Kyle McCray gets 25 years to life for attempted murder on Marysville tracks

A Yuba County judge sentenced Kyle Ross McCray, 37, to 25 years to life in prison for forcing a man at knifepoint to lie on railroad tracks in Marysville. The attempted murder was McCray’s third strike under California law.

At about 9:31 a.m. on October 8th, 2024, a Marysville police dispatcher heard one man pleading for his safety and another ordering him to stay down. The 911 call came from a cellphone near the west end of 11th Street. An officer arrived about a minute later and found McCray standing on the elevated tracks.

The officer heard someone call for help from behind McCray. Police found a 43 year old man lying on the tracks, detained McCray and helped the man to safety. Just over 20 minutes after officers arrived, a train passed over the spot where he had been lying.

The man told officers he was walking to the Twin Cities Rescue Mission when McCray pulled a knife and ordered him to lie down with his legs across a rail. He managed to call 911 as he lay down. Prosecutors said McCray initially told officers he wanted the next train to sever the man’s legs.

McCray pleaded no contest to willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder on October 2nd, 2026. He also admitted two prior strikes, a 2016 carjacking conviction in Sutter County and a 2020 felony criminal threat conviction in Yuba County. Judge Julia Scrogin imposed the sentence.

The 2020 conviction followed an assault near Marysville’s Fifth Street Bridge. McCray strangled a woman and threatened to kill her before a passing driver, Kyle Cheney, and his passengers intervened and held McCray until law enforcement arrived.