Self-Defense or Manslaughter? Sacramento Security Guard Case Takes a Turn

A Sacramento security guard facing voluntary manslaughter charges may finally get the second look his attorney has been demanding. After months in custody, three suspects connected to a deadly May burglary have been arrested, and investigators recovered a significant weapons cache that’s reigniting questions about what actually happened on Thys Court that early morning.

On May 8, 55-year-old Joseph Mills shot two burglars during what his legal team describes as a violent intrusion at a business in the 8500 block of Thys Court off Florin Perkins Road around 4:30 a.m. One suspect, 22-year-old Kato Mills from Oakland, was pronounced dead at the scene. A second burglar was hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Mills was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter—a decision that drew immediate pushback from his attorney, Allen Sawyer, who argued the guard was defending himself and his colleagues.

Now the calculus has shifted. On July 1, Sacramento police arrested 20-year-old Carmello Madden and 19-year-old Darryl McQuillion in Oakland following search warrants, while 21-year-old Jermaj Nelson turned himself in to the Sacramento County Main Jail. The weapons haul was significant: five illegally possessed firearms including an assault rifle, two ghost guns, and a stolen firearm. Sawyer seized the moment, issuing a statement requesting authorities reevaluate Mills’s case in light of the arrests.

What makes this particularly compelling is the detail Sawyer disclosed: Mills was targeted and shot at during a separate robbery at the same business four months before the May incident. Sawyer is pushing investigators to determine whether the three newly arrested suspects are connected to both crimes—a pattern that would fundamentally alter the narrative from isolated incident to targeted, repeated threat. If true, it transforms Mills’s state of mind on the morning of the shooting. He wouldn’t just be facing masked intruders; he’d be facing a pattern of violence directed at him and the business he was protecting.

The problem? Police haven’t yet confirmed whether the suspect who survived the May shooting is among those arrested, and they’re not publicly confirming Sawyer’s assertion about the prior robbery. That leaves a significant gap between the defense narrative and official confirmation. What we know is that five guns were recovered, illegally possessed, and potentially connected to an armed robbery. What we still don’t know is whether those guns were used in either incident, or whether they’ll provide the evidence trail that could shift Mills’s legal standing.

This case sits at the intersection of self-defense law, pattern evidence, and the burden placed on security professionals in dangerous situations. As investigations continue, the question isn’t just whether Mills acted in self-defense on May 8—it’s whether authorities will take seriously the possibility that he was dealing with repeated, escalating threats that justified his response. The arrests suggest investigators are building a narrative around the suspects, but whether that narrative ultimately protects or convicts the man who fired the shots remains an open question.