Driving 100 mph, a 20-year-old Madison man struck a pedestrian couple in April, one of whom later died from the incident. Today, the driver pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in Dane County Court.
Benjamin Cortes confessed to felony charges of reckless homicide and recklessly endangering safety as well as a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated. He hit the couple with his car, killing 72-year-old Greg Nametz and severely injuring his wife Patty.
The couple were walking their dog on Midvale Boulevard on Madison’s West Side when Cortes struck them with his car. Greg was killed immediately, and Patty was taken to the hospital with severe injuries. Doctors said she suffered damage to every organ in her body except her heart. Their dog was uninjured.
A criminal complaint against Cortes stated he admitted to a nurse he had smoked marijuana on the day of the accident but denied being under the influence at the time of the accident. Police who interviewed Cortes at the time said his eyes were very red and he was definitely not in a state to operate a motor vehicle.
A passenger in Cortes’ car was also injured but survived. She told police she and Cortes had smoked weed about four hours before the accident.
Both passengers acknowledged one of his car tires shook above the speed of 30 mph and had done so for a couple of months.
Cortes told police he believed the car was traveling about 45 mph when he lost control while trying to swerve around a slower-moving vehicle. Police determined his car was going 102 mph four seconds before the crash, slowing to 80 mph less than a second before. The speed limit on Midvale Boulevard, where the accident occurred, is 30 mph.
Cortes told police he was trying to see how loud he could make his exhaust because he was “hyped up.” His passenger said she had felt her stomach drop as if she were on a roller coaster as the car went over a hill near Cherokee Heights Middle School, a few blocks from the site of the crash.
Cortes will be sentenced in court on Jan. 2. He faces up to 37.5 years in prison for the two felonies.
