GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man who “savagely beat” a retiree in a church parking lot during a 2016 road rage incident in southern Kent County has lost a bid to have the Michigan Supreme Court consider his case. 

Christian Hillman was 18 when a jury in Grand Rapids found him guilty of second-degree murder. 

According to testimony, he fought with 64-year-old William McFarlan in a church parking lot, knocking McFarlan to the ground.  

Hillman then kicked McFarlan repeatedly in the head with steel-toed boots. McFarlan never recovered and died in a hospital a month later. 

A Kent County judge sentenced Hillman to 22.5 to 100 years in prison, calling the attack “heinous and vicious.”

The Court of Appeals upheld the sentence in 2019.

Hillman’s legal team filed another challenge, asking that he be resentenced by another judge.  

A three-judge panel earlier this year said no, finding there was no evidence the judge imposed an invalid sentence. 

In a one-page order released this week, the Michigan Supreme Court denied a request to review the case. 

Hillman, now 25, is locked up at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian, Michigan. He’ll be 41 years old when he can first be considered for release. 

Hillman was on a dirt bike and McFarlan was in a pickup when they got into a confrontation along Whitneyville Avenue SE. They pulled into a church parking lot, where McFarlan was knocked unconscious and kicked in the head and ribs. 

A Kent County jury deliberated for about 30 minutes before finding Hillman guilty of second-degree murder for the September 2016 attack.