Affidavit gives new details about 2020 Election Day crash that killed Wichita man, 80
A recently released arrest affidavit gives new details about an Election Day 2020 hit-and-run crash that killed an 80-year-old Wichita man crossing the street to go home after checking his mail.
James “Jim” Kaminsky died at the hospital after a white truck hit him in the 1600 block of North Parkridge, near 13th and 119th Streets, around 6:15 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2020. In February — more than a year after the deadly collision — prosecutors charged a man who lives in Kaminsky’s neighborhood, 59-year-old Jeffrey Jack of Wichita, with one count of leaving the scene of an accident he “knew or reasonably should have known ... resulted in injury or death.”
Jack made a first appearance in court earlier this month and has another hearing scheduled for May 23, court records show.
When Kaminsky died, Wichita police said investigators thought alcohol played a role in the crash. The affidavit, which lays out legal justification for Jack’s arrest and prosecution, says Jack spent time on Nov. 3, 2020, drinking alcohol with work friends and his wife at a northwest Wichita bar before heading home in his white 2002 GMC Sierra.
A waitress interviewed after the crash told police Jack drank four “double vodka/waters,” ate nachos and drank some plain water before leaving the bar, the document says.
Asked whether Jack seemed impaired, the affidavit says the waitress told police that he “seemed a little ‘tipsy’” after was there for a while.
She also described him as acting “a little intoxicated, tipsy, goofy, but having a good time being polite and nice.”
When Jack tried to order a fifth alcoholic beverage for himself, the waitress told police she brought him a glass of water instead. He left the bar without ordering the fifth drink.
Kaminsky was hit by the truck around 6:15 p.m. outside of his home. Neighbors who witnessed the collision told police they heard a loud “thump” or “crack” then saw Kaminsky lying unconscious in the street. Some reported seeing a vehicle driving away.
Police eventually found Jack’s empty and damaged truck parked in a driveway next to the home of his brother, who also lives in the neighborhood.
They found Jack hiding in a backyard shed nearby, according to the affidavit.
An officer suspected Jack had been drinking because he smelled strongly of alcohol and had bloodshot and watery eyes, the affidavit says.
When asked, Jack told police alcohol didn’t factor into the crash and refused to complete a field sobriety test, telling an officer: “I didn’t do anything,” the affidavit says.
He denied coming from a bar and told police he was on his way home from voting when “somebody jumped, stepped out” in front of his truck and scared him, the affidavit says.
He told a detective who tried to interview him later that he didn’t want to talk to investigators.
The affidavit says his blood sample, taken five hours and 38 minutes after the collision, had an ethanol content of 0.135 — more than the legal limit to drive in Kansas.
If convicted as charged, Jack faces a possible sentence of probation to 136 months in prison, depending on his prior criminal history, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said earlier this month.
This story was originally published May 16, 2022 at 4:09 AM.
