COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The murder convictions for the Battle Creek man in the Kalamazoo Bike Tragedy will stand as previously sentenced.
Last May, now 53-year-old Charles Pickett Jr. was found guilty on all counts including 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 last June to a minimum of 40-years after he took drugs and drove his pickup truck into members of the Chain Gang Bicycle club on Westnedge Avenue back in 2016, killing 5 and wounding 4 others.
Those victims were 53-year-old Debra Bradley, 42-year-old Melissa Hughes, 73-year-old Fred Nelson, 74-year-old Lorenz Paulik, and 56-year-old Suzanne Sippel.
However, his lawyers filed with the Michigan Court of appeals arguing that his sentence exceeded the advisory guidelines and that Pickett was improperly questioned after his arrest.
But last week the appeals court said the judge’s sentencing was justified. The judge said Pickett’s actions were, “so violent and horrifying that the standard guideline method simply fails to reflect their severity.”
