Posted on 10/24/2017 1:12:09 PM PDT by Signalman
Five teenagers from Michigan have been charged with second-degree murder after being accused of throwing a rock off an overpass that killed a man, according to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.
Kenneth White, 32, was a passenger in a van that was traveling along I-75 near Flint, Michigan, on the night of October 18, when a 6-pound rock smashed through the windshield of the vehicle, fatally injuring him.
White was struck in the face and head, and the rock ricocheted to his chest, causing him to lose consciousness, according to Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell.
The driver told police he had to pass four other vehicles, which were disabled on the side of the road because of rocks, before he could pull over to get help for his friend.
Pickell and David Leyton, the county prosecutor, announced on Monday that the teens, ages 15-17, are being charged as adults with one count of second-degree murder each. They are also being charged with conspiracy to commit murder, six felony counts each of malicious destruction of property and two other lesser charges.
"It's not a prank, it's second-degree murder," said Pickell. "I don't think anybody is laughing and I think that if there's any warning that both David and I can give, is telling young people, you make a bad decision, you could be spending the rest of your life in prison."
Police said the group threw a tire and about 20 rocks, one weighing 20 pounds, off two overpasses that night, damaging several vehicles. After throwing the rock that killed White, the teens left the overpass and went to a McDonalds to eat.
"To propel the size of boulder down from the Dodge Road overpass to a 70 mph vehicle that's headed southbound, you ought to know -- a reasonable person would know -- that that is creating a high risk of great bodily harm, or in this case, death," said Leyton.
The teens will be formally arraigned in court on Tuesday.
"At the end of the day nobody wins. The young people are charged criminally, a young boy lost his father and all of the families are left grieving," said Pickell.
If I were the judge, I’d sentence them to do prison time until they are 33 years old...same age as the dad they killed. Make them keep a photo of the dad and kid on their ceilings as reminders.
Yah,age *does* make a difference.At 16 I did some stupid stuff.Stupid enough that the cops would have taken notice if they caught me.We're not talking murder but we're not talking littering either.
Maturity (and the Army) helped straighten me out.Of course these kids should do time...more than a few years,in fact.But life? Maybe not.
Especially with multiple cars already pulled over because of inflicted damage. Definite premeditation.
What, they had nothing better to do than (at the minimum) inflict some very expensive damage on someone’s car? A whole group of these morons, and a collective IQ of 85 between them all? They should be made to closely look at the corpse of the man they killed, and the faces of his grieving family. Then taken and beaten to within an inch of their miserable misbegotten lives before being imprisoned for at least 15 years. For the life of me, I cannot imagine how anyone would concoct the idea of throwing a large rock down on cars, to cause damage or injury to people they don’t even know. Takes a special kind of sociopath, I guess.
There have been enough news stories over the years about the danger of tossing rocks or other objects off overhead walkways onto freeways below, that there is no excuse for these teens not to have known they would cause damage to those below. That could have been any of us in one of those cars.
News broadcasts showing the carcasses of five teen murderers slowly swaying on the gallows should significantly lower the incidence of rocks dropped on vehicles. A precedent will have been established.
We just need immediate execution of murderous sociopathic idiots like this. Dont care if male or female, dont care about race, dont care about age.
They are going to attract a lot of “friends” in the slammer.
H’mmm. I guess the “aspiring rappers” defense won’t work. Maybe they are budding concert pianists?
It’s ingrained in our brains, and will never change. We know what a 10lb chunk of cement tossed over a wall will do to an up-armored HMMWV at 50 MPH. I still move over for things on the side of the interstate.
Emphasis on “slammer”...
Freepers love life sentences and execution
It’s a fetish
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