Judge sends Wisconsin man to institution in hate crime crash

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge committed a man accused of targeting a motorcyclist in a fatal crash because of the victim’s race to life in a mental institution Thursday.

Daniel Navarro, a 27-year-old Mexican American from Fond du Lac, was convicted Wednesday of first-degree intentional homicide as a hate crime in the July 3, 2020 crash that killed Phillip Thiessen, who was white, in Fond du Lac County. He was also convicted of first-degree recklessly endangering safety as a hate crime.

Navarro pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The convictions triggered a second phase of his trial in which the jury was tasked with determining his mental state at the time of the crash, a key finding that helps determine whether he should face prison time or be institutionalized.

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said the jury heard two doctors testify Thursday that Navarro suffered from paranoid delusions and schizophrenia. Judge Andrew Christenson committed him to the state Department of Health Services’ institutional care for life.

Navarro’s attorney, Jeffrey William Jensen, didn’t immediately return a message left at his office seeking comment.

Thiessen, 55, was a retired special agent with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and a former police officer.

Prosecutors say Navarro struck his motorcycle head-on in the town of Taycheedah near Fond du Lac, about 67 miles (108 kilometers) north of Milwaukee. Authorities said Navarro didn’t know Thiessen.

Navarro told investigators he had been harassed by co-workers and neighbors, and poisoned, drugged and verbally attacked by white people because of his race, officials said.

During an interview at the sheriff’s office, Navarro said he wanted to go to prison for the rest of his life so he could be free from his neighbors, who he could hear making racist comments through the walls of his house, according to a criminal complaint.

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