{"id":53461,"date":"2025-01-16T20:47:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T01:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=53461"},"modified":"2025-01-16T20:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T01:48:25","slug":"judge-orders-daniel-kovacs-bond-set-at-550000-for-deadly-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/01\/16\/judge-orders-daniel-kovacs-bond-set-at-550000-for-deadly-hit-and-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders Daniel Kovacs bond set at $550,000 for deadly hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An auto body shop employee and surveillance cameras helped detectives piece together a fatal hit-and-run case in Lakeland from November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minutes after midnight on Nov. 23, Lakeland police said Robin Brown, 67, was walking across South Florida Avenue at Palmetto Street when she was hit by a car that never stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that you hit a human being, you left them for dead, you didn\u2019t call the police and you didn\u2019t render aid, I think our community wants to know why,\u201d Lakeland Police Capt. Cheryl Kimball said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to police, detectives found a Range Rover hood vent on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers canvassed local auto shops and received a call from Lakeland Body Shop Collision Repair about a vehicle that was dropped off on the morning of Nov. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The registered owner of the vehicle, Daniel Kovacs, 41, called the body shop at 9:13 am on Nov. 23, according to his affidavit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy investigator went up there and saw that it was consistent with the physical evidence he collected at the scene of the crash,\u201d Kimball said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to police, tape and zip ties were purchased and used to temporarily repair some of the damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using various surveillance cameras, police were able to track the vehicle through downtown Lakeland and identify Kovacs as the suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the crash, police said Kovacs purchased six bourbon Old Fashions, three twin espresso martinis, and a Corona Extra at a downtown Lakeland bar between 9:55 p.m. and 11:32 p.m. on Nov. 22, totaling $205.74 with tax and tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A person with him, the passenger in his vehicle, also bought drinks using cash, according to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passenger is cooperating with police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kovacs was arrested Wednesday on leaving the scene of a crash involving death and tampering with physical evidence charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He faced a judge Thursday about a bond and a curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a professional engineer and a consultant, your Honor,\u201d Kovacs said. \u201cTypically we start at around 7 a.m. and, in some cases, go as late as 7 p.m. depending on meeting schedules, but I can get around that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has significant ties to the community,\u201d his attorney Victoria Hatfield said. \u201cHe is a resident of Polk County. He is a small business owner in Polk County, and I am not aware of any prior record, your Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge set bond at $550,000 with a curfew set of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a search warrant, Kovacs\u2019 debit card was used at Tampa General Hospital in the timeframe of Nov. 23 to Nov. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No medical records were found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police said neither Kovacs nor the passenger claimed they were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you have that on your conscience just knowing that you killed someone\u2019s mother, aunt, wife, girlfriend? I couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Kimball said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An auto body shop employee and surveillance cameras helped detectives piece together a fatal hit-and-run case in Lakeland from November. Minutes after midnight on Nov. 23, Lakeland police said Robin… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL0tPVkFDUy1EQU5JRUwtUEVURVJTLndlYnA_Zml0PTQxNCUyQzUxMiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikp1ZGdlIG9yZGVycyBEYW5pZWwgS292YWNzIGJvbmQgc2V0IGF0ICQ1NTAsMDAwIGZvciBkZWFkbHkgaGl0LWFuZC1ydW4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9._RlZHxxn9d0Z0bHxAe6w3X-EnHC9ZMxvFw-S0jb1rQoMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53462,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/KOVACS-DANIEL-PETERS.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10787,10786],"class_list":["post-53461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-000-for-deadly-hit-and-run","tag-judge-orders-daniel-kovacs-bond-set-at-550"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53463,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53461\/revisions\/53463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}