| By Neil Johnson, Big Radio News Staff |
Derrick Stevenson, the man police say held people hostage at at gunpoint and fired a gun inside a Janesville home last fall, is set to stand trial.
Rock County Court Commissioner Mason Braunschweig found probable cause at a hearing Tuesday that Stevenson likely committed multiple counts of domestic false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon.
Bruce Danielson, a Janesville police officer Rock County prosecutors called as a a witness, says the 30-year-old Stevenson held at least four people, including two children, hostage inside a home on Riverside Drive Oct. 21.
Danielson says an investigation shows Stevenson took the cell phones of those he held hostage, pointed guns at them, made them sit clustered in one spot in the home, and at one point shot a gun through a floor in the home, sending a bullet rattling into the basement.
Stevenson is pleading not guilty to all charges.
Stevenson’s attorney, Michael Murphy, pointed out that while police in reports had said Stevenson was “intoxicated” during the incident, a criminal complaint now available in court records makes no mention that Stevenson was under the influence at the time.
Stevenson has been free after posting bond in late December, when Rock County Judge Ashley Morse lowered his initial bond from $100,000 to $1,000.
One day after he was released on bond, Stevenson went back to the same Riverside Drive home, police say, and threatened the same people he’d held hostage in October. That’s despite court orders that he stay away from the home. Authorities have not brought formal charges against Stevenson in the December incident.
Stevenson walked in the courtroom Tuesday in street clothing, accompanied by a female and carrying an infant inside a baby carrier that he’d covered with a blanket.
