Just over a year after retired sailor James Edward Brammer ran over and killed a pedestrian inside Naval Base San Diego, he was sentenced Thursday in federal court to five years of probation.
Brammer, 85, had already pleaded guilty earlier in the month to a vehicular manslaughter charge tied to the hit-and-run death of Cornilla Martinez, 73, an employee of the Subway restaurant inside the Navy Exchange, on March 15, 2018.
Last spring, federal investigators descended on the humble Calle Serena home of Brammer to seize his brown 2008 Ford F-150.
Video surveillance footage from a nearby oil change shop on base showed that type of truck, loaded with a large chair in the back, running over the small woman strolling through a crosswalk, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained last year by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Exchange had sold Brammer a recliner that day, which is how authorities tracked him down. When interrogated, the elderly driver did not appear to even realize that he’d run over a pedestrian.
Jeremiah J. Sullivan III, a prominent criminal defense attorney who specializes in military court-martial litigation, took up Brammer’s case pro bono.
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Thursday’s sentencing came 15 days after California Southern District Court Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz signed off on Brammer’s guilty plea, which had been brokered by Sullivan in November, according to federal records.
Sullivan described to Navy Times a long and emotional sentencing session on Thursday, with the grieving victim’s husband and family in the courtroom.
“It was a just result,” said Sullivan. “The judge noted that there are cases like this all over the country, and in this matter nobody was there to take the keys away from Mr. Brammer. He lived alone and had no family.
“Everyone in the courtroom recognized the tragedy. But prison for an 85-year-old man was not the answer.”
