A 25-year-old man has been ordered to stand trial for charges stemming from a fatal hit-and-run crash in Macomb County, officials said.
Earnest Square was bound over by a Warren district court judge during a preliminary exam of his case on Tuesday, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said.
The judge also lowered the defendant’s bond from $250,000 to $50,000 and ordered him to wear a GPS tether if released on bond, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Square is scheduled to be arraigned in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens on Aug. 17.
The Detroit resident is charged with leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in death and driving while unlicensed, causing death. Both charges are felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Reached Wednesday, Square’s attorney, Sterling Coleman, said he had no comment about the case.
The crash
Authorities allege the defendant struck a female pedestrian with his vehicle at about 4 a.m. on May 16 on Van Dyke Avenue near Nine Mile Road in Warren and then fled.
Police said officers were called to the area by passing motorists.
The 54-year-old woman suffered serious injuries and medics took her to a hospital, where she died the following day, according to authorities.
Investigators were able to collect evidence and review footage from license plate reading cameras to develop Square as the suspect who was driving the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, which they believe struck the victim, officials said.
Detectives also determined Square has never acquired a valid driver’s license.
State hit-and-runs
The case follows other hit-and-run crashes in Michigan.
A driver fatally struck a man last month as he walked across a Monroe County road.
Michigan State Police said last month that they had arrested a person of interest in a weekend hit-and-run crash in Royal Oak Township that injured a juvenile.
Also in July, Ann Arbor police identified the driver of a hit-and-run crash that injured a pedestrian the month before.
There were 2,131 pedestrian-involved crashes in the state and 156 fatalities in those crashes in 2024, according to the latest Michigan State Police traffic crash statistics available. That compares to 2,114 pedestrian-involved crashes and 183 fatalities in the state the year before.
Macomb County saw 154 crashes involving pedestrians in 2024, 12 of them fatal, state police data said. That compares with 172 crashes involving pedestrians in 2023. Sixteen of those crashes were fatal.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Man faces trial in fatal hit-and-run of pedestrian in Warren
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
