SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Friends and family are remembering a Sacramento bail bondsman after he was killed outside the business near the Sacramento County Main Jail.
Kevin Brace, 56, was a longtime employee of Greg Padilla Bail Bonds. He died from his injuries after he was assaulted early Monday morning.
“He loved to help anyone he could,” said Jordan Brace, his niece. “He was just the greatest guy ever. He was kind, he was funny and he was amazing to be around altogether.”
“Just hours before this brutal murder, he gave two homeless people water,” added Topo Padilla, co-owner of Greg Padilla Bail Bonds. "He was a gentle giant."
Described as a gentle giant, Padilla said the 56-year-old worked in downtown Sacramento for 34 years.
“He wanted to work overnights because he said that people that are in jail on the overnights deserve to have a bail bondsman here for them,” said Padilla.
Around 300 feet away from where Brace took his last breath near I and 6th streets, the person accused in the killing, 38-year-old Jacob Mandell, made his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
In an orange jump suit accompanied with a cast on his right hand, Mandell is facing a murder charge after Sacramento police said he assaulted Brace.
“It was hard to see the man that murdered my uncle,” said Jordan.
Brace’s colleague, friends and some family saw Mandell for the first time in court.
Padilla said Mandell was asking to use the phone, then things escalated.
“Kevin was not a man walking down the street then got in an altercation with somebody,” said Padilla. “Kevin was dragged out of our office in the streets of Sacramento and beaten to death.”
Padilla said around the jail should be one of the safest places in the city, but instead, it's left family, friends and colleagues with painful questions.
“Until we can clean the streets up and enforce the laws that exist and change some laws, it is going to be the same,” said Padilla.
Brace leaves behind a wife of 18 years, countless family members, friends and colleagues.
Mandell did not enter a plea as the court hearing was continued; he will be back in court June 12. He is being held without bail.
The San Juan Unified School District said the suspect was a wrestling coach at El Camino Fundamental High School between November 2023 to March 2024.
Police have not released the motive in the attack.
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