, saying, “I saw little hands trying to poke out” from the car, which prompted him and his friend to jump in and rescue them.
“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.”
California Highway Patrol officers were the first to arrive at the crash site and found Clayton unresponsive without a pulse. She also had “severe bleeding from her head.”
Initially, authorities thought that Clayton’s injuries were due to a car accident, but her 6-year-old child clarified to CHP that Kwadzo had shot his mother before the crash. This led to Kwadzo’s arrest.
An autopsy later revealed that Clayton had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. The murder weapon was never found, reports Law and Crime.
Kwadzo is set to appear in court before Judge Kenneth Brody on the morning of Sept. 6 for his sentencing hearing. He could face a maximum sentence of 53 years to life in a state correctional facility.
Unfortunately, at least three women are killed per day in domestic violence situations, according to Sanctuary for Families.
