Driver enters plea in fatal bicyclist crash
A Detroit man has pleaded no contest to a 5-year felony for leaving the scene of a fatal vehiclebicycle crash in June 2021 in Mount Clemens.
Adrian Williamson entered the plea Tuesday on the day he was scheduled for a jury trial in front of Judge Edward Servitto in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens for the death of bicyclist Ross Richards, 52.
Williamson, who was 23 at the time of the incident, is scheduled to be sentenced July 17.
As part of a plea deal with Macomb prosecutors, two 15-year felonies and a misdemeanor will be dismissed at the sentencing. Those two felonies are driving with a suspended license causing death and and leaving the scene of an at-fault crash causing death. The 1-year misdemeanor is moving violation causing death.
Richards was struck on a bicycle at 10:40 p.m. June 18, 2021 while crossing Southbound Gratiot Avenue south of Cass Avenue by a 2018 Ford F150 pickup truck driven by Williamson, who drove from the scene.
Richards, who worked at Concord Tool and Manufacturing on Groesbeck Highway just north of Cass Avenue, died the next day.
Several parts from the vehicle were found at the scene.
Video evidence presented at a preliminary examination last March indicates Williamson drove through a yellow traffic light at Gratiot and Cass one to two seconds before crashing into Richards, who was crossing on a bicycle from the west to the eastside about 300 feet south of Cass.
Minutes before the crash, Williamson’s vehicle backed up and bumped another vehicle at a nearby gas station.
Williamson’s attorney, Ken Vernier, argued his client was not at fault for driving through a yellow light 100 yards from the crash scene.
He also contended Richards contributed to his own death because he was riding at night in dark clothes with no lights on his bicycle.
The district court judge ruled against Vernier’s effort to admit Richards’ intoxication level as evidence.
Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Jacqueline Gartin said she must only present “some evidence of fault” for the at-fault charge and disputed Vernier’s contention, saying the area was well-lit.
In the days following the crash, Macomb County Sheriff’s investigators used videos from a dozen area businesses and facial recognition software to identify Williamson. Sheriff’s Detective Clifton Morgan spotted the truck parked at Collision Collision shop on Groesbeck Highway, just south of Metropolitan Parkway. The truck had been fitted with a new grill and the hood was repainted, Morgan said.