Prosecutors say a dispute at a Mission Street gas station exit ended with a pedestrian dead and a driver jailed.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A partially blocked sidewalk outside a Mission Street gas station set off the encounter that prosecutors say ended when Valantino Cash Amil drove into 74-year-old Dannielle Spillman and ran over her.
The murder charge against Amil begins with a common city conflict over space. A car leaving a gas station was stopped across part of a sidewalk. A pedestrian tried to get around it. Words were exchanged. Water touched the hood of a Mercedes-Benz. Prosecutors say the driver then turned the vehicle into a deadly weapon. The defense says the same moments show panic and fear inside a car carrying a wife and two children.
The setting was the Chevron station at 1601 Mission St., near South Van Ness Avenue, where vehicles exit into a busy corridor used by drivers, pedestrians and people moving between nearby businesses. Prosecutors said Amil drove a black 2024 Mercedes-Benz E350 there on April 13 and filled the tank. He then steered toward Mission Street with the window down, moving slowly as he tried to enter traffic. The car stopped partly in the roadway and partly on the sidewalk. Spillman approached on foot, and prosecutors said she appeared to object to the car blocking her path. She moved beside the Mercedes, then toward its front, while she and Amil exchanged words.
The district attorney’s account narrows the case to a few movements captured on video and described by witnesses. Spillman was in front of the stopped vehicle when she spilled liquid from a water bottle onto the hood. Prosecutors said the liquid was water. They said Amil immediately accelerated, striking Spillman and throwing her onto the hood and windshield. After the car moved several feet, it slowed and Spillman slid off, landing directly in front of the Mercedes. Prosecutors said eyewitnesses then saw Amil drive over her and continue away without stopping. Medics pronounced Spillman dead at the scene less than 10 minutes after they arrived.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced charges on April 16, saying Amil’s actions were intentional. The complaint charges murder, felony leaving the scene of an accident and a deadly weapon allegation based on the use of the automobile. Jenkins said the office would seek to keep Amil in custody without bail because of the public safety risk prosecutors believed he posed. In public comments, she rejected the defense claim that the killing was self-defense. She said prosecutors had reviewed evidence, including video, and came to a different conclusion. The district attorney’s office has not said Spillman had a weapon or that she entered the vehicle.
The defense has framed the encounter around the passengers inside the Mercedes. Amil’s wife and two children were with him, and his first lawyer, Seth Morris, said the family had been on a trip to Disneyland. Morris said Amil saw Spillman as a threat, feared the liquid could have been gasoline and acted to get his family away. He described Amil as a family man with no criminal history and strong community ties. Amil’s wife later told KTVU that the family was devastated and that she did not believe the charges were fair. “They’re outrageous and it’s not fair,” she said. She also said the family felt deep remorse for Spillman.
Judges have so far sided with prosecutors on custody. Amil was held without bail after his first court appearances, and he pleaded not guilty on April 24. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lianne Dumas said she found no less restrictive means to ensure public safety and Amil’s attendance in court. She also cited the allegation that he left after the collision. Prosecutors said additional footage showed he stopped and parked at the gas station for about a minute and a half after the impact, then left when sirens were heard. The judge said that alleged choice caused concern about his ability to follow orders and return to court.
The legal calendar changed again on May 6, when Amil appeared for what had been expected to be a preliminary hearing. Instead, Morris told the court that Amil and his family wanted him removed as counsel. Attorney Robert Waggener appeared as a possible new defense lawyer and said the family had asked him to potentially take the case. Judge Brian Stretch was expected to confirm representation at a later hearing. Until that issue is settled, the case cannot move fully into the preliminary stage. When it does, prosecutors will have to show enough evidence to support the charges, while the defense will have its first major chance to challenge the state’s version in court.
Spillman’s life has become an important part of the public response. Friends described her as a longtime San Francisco resident, a transgender elder and a warm presence in local music spaces. She visited guitar shops, talked with workers, brought treats and shared a love of classic rock, bluegrass and unusual guitars. At Guitar Center, employee Connor McKeon said Spillman knew staff members as people, not just workers. “She was someone that would come in to hang out,” he said. Friends said she liked thrift stores, Rainbow Grocery and daily walks. They also said early public descriptions failed to capture the person they knew.
The case now carries several unresolved questions for court, including what Amil knew or believed when he accelerated, how the video will be interpreted, what eyewitnesses saw, and whether his brief stop after the impact affects the leaving-the-scene charge. Prosecutors have emphasized the sequence after Spillman fell from the hood, saying the car continued forward and ran over her. The defense is expected to emphasize fear, family safety and the claim that Amil did not set out to kill. Those competing accounts will shape whether the case remains a murder prosecution as it moves toward trial.
Valantino Amil remains in jail while his representation is resolved and a preliminary hearing is reset. Spillman’s death remains under review in court, with the next proceedings expected to focus on video, witnesses and the legal meaning of the driver’s actions.
Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.