FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – An Aug. 2 trial date was set Monday for a man who allegedly intentionally crashed into a motorcyclist, killing him.
Daniel Navarro, 28, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide with a hate crime enhancer for the 2020 crash which killed Phillip Thiessen. The hate crime enhancer was added due to Navarro’s comments that he picked the victim based on race.
An eight-day trial is planned, according to court records.
Navarro has entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect (the so-called insanity plea). That means the jury will be asked two questions: If Navarro is guilty, and, if so, should he be held responsible for his action due to his mental condition at the time. If he’s found responsible for the crime, Navarro would be sentenced to prison. If not, he would be committed to a secure psychiatric facility for treatment.
One psychologist’s report supports the not guilty by reason of mental disease plea, defense attorney Jeffrey Jensen told Fox 11 Monday. The court is still waiting on a second opinion report, which will be discussed at a May 6 hearing, he said.
Thiessen was found dead in the road on July 3, 2020. Officers were called to the area of Winnebago Drive and Taycheedah Way in the town of Taycheedah, following reports of a head-on crash between a motorcycle and pickup truck.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office says Navarro hit Thiessen with the truck. Thiessen was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.
“Navarro said that if President Donald Trump and white people are going to create the world we are living in, he has no choice and that people are going to have to die,” Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said at a previous news conference.
According to the criminal complaint, Navarro told police he had been a target of racism because he is Mexican.
“People drive by his house and rev their engines and squeal their tires to try to upset him and that people make racist comments toward him, all because he is Hispanic,” said Waldschmidt.
Waldschmidt says Navarro went onto say he was harassed by co-workers and neighbors, poisoned, drugged and verbally attacked.
“He said that all the people that caused him these problems in his life are Caucasian or white,” he said.
Court documents say Navarro took his dad’s red pickup truck out in the country on the day of the crash. Navarro was heading east on Winnebago Drive when he saw what he described as a white motorcyclist on the opposite side of the road. He then swerved into the westbound lane, hitting and killing Phillip Thiessen. Navarro also admitted to investigators, he had been thinking about doing this earlier that day.
Police say Navarro recognized the motorcycle as a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. According to investigators, Navarro said that, in Wisconsin, only white people drive Harleys and that he believes people who drive Harley-Davidson motorcycles are typically “white racists.”
“He chose a motorcycle instead of a car, because he wanted the driver to die, and not just be injured or paralyzed,” Waldschmidt said.
