A 30-year-old man faces a murder charge after he allegedly drove over and killed a 74-year-old woman outside a SoMa gas station on April 13, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Valentino Cash Amil was arraigned Thursday afternoon following the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office confirmation that he is charged with murder, with a deadly weapon enhancement, plus one count of felony hit-and-run. The DA’s office said it would seek to have Amil detained without bail pending trial.
According to investigators, Amil had just filled up his black 2024 Mercedes Benz E350 at the Chevron station at 1601 Mission Street, near the corner of Mission Street and South Van Ness. He was pulling out when he partially blocked the sidewalk. The victim, identified by community members on social media as Dannielle Spillman, a trans woman, approached the car. Words were exchanged. Spillman walked from the side of the car to the front of it, and court documents say she then “spilled liquid onto the hood of Mr. Amil’s car from a water bottle.”
What happened next is the heart of the murder charge.
Amil accelerated into Spillman, knocking her onto the hood of the Mercedes. Investigators say he then decelerated, and she slid off, landing directly in front of the vehicle. Witnesses say he drove forward over her without stopping. Medics arrived and pronounced her dead at the scene roughly 10 minutes later. A graphic video of the incident circulated on social media and SFist reported that the DA’s office confirmed the details shown in it.
Gone is any ambiguity about whether this was an accident.
The DA’s charge of murder, not vehicular manslaughter, signals that prosecutors believe Amil intended to cause harm when he hit the accelerator. The deadly weapon enhancement applies to the car itself. That’s a significant legal claim, and it means this case will turn on what Amil knew and intended in the seconds after that water bottle hit his hood.
Spillman was 74 years old. An Instagram account cited by community members identifies her as a trans woman and says she was not unhoused, correcting early reports from police that described her otherwise. The city coroner has not released an official identification. Initial reports from police and the DA’s office also misgendered Spillman, a fact that her community has pushed back on firmly this week.
Amil was apprehended blocks from the scene without incident, despite early reports suggesting he fled from police. Reports also indicated a child was in the car at the time of the incident.
Mission Street between South Van Ness and 10th is a stretch that pedestrian safety advocates have flagged for years. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency tracks injury collisions across the city, and that corridor has appeared repeatedly in data on high-injury network streets, corridors where a disproportionate share of severe and fatal crashes happen. The sidewalk in front of a gas station exit is precisely the kind of space where cars and pedestrians get squeezed into conflict, and where a driver who doesn’t yield creates dangerous conditions fast.
That context doesn’t change what the charges say happened here. The DA’s theory isn’t that a driver failed to see a pedestrian. It’s that a man got angry, had a car, and used it.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is asking anyone with information about the case to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 with the message beginning “SFPD.” Tipsters can stay anonymous. The California Courts case information system can provide updates on court proceedings as they move forward. The investigation remains active, and no trial date has been set as of Thursday’s arraignment.