KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Monday afternoon, Jennifer Johnson was among the survivors who listened to opening statements in the courtroom for the first day of the People vs. Charles Picket Jr. trial. Immediately after, she walked out. Wednesday morning she returned to testify.
“Waking up, opening my eyes, and seeing my left arm tightly gripping a fence,” Johnson recalled from the day of the crash. “I just remember seeing burrs covering my gloves and my riding jersey, and I didn’t understand why that was.”
Police said on June 7, 2016 nine cyclists, known as The Chain Gang, were hit from behind while riding on Westnedge Avenue in Cooper Township. Since then, the driver and suspect Charles Pickett Jr., has been charged with five counts of 2nd-degree murder and five counts of operating while intoxicated causing death.
“I remember being in the hospital on a hospital bed and hearing people talk in a hallway,” said survivor Paul Runnels. “It’s pretty vague but I remember laying there thinking I should try to remember.”
But he couldn't. He mainly remembered the injuries he suffered which included a fractured right tibia, broken hip, broken teeth and a collapsed lung.
“I remember June 19. I believe it was Father’s Day,” said Paul Gobble who can only recall the days after the crash. “I was at Mary Free Bed rehabilitation hospital. I was in a room. I was wearing a leg brace, a back brace.”
Gobble suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash, he said. Since then he’s been battling anxiety and depression and suffers from memory loss. He described having rough days with his job and family. After months of counseling, he was prescribed an antidepressant. However he immediately rejected it.
“But one afternoon my, at the time she would have been 11 or 10 years old daughter, described me as an ‘anger zombie',” said Gobble recalling a conversation with his child. “It was that discussion that I remember really illustrated how I had changed and what had changed.”
Gobbles ended up taking the medication. He, like many of the survivors, endured physical treatment, including Sheila Jeske who described herself as an "avid cyclist."
“I don’t remember what happened,” said Jeske who suffered a broken ankle, torn ACL and seven broken ribs due to the crash. “I remember showing up for the ride at the parking lot. I remember waking up in the hospital.”
Markus Eberhard was the next to testify. He said he remembers the crash well. He talked about walking along the road, after fishing at Markin Glen Park, when someone yelled “watch out.” He didn’t know who said it but in seconds he jumped back and his mind went blank.
“What I’d seen I thought I’d never see in my life,” said Eberhard who tried to warn the bikers. “I seen a tire go right across, right in front of my foot.”
His neighbor Kasie Fieberkorn testified next. She said as soon as she heard the crash, which she described as a “loud bang,” she knew the bikers had been hit. So she ran up the street to check things out.
“As I’m approaching, running up there, it’s just a mess,” Fieberkorn said. “There’s water bottles everywhere. There’s people’s shoes in the middle of the road. There’s bicycle parts in the middle of the road.”
She remembered asking the EMT on the scene how she could help and he asked her to count the victims. She did and came across one who said ‘help me, help me.’
“There was another blue vehicle that was posted up against the fire hydrant that was a blue chevy truck, that was all smashed,” she said. “There was a man standing there by his tailgate.”
Prosecutor Michael Kanaby asked her to identify who he was in court. She said that it was the suspect Charles Pickett Jr.
The first police officers and EMTs to arrive on the scene that day took the stand as well. Firefighter Ethan McCormick described Pickett to be “very disoriented” after the crash and that he couldn’t get him to talk. The prosecution showed video of Pickett in the ambulance, with his eyes rolling back into his head, and not responding to EMTs saying “Can you hear me? Can you hear me?”
Kalamazoo County Sgt. James Dunlop was the first to inspect Pickett's vehicle that night. He testified that he found cigarillos, a broken cigar, painkillers and methamphetamine inside the pickup. The latter two substances are what forensic scientist Samantha Beauchamp said she found in his system when his blood, in vials, arrived to her lab in Lansing.
James Campbell, traffic re-constructionist with Michigan State Police, testified about what he remembered that night, seeing "multiple emergency vehicles along the side" of the road and debris everywhere. He went through a series of photographs that were taken that day of what he saw on the street: helmet, bandana, shoes, tire marks.
“You can also see bike parts on the front,” he said while looking at a picture of the dark blue Chevy pick-up. “You can see the sock in the right front bumper.”
Family and loved ones cried as they heard each of the testimonies. More witness are expected to testify Thursday morning.
***FOX 17 will be in court throughout the trial. The judge is not allowing live-streaming of the trial, but we will have video updates throughout the trial online and on Facebook and live reports throughout the day. Follow Lauren Edwards on Twitter for updates throughout the day.***
