A trial is underway downtown for a man accused of a 2023 fatal hit-and-run in University Heights that killed a beloved San Diego bartender.
The defendant, 38-year-old Brandon Janik, is also accused of trying to cover up his involvement in the crash.
Joshua Gilliland, 47, was killed crossing a three-way intersection at Normal Street and El Cajon and Park boulevards on June 10, 2023, as he walked to his job at Cheers on Adams Avenue.
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On Wednesday, prosecutors called Cody Johnson to the stand, who described her observations and interaction with Janik just moments before the alleged hit-and-run. The courtroom sat quietly while she went through details of how Janik appeared to be drunk and needed help getting out of his car.
First, the prosecutor asked where Johnson was that night at around 8:30 p.m.
"I was walking home with my boyfriend at the time," Johnson told the court. "We had just gotten some food."
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Johnson testified how Janik seemed to be drunk in his rental car, describing how traffic was honking and swerving around Janik's vehicle, which was stopped in the intersection.
Johnson said the man behind the wheel appeared to be passed out, so she and her then-boyfriend stepped into action.
"We kind of decided what the next thing to do was," Johnson said. "So, there was a woman on the sidewalk that we looked over to and asked, 'Hey, do you think we should call 911 about this guy right here?' And she just kept walking, so I just called 911."
Prosecutors played the audio from that call in court.
"He’s just stopped in the middle of the road," Johnson is heard telling the 911 dispatcher. "He’s just passed out in the car. We don’t know if we should knock on the door."
"Does he appear intoxicated?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yeah, it seems like it," Johnson replied
Johnson then said that someone knocked on Janik’s door and he awakened. She said another bystander began speaking with Janik. The driver-side door eventually opened and the person reached in and turned off the car for Janik, Johnson testified.
"When he had gotten out of the car and the other individual was making sure he was OK, we had talked to him a bit, and his vocabulary was just kind of slurred and slow," Johnson told the court on Wednesday.
According to the opening statement from Deputy District Attorney Hailey Williams on Tuesday, despite multiple 911 calls, police were unable to respond due to the high volume of emergency calls that night. Two paramedics responded, the prosecutor said, but Janik refused care and they could not take him involuntarily to the hospital.
Janik assured the paramedics he would call an Uber, Williams told the court, but when they left, he got back behind the wheel and drove off, fatally striking Gilliland a few minutes later as he was crossing El Cajon Boulevard.
In opening statements on Tuesday, the defense maintained that the prosecution can’t prove Janik was intoxicated.
Defense attorney Justin Murphy told jurors his client "freaked out" after striking Gilliland and "absolutely should have stopped." Murphy said Janik's decisions to leave the scene and his "apparent attempts to cover up the accident" were "not an honorable choice."
The defense attorney, who described his client as a single father working three jobs who was "very exhausted that day," said much of the prosecution's case relied on erroneous witness testimony and credit card activity showing Janik purchased alcoholic beverages. He argued there was no evidence showing Janik consumed those drinks to sufficiently reach the point of intoxication or even consumed them at all. He also said a woman who was on a date with Janik that day rode in a car with him because he appeared OK to drive.
Murphy also argued the paramedics who encountered Janik did not notice any scent of alcohol on him, nor did they notice any bloodshot eyes, slurred speech or unsteady gait. The attorney also noted the "confusing" layout of
the intersection where the fatality occurred.
Along with murder, Janik is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit-and-run, DUI and several other charges related to filing a false insurance claim.
Prosecutors were able to charge Janik with murder due to a prior DUI conviction, a misdemeanor San Diego County case dating back to 2016. Williams said in that case, Janik was behind the wheel of a car that veered off state Route 52, rolling over multiple times, leaving him with "nearly life-threatening injuries."
