Jury Acquits Beaver Dam Man On OWI Charge Issued After Highway Death

(Town of Calamus) A Dodge County jury deliberated for less than a half hour on Wednesday before finding a Beaver Dam man not guilty of driving under the influence at the time of a fatal highway accident. Troy Kelm was acquitted of first offense Operating While Intoxicated, a traffic citation and the only charge he has faced in connection with the incident last August in which Kaylan Davis died. The 37-year-old Beaver Dam woman had apparently exited her vehicle at 5 o’clock in the morning on Highway 151 in the Town of Calamus to help a motorist involved in an unrelated accident. Davis stopped behind another vehicle in the left lane of southbound Highway 151 – just north of Forest Road – to render aid, exited her SUV and walked onto the shoulder of the median. The 29-year-old Kelm was driving a southbound pickup truck and was apparently unable to go into the right-hand lane because of morning traffic. He swerved onto the shoulder to avoid striking her SUV but instead struck Davis. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Kelm was not injured and was arrested for OWI. He was called to the stand to testify on Wednesday but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. It was not the first time he went to court for his connection with a fatal incident. Kelm was sentenced to one year in jail in 2009 for selling a prescription drug to a UW-Milwaukee student that authorities said played a role in that students overdose death.