A man who prosecutors said drove drunk and fatally struck a pedestrian in University Heights, then tried to hide his involvement by running away was found guilty of murder and other charges this week.

Brandon Allen Janik, 38, was crossing El Cajon Boulevard at the three-way intersection of regular street and El Cajon and Park avenues on June 10, 2023, when he ran a red light and struck 47-year-old Joshua Gilliland.

Paramedics took Gilliland to hospital, where he died four days later. Gilliland was a bartender at Cheers on Adams Boulevard and was walking to work when he was shot, friends said.

Prosecutors alleged that in the days after he hit Gilliland, Janik had his car’s broken windshield replaced and told the insurance company that the car was damaged when it crashed into a pole while he parked it at his apartment.

Janik was arrested for the fatal crash nearly three months later. Prosecutors charged him with murder because he had a DUI conviction stemming from a 2016 rollover crash off Route 52 in which he was seriously injured.

In addition to murder, a San Diego Superior Court jury found Janik guilty Thursday afternoon of aggravated vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, a hit-and-run charge and several charges related to filing a false insurance claim.

Assistant District Attorney Hailey Williams told jurors that Janik was found unconscious by passersby behind the wheel of a car stopped in the middle of University Avenue after drinking at bars in Hillcrest throughout the day.

After Janik was taken out of the vehicle, he said the following to the people around him: “Thank you. You have no idea how much you helped me. I already have a DUI, according to Williams.

Paramedics attended to Janik and assessed the situation. Williams said Janik assured paramedics he would call an Uber or walk home, then waited until they left, drove off and attacked Gilliland a few minutes later.

Janik’s defense attorney, Justin Murphy, did not deny that Janik hit Gilliland or that he had a responsibility to stop after the crash. Instead, Murphy argued that there was no evidence Janik was drunk at the time.

“No crime had been committed until the terrible decision to flee,” Murphy said, adding that at that moment his client “panicked, freaked out and made a cowardly decision.”

Murphy argued that without any physical evidence of intoxication, such as blood or breath tests, the prosecution relied on the observations of ordinary people who made assumptions that Janik was drunk.

The attorney said the paramedics who encountered Janik were the only witnesses professionally trained to recognize signs of intoxication and did not notice any odor of alcohol on Janik, nor did they notice bloodshot eyes, slurred speech or an unsteady gait.

First Publication Date: November 8, 2024 12:32 PST