Woman to stand trial in deaths of 2 Michigan bicyclists

IONIA, Mich. – A lady has been ordered to face trial on second-degree homicide and different expenses after 5 bicyclists have been struck by her car as they rode in a summer season charity occasion in western Michigan.

Ionia County District Decide Raymond Voet stated throughout a preliminary listening to Thursday that Mandy Benn was intoxicated by a “cocktail of medicine,” regardless of testimony that she had solely therapeutic ranges of treatment in her system, MLive.com reported.

Voet additionally stated Benn, 42, acted with a “wanton and willful … disregard of life.”

Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler has stated Benn was attempting to move a UPS truck on July 30 on a rural street in Ronald Township when she crossed the middle line and hit the bicyclists who have been taking part in a three-day endurance experience for the Make-A-Want Basis.

Ronald Township is northeast of Grand Rapids.

Benn had no alcohol in her system however had slurred speech and couldn’t observe directions, stated Butler, who added that there was proof she used pharmaceuticals.

Edward Erickson, 48, of Ann Arbor, and Michael Salhaney, 57, of Bloomfield Hills, have been killed. Three different males have been harm.

WZZM-TV reported {that a} lady who lives alongside the street the place the bicyclists have been struck witnessed the crash.

“My window faces the street, and I noticed a physique flying by means of the air,” testified Shoni Mayle.

After the bicyclists have been hit, Benn appeared confused and disoriented, Ionia County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Phillip Hesche testified.

“She appeared proper at me, and she or he says, ‘Wow, officer that just about appears to be like actual,’” Hesche stated. “I used to be actually bowled over by that. It was like she was on a distinct planet.”

Geoffrey French, a state police toxicology unit supervisor, testified that three pharmaceuticals have been present in Benn’s system. Prosecutors stated she didn’t have a prescription for one among medicine.

French agreed with protection legal professional Walter Downes that there have been therapeutic ranges of treatment in her system. “Not one of the outcomes have been tremendous, tremendous giant,” French testified.

However the medicines can have adversarial results, he stated whereas being questioned by the prosecution.