Dead Pedestrian Lodged in Car Windshield, Sister Says Driver Was Mentally Ill

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A motorist hit two pedestrians, then drove home with one of the bodies lodged in his windshield, police said. The man in the windshield died.

Police said Steve Warrichaiet was drunk when he struck the pedestrians as he returned home from a friend's house late Sunday.

One pedestrian was found lying on a street, critically injured, but police said the second victim remained lodged in Warrichaiet's windshield while he drove seven blocks home and parked in his garage.

Warrichaiet's sister, Donna Gutowski, said he called her early Monday, minutes after midnight.

"'Now I really did it. I killed somebody. I put the body in the car,"' she recalled Warrichaiet saying. "But I didn't believe him. He had talked nonsense before."

She said she learned the crash really happened when an investigator came to her home that morning.

Warrichaiet called police about 5:40 a.m. Monday, reporting that he'd been in an accident and thought he hit someone, authorities said. Police Lt. David Wesely said investigators didn't know what happened in the six hours between the crash and the man's call to police.

Tyrone Ware, 50, of Green Bay, was pronounced dead when police arrived at Warrichaiet's home. The second victim, a woman, was in critical condition Wednesday at St. Vincent Hospital, a nursing supervisor said.

In a similar case in 2001 in Texas, a former nurse's aide hit a homeless man, drove home with him wedged in her windshield and then left him to bleed to death in her garage. Chante Jawan Mallard was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2003 to 50 years in prison.

Warrichaiet was charged Tuesday with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, hit-and-run involving death, injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle and hit-and-run involving great bodily harm. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 77 1/2 years in prison and a $275,000 fine. A judge set bail at $100,000.

Gutowski said her brother has mental health problems and had received counseling for having suicidal thoughts.

She said her brother needs treatment and medication. "This could happen to the next person. You've got to get ill people off the streets," she said.