Wealth manager avoids jail in fatal hit-run
A Piedmont wealth manager convicted of fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run — leaving a man to bleed out on the sidewalk — has avoided a jail sentence, an outcome that drew tears and a tense courtroom confrontation on Wednesday.
Timothy Hamano, 67, was handed the maximum term of six years after pleading no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter and fleeing the scene of an accident.
But because defendants typically serve half the time to which they are sentenced under California law, Hamano had finished nearly the entire stint as of Wednesday, bypassing all but a day behind bars.
Since posting $125,000 bail on Aug. 2, 2021, Hamano has remained on house arrest with an ankle monitor, waiting as his case inched along.
“There is very little time left,” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Colwell acknowledged during an emotional hearing Wednesday morning, in which she allowed Hamano to serve the rest of his time at home in Piedmont. Colwell placed a list of conditions on the defendant, including prohibitions on excessive drinking or driving without a proper license and insurance. If he violates those rules, he will spend the remaining time in prison, she said.
The crime took place on a bright Mother’s Day afternoon in 2021, when Hamano plowed his white Lexus into a parked SUV on a boulevard in Oakland, striking a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Greg Turnage, 41, had been out for a walk when the car slammed into him, with an impact so violent it threw him onto the hood and then back on the pavement on the 3800 block of Park Boulevard.
As Turnage lay there with grave injuries, witnesses said Hamano emerged from the driver’s side and walked around the battered front bumper, looking down at the dying man. Then he walked off, leaving Turnage behind, as well as his wife, who sat in the front passenger seat of the Lexus behind a deployed airbag. Hamano turned himself in the next day after police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Despite evidence that he had been drinking, including restaurant receipts obtained by police, prosecutors were unable to gather enough proof to charge him with driving while intoxicated.
“I won’t waste my breath trying to humanize Greg to you by sharing what made him so special to us and how much he is loved and missed,” Turnage’s partner, Angie Brey, said at the hearing, reading from a victim impact statement while Hamano stood quietly, hands clasped, defense attorney Kellin Cooper at his side.
Addressing the judge, Brey spoke about the anxiety and depression that have consumed her since Turnage’s death, and how the case eroded her trust in Alameda County’s justice system.
“This court has abandoned Greg as if he was worthless, much like Timothy Hamano left him on the sidewalk to die like he was nothing,” Brey said. She went on to describe what she and family members viewed as a defense strategy of running out the clock, delaying pleas and hearings so that Hamano could grind out his sentence at home.
Emotions peaked Wednesday as Turnage’s mother, Wilhelmina Carrillo, approached the judge’s bench to read her statement. She paused on the way, turned to face Hamano and began talking directly to him, causing a brief commotion as deputies stepped in to prevent a conflict. Hamano appeared to flinch, and the judge admonished that she would not allow contact between the victims and the defendant. Turnage proceeded with her statement.
Later, she explained her actions.
“I did want to look at him and let him know that I am TJ’s mother,” Carrillo said, using another nickname for Turnage. “If I had killed your child, what would you do?”
After Turnage’s uncle testified, remembering his nephew as “an exquisite human being,” Hamano came forward. He apologized to the family for “the depth of pain and suffering that I caused,” and said he took responsibility for his actions.
Cooper, Hamano’s lawyer, echoed those sentiments in an interview outside the courtroom.
“Mr. Hamano did not wake up (on the day of the crash) with malice in his heart,” the defense attorney said, emphasizing his client’s heartfelt remorse and contrition “since Day One.”
Throughout the proceeding, Colwell wore an expression of pained resignation, listening as one bereaved relative after another relayed their anguish, while others wept in the pews. Toward the end, the judge reiterated that she had given the maximum sentence possible — which might help bolster a parallel wrongful death lawsuit that Turnage’s 13year-old son, Miles, is waging in civil court.
That suit is also winding down, the family and attorneys said Wednesday. They will return in a few months for a final hearing in the criminal matter, to set Hamano’s restitution payments to a state victim’s compensation fund.