FOND DU LAC - The man charged with a hate crime in the June 3 killing of a retired police officer briefly appeared in court Friday, and a judge was assigned to his case.
Through his attorney, 27-year-old Daniel D. Navarro of Fond du Lac waived a preliminary hearing. The case was assigned to Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Richard J. Nuss.
HATE CRIME? Fond du Lac man accused of intentionally killing motorcyclist
Prosecutors allege that Navarro veered a pickup truck he was driving across Winnebago Drive in Taycheedah on July 3, crashing into a Harley-Davidson head-on. The crash killed motorcyclist Phillip A. Thiessen, 55, of Fond du Lac.
Thiessen was a Marine Corps veteran who had worked for the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation after retiring as a Fairfax, Virginia, police sergeant. He volunteered at a Fond du Lac-area food pantry.
Navarro is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety — both with a dangerous weapon and both as hate crimes. He is in the Fond du Lac County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
A conviction of first-degree intentional homicide can carry a lifetime prison sentence.
Sheriff's officials said they believe Navarro had not known Thiessen and could not see him well on the day of the crash, but had targeted him because he believed someone riding a Harley in Wisconsin would be white.
Navarro is Latino. Thiessen was white.
A deputy at the scene said Navarro said the crash “was intentional, sir." Another deputy described Navarro as calm, staring into the distance as he spoke.
In a criminal complaint, prosecutors said Navarro told detectives that Caucasians had targeted him for harassment, ranging from racist comments to poisonings to "giving him acid." He also claimed an employment supervisor in Ripon had contaminated his jacket with a chemical sterilizer about 18 months ago, that he is being poisoned by a neighbor and that he hears a neighbor making racist comments through the walls of his house.
Navarro had frequently been isolating himself lately, family members told police. He spent much of his time watching television. He left the house he shares with his mother about once a week, the complaint states; the crash occurred while he was driving his father's pickup around to charge the battery.
Before the homicide arrest, Navarro had minimal contact with the legal system in Wisconsin, court records show.
He was charged in 2019 with disorderly conduct after he accosted and argued with his mother at her church in a dispute over cleaning their house. A judge dismissed the charge at the prosecutor's request after Navarro spent 74 days in jail without being tried.
In June 2016, he was found guilty of speeding. A month later, he was convicted of speeding, driving without carrying a license and driving without proof of insurance.
Contact Doug Schneider at (920) 431-8333, or DSchneid@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PGDougSchneider
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