Cyclist's Killer Gets Two Years In Prison

by Bay City News

A 55-year-old El Sobrante man was sentenced to two years in prison today for striking a Martinez cyclist with his vehicle in 2008 and then leaving him to die on the side of the road.

Harold Brown was driving on McEwen Road near state Highway 4 on
the evening of Nov. 24, 2008, when he crossed over the double yellow lines into the opposite lane and struck 49-year-old Mark Pendleton head on, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Brown then fled the scene and hid his vehicle to avoid being caught, Pendleton's family members said.

An off-duty fire captain from Crockett found Pendleton shortly after he was hit and called for medical assistance, but Pendleton died at the scene, the CHP said.

Brown was not arrested until June 2, 2009, when investigators finally got a phone call that led them to a friend of Brown's, who told them he was the driver who had hit Pendleton, investigators said.

In June, Brown and his attorney negotiated a plea deal with the district attorney's office in which Brown agreed to plead guilty to hit-and-run causing death in exchange for a two-year prison sentence.

According to Judge Brian Haynes, who sentenced Brown today, Brown could be released in one year if he behaves himself in prison.

Nearly two dozen of Pendleton's friends and family members attended the hearing. They described Pendleton as a devoted and loving father
and husband and expressed their anger at Brown for hitting him and leaving him to die alone on the side of the road. They also said they were frustrated by the lengthy process they went through in the court system and the short time Brown will have to spend in prison.

Several of Pendleton's family members said they believed Brown fled the scene because he was drunk when he hit Pendleton.

Pendleton's wife, Denise Pendleton, said she was home the evening her husband was killed. It was the first day of her Thanksgiving vacation and they were planning to go get a Christmas tree with their two sons, Paul and John Mark Pendleton, Denise Pendleton said.

She said she heard a fire engine go by and it scared her. She said she thought her husband should be home by then and went looking for him.

When she turned onto McEwen Road, she saw "a sea of red lights."

Officers would not let her near the scene, but eventually a CHP dispatcher told her that a bicyclist had been killed by a hit-and-run driver.

In the months that followed, Denise Pendleton, with help from her sons and the community, devoted herself to finding her husband's killer.

They canvassed neighborhoods, contacted the media and put up posters offering a $35,000 reward for information leading to the driver's arrest.

They also created a website capable of tracking visitors' email addresses and held a candlelight vigil to keep the story in the news  and on people's minds.

The East Bay Bicycle Coalition put up a "ghost bike" at the site to remind people that Pendleton's killer was still out there. After the bike
was stolen twice, Denise Pendleton and her sons camped out at the site overnight to see if the person stealing the bike was the driver who killed Pendleton.

She even went to a bar in Crockett, where she attempted to make
friends with people on the off chance that her husband's killer was one of the bar's regular patrons, she said.

"We would not be here today if you had behaved as any decent person should have," Denise Pendleton told Brown.

She told him he should have stopped and called for help. She said she believes his actions show that he was intoxicated when he struck her
husband.

"Why else would a man leave another man to die alone on the side of the road? Shame on you," Denise Pendleton said.

Her son, Paul Pendleton, said he believed that Brown felt no remorse for killing his father and said he had never apologized to his family.

"You have drug this out for three months shy of three years and you have put them (Pendleton's family) through pain they didn't need to go through because you are a coward and a pathetic excuse for a human being," Pendleton's mother-in-law Anita Guadarrama said.

Brown, who was not in custody when he came to the hearing, was handcuffed and remanded to the state department of corrections to serve his sentence.