FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ) — A man who said he crashed into and killed a motorcyclist because the victim was white has been committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
Daniel Navarro, 27, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide with a hate crime enhancer for the July 3 crash which killed Phillip Thiessen.
After two psychiatric exams, it was determined Navarro is not competent to stand trial, meaning he does not understand the court proceedings and cannot assist in his own defense.
The mental commitment order was made Wednesday by Judge Richard Nuss, court records show. No date is listed for the next review of Navarro’s mental state.
Thiessen was found dead in the road on July 3. 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.
Phillip Thiessen (Photo courtesy of Zacherl Funeral Home)
“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.
