Prison ordered for death of pedestrian after fireworks show at Sterling State Park
MONROE — A Monroe man will spend at least eight years in prison following a pedestrian's death after the Fourth of July fireworks show at Sterling State Park last summer.
William Clay Cordell, 24, was sentenced Thursday in Monroe County Circuit Court. He was driving a Ford F-150 pickup on July 3 after the fireworks display when he struck David Revels II, who died from his injuries at Corewell Health Trenton Hospital. Deputies from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident and determined that Revels, 35, of Monroe was walking along State Park Drive near Durocher Street at about 11 p.m. when he was struck by a pickup that was being recklessly driven and fled the scene, Sheriff Troy Goodnough reported at the time.
At the time of the collision, the southeast lane of State Park Drive was being used to reduce traffic congestion from vehicles leaving the fireworks display, the sheriff’s office reported. State Park Drive was controlled by traffic-control barricades and law enforcement officers directing vehicles northeast into the southeast travel lane toward North Dixie Highway.
Neither drugs nor alcohol appeared to be a factor in Cordell’s actions, the prosecutor’s office said.
“Following a tip from a passenger in Mr. Cordell’s vehicle, the Defendant was apprehended for his involvement and quickly confessed to the homicide,” a news release from the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Cordell pleaded no contest in November to involuntary manslaughter and failure to stop at the scene of an accident when at fault resulting in death, according to online court records. In a plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office, Cordell agreed to a sentence of 8 to 15 years on each count, the prosecutor’s office said, and Monroe County Circuit Judge William Paul Nichols followed the agreement when he sentenced Cordell Thursday. He received credit for 191 days already served on each count, and the sentences will run concurrently to each other, online court records said.
An original charge of second-degree murder was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated like a guilty plea at sentencing. Revels’ estate has filed a civil lawsuit against Cordell in Monroe County Circuit Court, according to court records.
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At sentencing, Revels’ mother and sister spoke, expressing frustration and devastation with the Cordell's actions, the prosecutor’s office’s release said. Cordell did not provide a written statement in the pre-sentence report but did express his remorse to the family at sentencing.
Detective Robert Blair led the investigation for the sheriff’s office. Kenneth Laurain and Jonathan Jones prosecuted the case, and attorney Mark Ellis of Livonia represented Cordell.
Yorkey said in the release he commended the senior trial attorneys at the prosecutor’s office for their work on the case and also the “impressive efforts of law enforcement, specifically the Monroe County Sheriff’s Detectives and Deputies who worked tirelessly to identify and apprehend the Defendant.”
— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Prison ordered for death of pedestrian after fireworks show
