MANITOWOC COUNTY (NBC 26) — A 51-year-old Manitowoc woman is facing charges for a crash that killed her 9-year-old granddaughter.
Monica Walker appeared in court Monday afternoon. She faces a homicide charge connected to driving while intoxicated and another charge of knowingly driving while her license was revoked.
In previous reports, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded the morning of Feb. 8 for a rollover crash on I-43 south of Middle Road in Manitowoc Rapids.
According to the Sheriff's Office, a preliminary investigation revealed Walker was driving an SUV northbound on I-43 when she lost control and went into the east ditch. The SUV overturned and the Sheriff's Office said a 9-year-old girl was thrown from the vehicle. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene. The girl was later identified as Walker’s granddaughter.
According to a criminal complaint, an officer interviewed Walker after the crash. In the complaint, Walker told the officer that she and her granddaughter had just left the Wendy’s restaurant in Manitowoc and they were on their way to Green Bay to pick up her granddaughter’s mother from the Brown County Jail. The criminal complaint said Walker told the officer she tried eating while driving and the vehicle went off pavement and onto the icy shoulder.
Walker said she lost control of the vehicle, it went into a ditch and rolled over. The criminal complaint says Walker got out of the vehicle and saw her granddaughter lying in the snow. Walker stated in the complaint when she saw her granddaughter in the snow, she “knew it was not good” and “immediately thought the worst and knew she was dead.”
According to the complaint, Walker admitted to investigators that she had been drinking the night before but insisted she hadn’t been drinking the morning of the crash. The complaint says an officer observed an “odor of intoxicants” coming from Walker while interviewing her. While Walker was being interviewed at the hospital, the criminal complaint says Walker took a test that showed her having a 0.092% BrAC, meaning her breath alcohol was over the legal limit of 0.08% to drive a vehicle.
The criminal complaint also said Walker had a previous OWI conviction in 2013 and her driver’s license had been revoked as a result.
Walker is set to have a preliminary hearing on Feb. 24. She could face decades behind bars if convicted.
