Timothy Hamano: Millionaire who killed man in car crash and ran away 'gamed the system' to evade prison
PIEDMONT, CALIFORNIA: Prosecutors claim that the millionaire who killed a California father by running over him with his car and then escaping the scene "gambled the system" to get out of jail.
Angie Brey, the widow of Gregory Turnage Jr, 41, the man who was killed by Piedmont wealth manager Timothy Hamano, 67, has called him a "disgusting coward" for seemingly eluding justice in connection with the May 2021 crash.
Timothy Hamano entered a not guilty plea
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Hamano entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday to charges of felony vehicular manslaughter and escaping the scene of an accident.
He is charged with hitting Turnage while he was walking on the sidewalk in Oakland by crashing his white Lexus into a parked car. Hamano is charged with escaping the scene while his own wife was left behind in the passenger seat with an inflated airbag.
As Turnage lay dying on the sidewalk, according to the prosecution, he even went up to him, but instead of calling 911, he turned away and fled. The day after the horrifying collision, Oakland Police issued an arrest warrant for Hamano, who turned himself in at the station.
Although prosecutors did not have enough evidence to charge him with driving while intoxicated, cops were able to obtain restaurant receipts that showed he had been drinking prior to the crash.
Miles Turnage's 13-year-old son's attorney, Vadim Nebuchin, claimed Hamano's lawyers had purposefully delayed the case for nearly three years in order to keep him out of jail.
Timothy Hamano has been in home detention since 2021
Hamano was allowed to spend the previous few years in home detention in his Piedmont apartment with an ankle monitor after he paid $125,000 in bail in August 2021. According to court records, his wife recently requested a divorce.
Judge Kimberly Colwell of Alameda County Superior Court informed him that he would probably receive the maximum sentence of six years in prison for his manslaughter conviction when he entered his plea this week.
However, under California law, defendants typically serve half of their sentence; this means Hamano only has three months remaining. Colwell said that instead of going to jail for the remainder of his time, he could be under house arrest.
"It's mind-blowing," Nebuchin told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They successfully gamed the system."
Nebuchin stated that if Hamano had pleaded any earlier, the judge probably would have put him in jail. The case, he continued, sets a troubling precedent.
Nebuchin stated, "This case sends a very clear message. If you're drunk, you are driving, and you kill someone - run away. It's way better for you."
Gregory Turnage's widow criticizes courts for shrugging off her partner's death
According to Daily Mail, Angie Brey, Turnage's widow, said she left the Oakland neighborhood of Glenview so their young son wouldn't have to pass the location of his father's death while walking to school.
Furthermore, Brey claimed that Hamano had engaged a personal investigator to snoop around her deceased partner's personal life in a "futile effort to diminish Greg as a human being and a father."
She went on to say that his ability to avoid justice was influenced by his race and class.
"I believe that if Greg, as a Black man, had mowed down and killed this man of privilege on the sidewalk and fled the scene so he could sober up, he would have been locked up this entire time or they would have found a way to ensure that he served jail time," wrote Brey.
She attacked the courts for "shrugging off" her partner's death and for not punishing Hamano in spite of having "all the evidence, videos, and witnesses."
Relying now on "community shame," Brey swore to keep Hamano's "name and face out there so he can't just go back to his life like this never happened."
