Tearful Denial of Guilt in Boy’s Death : Tragedy: Brandon Wattier, suspect in hit-run crash, claims another driver forced him off the road. He says he would have stopped if he thought anyone was hurt.

Brandon Wattier wept Wednesday as he thought about the 8-year-old boy he is suspected of killing in a weekend car crash, but blamed the collision on another driver who, he said, forced him off the road.

“Everyone is making me into the bad guy when I wasn’t even the one that did it,” the 20-year-old Yorba Linda man said. “I want the family to know I’d take the place of their son any second,” he said later, crying.

Wesley Straw of Moreno Valley died Saturday night after the crash on the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway near Chapman Avenue. Wattier, a student at Rancho Santiago College, was arrested Monday on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving and vehicular manslaughter.

No charges have been filed and the crash remains under investigation, prosecutor Bruce Patterson said.

During a meeting with reporters in his lawyer’s office, Wattier said he was driving with a friend when a red truck with Idaho license plates forced him off the road. Wattier said he believes he clipped the truck as he negotiated his way back into the right lane, but does not recall striking the car in which Wesley was a passenger.

Wattier said he had only a sip of beer early Saturday evening and stressed he was not driving under the influence of alcohol or driving recklessly.

“If he never would have run me off the road, none of this would have happened,” Wattier said. “I don’t see how we hit that car.”

Lara Lovich, 19, of Orange, who said she was in the car with Wattier, confirmed his version of events.

Michael Keene, 36, of Costa Mesa was in a red four-wheel-drive truck with Idaho license plates at the scene of the crash, and helped get Wesley Straw, his sister and father out of their car (the latter two suffered minor injuries). He waited with the family until police arrived.

Keene told authorities that Wattier had been weaving among lanes and speeding before skidding past Keene’s car in the shoulder lane.

“It was like he was trying to beat me into the (right) lane,” said Keene, who said he watched in horror as Wattier’s car then struck the Straws’ car, a reddish Infiniti.

Wattier said he did not call police to notify them of the incident, because he questioned whether police would bother to find an out-of-state vehicle when his car suffered only minor damage.

Lovich said Wattier called her Monday after reading in the newspaper that a child had been killed. Lovich said she called police anonymously to let them know what happened.

Wattier’s attorney, Bruce C. Bridgman, said his client considered calling police when he realized a boy had died, but was in an “absolute panic” and was emotionally distraught even though he believed he had done nothing wrong.

Bridgman ordered his client not to answer further questions about why he didn’t call police after the crash or after reading the newspaper story.

Wattier said the man in the red truck had tailgated him and flashed his high beams, presumably because Wattier was driving too slow in the left lane. Wattier said he moved to the middle lane, but the driver then pulled in front him and slowed down, forcing Wattier to hit his brakes, he said.

Wattier said he then tried to move into the far-right lane but the truck also veered into the same lane, forcing Wattier onto the shoulder, he said.

“It was either me hit him or me going off the side of the freeway,” Wattier said.

“If I knew anybody was hurt I would have stopped.”

Wattier said he then exited the freeway and waited, expecting the driver to follow. When the man did not appear, Wattier said, he drove to a friend’s home nearby.

“It was like he had it in for me,” Wattier said. “I just thought I was lucky I was alive.”

As for his own driving record, which includes violations for speeding and unlawful lane change, Wattier said they were minor infractions that are unfairly being used against him.

Bridgman said Wattier may have struck the Straws’ car while thinking he had hit Keene’s truck.