SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A jury found Brandon Janik guilty on all counts, including second-degree murder for the death of Josh Gilliland.
The jury deliberated for less than four hours before reaching the decision. The family was emotional leaving the courtroom, saying justice has been served to the best of its ability.
Many of Josh’s family members flew in for the trial from Kansas, where Josh was from.
Along with second-degree murder, Janik was found guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit-and-run causing death and four insurance fraud charges, after defrauding his insurance company for the damages to his loaner BMW after the crash.
Gilliland was a beloved bartender at Cheers and walked to work in University Heights, just as he had done for 20 years, when he was hit and killed by Janik, driving intoxicated.
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The Deputy District Attorney Haley Williams had to prove to the 12-person jury that Janik was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Since Janik had left the scene and wasn’t arrested for about three months after the crash, she had to prove he was drunk even without a toxicology report, blood test or breathalyzer, and she did.