Before Christopher Thayer walked out of Rivals Tavern on New Year’s Day, another man tried to stop him.
“Dude, don’t go outside,” the man warned, believing Thayer was too drunk to drive. The man later told investigators that Thayer walked out anyway at about 6:20 p.m., saying, “I’m not going far.”
About 10 minutes later and a half-mile away, Thayer allegedly drove his pickup west in the eastbound lane on Highway K and crashed head-on into a Toyota Corolla driven by 53-year-old Djuana Latshaw, killing her. Latshaw’s 7-year-old grandson was in the back seat of the Corolla and was injured but conscious, “upset and frantic,” according to a Kenosha County Sheriff’s deputy who arrived at the scene.
