The Michigan Court of Appeals will not hear an appeal of second-degree murder charges against a man involved in a fatal bicycle crash last year.
Chief Clerk Jerome Zimmer wrote July 28 that Charles Pickett Jr.'s leave to appeal was denied "for failure to persuade the Court of the need for immediate appellate review."
Pickett is charged with five counts of murder, five counts of driving while intoxicated, and four counts of reckless driving related to the June 2016 crash. Police say he plowed into a group of bicyclists in Cooper Township, killing five and injuring four.
Defense attorney Alan Koenig argued in the April application that the prosecution's evidence wasn't enough to send Pickett to trial for second-degree murder.
Pickett's trial is scheduled for Sept. 19.
