Two groups of strangers met at SF nightclub. Hours later, one was shot to death in East Oakland

OAKLAND — Two small groups of friends met for the first time at a San Francisco nightclub when the women invited the men to follow them back to their home in East Oakland for more socializing.

That simple, unassuming invitation was the first in a chain of events that led to the killing of 23-year-old Guillermo Kelly-Torres at a home on the 9200 block of E Street in Oakland, according to witness testimony. Now, Kelly-Torres’ suspected killer is behind bars, awaiting trial after a judge upheld the murder count against him, court records show.

The suspect, Juan Sura-Martinez, 22, wasn’t even at Carbon Lounge when Kelly-Torres and some friends met Sura-Martinez’s sister and her two friends. When the club closed around 2 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2023, the women invited the men back to the E Street home for more socializing, and picked up Sura-Martinez on the way. Around 10 people ended up there for drinking, smoking, playing pool, and chatting, according to witness testimony.

Everything was going fine, but there was a bit of tension between Sura-Martinez and Kelly-Torres, multiple eyewitnesses testified at the Aug. 12 preliminary hearing. At one point, the two men played pool for $20 and Kelly-Torres tried to hold out.

“Don’t bet if you don’t want to lose,” Sura-Martinez allegedly told him, and Kelly-Torres paid up.

A short time later, Sura-Martinez and his sister’s friend were joking around about who would win in a fight. According to the woman and Sura-Martinez’s sister, Kelly-Torres heard the word “fight,” decided they were talking about him, and became aggressive. He began challenging the group, which devolved into a physical fight between Kelly-Torres and Sura-Martinez.

“I was going to start swinging as well, just to defend my brother. And that’s when I heard gunshots ring out. and I ran away, trying to get away from the both of them,” Sura-Martinez’s sister testified at the hearing. After hearing shots, “(Juan) was telling both of us, like, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.'”

Prosecutors argued at the hearing that a trail of shell casings at the scene proves that Sura-Martinez chased Kelly-Torres and shot him in the neck while he was running away. He suffered six separate gunshot wounds, according to police testimony.

Assistant Public Defender Sam Yun, who represents Sura-Martinez, argued that it was a case of self-defense.

“I think the evidence is abundantly clear that my client was minding his own business at this part, and it was the decedent who approached my client, started the argument,” Yun said. “My client did absolutely nothing to escalate the situation, yet it was (Kelly-Torres) who escalated to something physical.”

Judge Thomas Stevens held Sura-Martinez to answer on the murder charge. The next court hearing has been set for Nov. 7, records show.

“On this evidence, even assuming that the victim initially was aggressive or impolite and intoxicated and so forth, there’s certainly a reasonable version of events that would negate any valid provocation or imperfect self-defense,” Stevens said at the hearing.

The shooting took place around 5:45 a.m., less than four hours after Kelly-Torres and his friends left the nightclub to follow the women to Oakland.