We’re learning some surprising new information about a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a popular bartender last summer in University Heights. NBC 7’s Dana Williams explains on Feb. 29, 2024.
A man who allegedly drove drunk and fled the scene after striking and killing a pedestrian in University Heights was ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges that include murder.
Brandon Allen Janik, 37, was arrested nearly three months after police say he ran a red light and struck 47-year-old Joshua Gilliland as the victim was crossing the three-way intersection of Normal Street and El Cajon and Park boulevards.
Paramedics took Gilliland to a hospital, where he died of his injuries on June 14, 2023, four days after he was hit.
Friends of Gilliland, who was a bartender at Cheers on Adams Avenue, say he was walking to work when the car struck him.
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Prosecutors were able to charge Janik with murder due to his prior DUI conviction, a misdemeanor San Diego County case dating back to 2016.
At a preliminary hearing held to determine whether Janik would go to trial on the charges, police witnesses testified that per surveillance footage from a nearby business, a BMW could be seen running the red light and hitting Gilliland, who was crossing the street legally.
San Diego police Detective Justin Beal testified that while the BMW's license plate and driver could not be identified through the footage alone, 911 callers that night reported spotting a driver asleep or passed out at the wheel of a BMW stopped in the middle of University Avenue.
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The hearing included testimony from witnesses who said Janik was helped out of his idling car on University Avenue and that he appeared intoxicated. Janik allegedly thanked the group of people for helping him get out of his car because he had a prior DUI.
Prosecutors allege that after the group of people left, Janik got back into his car and drove off, striking Gilliland sometime later.
One of the people who saw Janik on University Avenue provided the car's license plate number to police. The license plate matched a car that was loaned out by a local BMW dealership to Janik, whose personal car was being repaired at the time, Beal testified.
Beal said that according to BMW employees, Janik returned a damaged car that he said was dented after he struck a fence post while backing into a parking spot at his apartment building. The detective said the damage the car sustained was inconsistent with such a collision, and more consistent with striking a pedestrian.
Janik made similar claims of striking a fence post to his insurance company, but an investigator for the company testified that when the case was referred to an accident reconstruction expert, that expert determined the damage didn't match what Janik said happened.
Investigators also looked into Janik's financial activity on June 10 and found that he had visited two nearby bars earlier that day and purchased several alcoholic beverages, Beal testified.
Cell phone location data also placed Janik's phone in the area of the fatality collision at the time it occurred.
