Accused Describes Hit-and-Run Crash That Killed SF Gay Man

The man accused of killing a gay San Francisco man in a hit-and-run crash says he didn't realize he'd hit someone until days later, and he didn't turn himself in because of his son.

Brendan Wallace, 33, of Daly City, was arrested earlier this month for the November death of Dennis Nix, 60. He's pleaded not guilty to charges including felony hit and run and vehicular manslaughter.

Nix, a well-known financial planner, had been riding his scooter around 2 a.m. November 22 near his Ingleside district home when he was hit.

In an interview Friday, April 22 in San Francisco County Jail #5, where he's being held on $400,000 bail, Wallace expressed remorse for what happened to Nix.

"He lost his life, and I'm fighting for mine," Wallace said.

The incident started when he and another man were going home after visiting a friend in the city.

"All of a sudden, there was an accident," said Wallace, who was calm for much of the interview but gestured wildly when recounting what happened. "We hit something. I didn't know what it was at first," he said, but he recalled thinking, "Crap, my wife is going to kill me." He and his wife had just bought the car, a used Mercedes.

"The airbag popped out" immediately, and with it came smoke and dust, Wallace said.

"I didn't see Mr. Nix at all the whole time," and he didn't see Nix's scooter, he said.

Eventually, he said, "My car stopped running." Asked what he saw when he got out, he said, "I didn't even look at the car. I was just panicking, and I thought, 'I've got to get home,'" adding, "I was scared. ... I knew my wife was going to kill me."

He said he didn't stop right away because he'd panicked.

"I didn't know what to do," he said. He now sees, "I should have handled it a little bit differently, but you can't go back in time."

Heinz Raimol "Rymo" Cortado, 34, who allegedly came to pick up Wallace after the crash, has pleaded not guilty to charges of being an accessory after the fact and giving police false information.

Wallace said it was his passenger who called Cortado.

"I didn't have a phone," he said.

Wallace declined to talk about Cortado or what he told him after the accident, and he became agitated as a reporter continued to ask him questions about that night.

"I don't want to keep talking about every last detail," Wallace said.

Cortado, who bailed out of custody shortly after his arrest, hasn't responded to interview requests.

At a hearing last week, Deputy Public Defender Abigail Rivamonte indicated Wallace's passenger had seen Nix on the scooter a moment before the accident.

Wallace didn't find out he'd killed somebody until police came and searched his home two days later, he said.

'How my dad did me'

Asked why he hadn't come forward before his arrest, Wallace said, "I really can't answer that." However, he asked the reporter whether he has children.

"If you had kids and you were a father, you would understand that," he said, explaining he'd wanted to remain with his 2-year-old son. He didn't want to "do my son how my dad did me," he said.

Wallace described his life as "rough."

"Nothing has been easy for me, ever," he said. "I never had anything handed to me."

His parents were both crack addicts, and his mother lost custody of him and his two sisters when he was 3. They lived with his grandparents until he was 9, and then he lived in foster homes for the next 10 years.

Despite a lack of support, he worked to stay away from drugs and gangs. He first went to school to be a barber but then switched career paths, and at the time of his arrest he was working as a line cook at Google in Mountain View.

Wallace and his wife have been married since 2008, and he said he's been "an actual father," frequently taking his son to the park so they could bond.

"I never had that," he said.

Despite his efforts, he hasn't always managed to stay out of trouble.

At last week's hearing, where Rivamonte tried unsuccessfully to get Wallace released, she said he has only one prior conviction, a second-degree burglary charge from 12 years ago.

Wallace said that case stemmed from receiving stolen merchandise from a friend.

San Mateo County court records show that in May 2014, Wallace's wife got a temporary restraining order against him, but it dissolved after she and Wallace didn't show up for a hearing weeks later.

Wallace said of the case, "I don't want to talk about that. That's senseless."

His wife has declined to speak to the Bay Area Reporter .

Court documents filed by Wallace's defense team say that according to his wife, "Brendan does not have a history or reputation for violence. He is polite and respectful" toward her "and her family."

Speed

Wallace doesn't remember how fast he was driving the night Nix was killed, but that stretch of road is almost like an interstate, and he asked, "How come Mr. Nix was on a scooter at 2:30 in the morning on the freeway?"

He indicated he hadn't been using any substances just before the accident. At about 7 or 8 p.m., just hours before the crash, Wallace said, he and others had been at his house watching a boxing match, but he wouldn't specifically say whether he'd been drinking or doing drugs.

"I don't want to get into the details," he said.

Wallace said that based on what he's read about Nix, he was "a great person," and "it's unfortunate this situation has brought us two together." He wishes he could have met Nix "in a different circumstance," he said.

"I deeply apologize to his family" and other loved ones, Wallace said, and "It hurts to even think about what happened."

Wallace's next court date is May 5.