KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The Michigan Supreme Court has announced that an appeal in the Charles Pickett Jr. case has been denied.
In 2018, 53-year-old Charles Pickett Jr. was found guilty on all counts relating to the 2016 Kalamazoo Bike Tragedy. The charges include five counts of second degree murder, five counts of driving while intoxicated causing death, and four counts of driving intoxicated causing serious injury.
He was sentenced the following June to 40 to 75 years in prison after he took drugs and drove his pickup truck into members of the Chain Gang Bicycle club on Westnedge Avenue, killing 5 and wounding 4 others.
Pickett was found to have a multitude of drugs in his system at the time of his arrest, and witnesses claimed to have seen Pickett ingest pills before driving his vehicle.
Pickett had already attempted to have his sentencing appealed last September, during which his lawyers argued that his sentence exceeded the advisory guidelines and that Pickett was improperly questioned after his arrest.
That appeal was also denied by the Court.
In the ruling for the appeal to the September decision, the Court said that “we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court,” which was issued June 30.
Pickett is currently serving his sentence at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater.
