Ukiah man convicted of manslaughter in 2016 shooting

Mendocino County prosecutors will seek the maximum 21-year prison sentence for a Ukiah man convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a young homeless man in 2016, a District Attorney’s Office spokesman said Monday.

Steven Patrick Ryan, 63, a disabled former dock worker, avoided more serious punishment when a Mendocino Superior Court jury found him not guilty Friday of both first- and second-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old De’Shaun Patrick Davis on a ranch close to the Oak Manor area of Ukiah.

The jury, following a four-day trial, also found Ryan guilty of the special allegation of using a firearm to cause Davis’ death.

The shooting occurred shortly before noon Nov. 21, 2016, when Ryan encountered Davis, whom he had never seen before, pushing a bicycle up the road toward his rented home on a vineyard property.

An investigator’s testimony during a preliminary hearing in January indicated that Ryan felt threatened by Davis and fired his gun - a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol - in self-defense, but a witness told deputies she saw Davis drop to his knees and hold his hands up after Ryan fired the first of three shots.

Davis was struck twice by bullets, once in the hand and once in his chest, according to testimony.

-Guy Kovner