| By Big Radio News Staff |
Thirty-two-year-old Janesville resident Koty M. Diaz is jailed on a $1-million bond. That’s after authorities say he killed a Janesville man and an Elkhorn woman while driving intoxicated early Saturday.
On Monday afternoon in court, Rock County Court Commissioner Jack Hoag says Diaz had a mostly empty bottle of Crown Royal apple whiskey in the console of his Black SUV, and a cannabis vape rattling around on the floor, when he blew a red light shortly after 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Authorities say Diaz slammed his SUV into another vehicle at East Delavan Drive and Beloit Avenue in Janesville. They say he killed the occupants of the other vehicle, 70-year-old Wayne A. Caswell of Janesville, and 52-year-old Gretchen A. Walbaum of Elkhorn.
Assistant Rock County District Attorney Richard Sullivan asked for a $1-million-dollar bond on Monday. It came as Caswell’s sons, Blake and Jeff Caswell, told Hoag in court their father is dead because Diaz showed reckless disregard for others.
The two sons say Diaz was “racing” someone else along East Delavan Drive just before the crash that killed Caswell and Walbaum.
The two sons told Hoag they wanted “no bond” set for Diaz. In Wisconsin, a judge typically must set bond in criminal cases.
Diaz appeared in court via a video feed from the Rock County Jail. He was in a neck brace and an orange jail uniform.
His attorney argued Diaz should be let out on a signature bond, saying Diaz has three kids and is a “stay-at-home dad” while his girlfriend works full time as office manager for a local builder.
Hoag flatly denied Diaz’s attorney’s appeal, saying he had “no choice” in the case but to set bond at $1 million.
Hoag points out authorities know Diaz was driving on a suspended license after leaving a tavern at Wright Road in Janesville early on Saturday.
Authorities say parking lot security footage at the tavern shows Diaz pulling in and going inside the bar a little before midnight on Saturday, then coming back out at shortly before 2 a.m.
The footage shows Diaz then pulled out of the tavern lot in his SUV, and drove on the adjacent grass and sidewalk before heading south on Wright Road and hooking right onto East Milwaukee Street.
This was apparently about 10 to 15 minutes before the crash, which happened just south of the Dawson Field softball complex.
Hoag confirms Diaz has had a suspended license since 2016, alongside a string of past intoxicated driving arrests.
Diaz is slated for a probable cause hearing in Rock County Court on Aug. 27.