A man who intentionally drove a pickup truck off Sunset Cliffs into the ocean with his twin toddlers inside pleaded guilty Aug. 9 to charges including attempted murder and kidnapping.
Robert Brians, 51, is set to be sentenced in September to 31 years in state prison for abducting his 2-year-old daughters from his parents’ home on June 13, 2020, and then speeding off a cliff into the water below.
At about 4:30 a.m. that day, the toddlers’ mother called 911 to report that Brians had taken their children without permission.
At a preliminary hearing in 2021, she testified that after Brians took the children, she exchanged several text messages with him as she tried to determine their whereabouts.
She testified that Brians repeatedly sent messages indicating he was planning to drive his truck into the water with his girls inside.
One message he sent her read, “The girls are going to Heaven and I’m going to Hell to wait for you.”
San Diego police Detective Aletha Lennier testified that three minutes before Brians drove off the cliff, he made a Facebook post that read in part, “Tonight, I’m sending my babies to Heaven.”
Though Brians’ wife initially believed he was planning to drive off the Coronado Bridge, police were able to find him in the Sunset Cliffs area by tracking his cellphone, according to testimony in the preliminary hearing.
Police Lt. David Bautista testified that he saw the truck at about 5 a.m. on Hill Street near Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, where it sped west and careened over the side of a cliff, landing upside down in the ocean.
Police K-9 Officer Jonathan Wiese rappelled down the cliff using a 100-foot dog leash and found Brians floating in the water and holding both girls in his arms, Wiese testified. One of the girls was crying and holding onto Brians’ neck, while the other was limp and seemingly lifeless, Wiese said.
He also testified that Brians was making angry statements about the girls’ mother and an ex-wife.
The officer said he helped propel Brians to shore by swimming behind him and pushing him through the water.
Wiese’s rescue efforts earned him a National Carnegie Medal, which recognizes acts of heroism, and the city of San Diego declared an official “Jonathan Wiese Day.”
Brians and the girls were hospitalized. Lennier testified that one of the girls suffered a brain bleed and compression fractures to her vertebrae. Both girls suffered injuries including abrasions and lacerations.
