Bail set for accused driver

A 79-year-old vehicular-assault suspect met with his daughter Monday morning. She told Kiel Ganoung that one of the three victims in the Friday night accident had died.

“He put his face in his hands and cried,” said Ganoung’s daughter, Yvonne McCullough.

Ganoung is depressed and has diabetes and high blood pressure, McCullough said. “We know he’s not coming home.”

“I don’t know who the people are,” McCullough said of the victims. “I just want them to know we are sorry.”

Spokane police said Kiel Adonis Ganoung struck three elderly people as they were walking to dinner Friday night at Wall and Princeton. A fourth jumped out of the way and escaped injury.

At 3:51 a.m. Sunday, John L. Lisenbee, 73, died. His wife remains in a local hospital in serious condition with a broken leg and pelvis. Another woman, whom police have not identified, remains in satisfactory condition, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

Ganoung made his first appearance at 2 p.m. Monday on the charge of vehicular assault. With glasses and cropped white hair, he fidgeted in his chair as he waited for court Commissioner Charlie Rohr to start the hearing.

Ganoung’s voice cracked when he answered Rohr’s question about whether he understood his rights.

Rohr read from his pages that Ganoung has no previous criminal history but that he does have a drinking problem.

A prosecutor told Rohr that Lisenbee died over the weekend and that more charges would be forthcoming. Based on the seriousness of the offense, the prosecutor asked for a $250,000 bond.

Rohr set the bond at $100,000 “because of the serious nature of the crime and it appears there is a fatality connected to this matter,” he said.

“I don’t think I can come up with any bail,” Ganoung responded.

McCullough, who is one of Ganoung’s five children, later acknowledged that her father has a drinking problem.

“He was three blocks from home,” McCullough said. “He had been drinking. It just feels really bad that someone had to die at his hands.”

According to court records, Ganoung had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech.

Witnesses of the crash said Ganoung didn’t hit the brakes of his Ford Ranger pickup until after he hit the three people at the lighted intersection at Wall Street and Princeton Avenue.

“He said he didn’t see them,” McCullough said.

Ganoung retired after serving 22 years with the Air Force and 22 years for the U.S. Postal Service, McCullough said.

McCullough was hoping to contact the families of the victims, but she had not been told their names.

Efforts to reach Lisenbee’s family were unsuccessful Monday.

“We’re extremely sorry this had to happen,” McCullough said. “It’s just really tragic. We probably feel as bad for them as we do for our father.”

Cottam said prosecutors will decide on any additional charges against Ganoung. An autopsy performed on Lisenbee Monday determined that he died from head trauma.

Because of his condition, McCullough said, jailers are keeping regular watch on Ganoung while he’s in jail.

“I don’t think he’ll see 80 at this point. He’s giving up,” McCullough said. “He’s already divvying up the family property. It’s really sad.”