Four Ohio teenagers convicted of killing a man after dropping a sandbag on his car from an overpass have been sentenced to a youth treatment facility, according to a court official.
“The youth treatment center is a lockdown facility in Toledo. The program runs six months, but there is no set time to release. The average youth spends eight months there,” Lori Olender, juvenile division deputy chief for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, told CNN.
The judge also sentenced the teens to four-year suspended sentences, probation, and 30 hours of community service.
One teen was convicted of murder and felonious assault while the other three were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular vandalism. All four pleaded guilty to their charges.
Lillian Diallo, an attorney for the victim’s family, called the sentencing “outrageous.”
“Suspended what? If you do what? So eight months you get to go home?” Diallo told WTVG outside the courtroom after the sentencing. “This child will never be at home. His son will never see him. His mother will never be able to say, ‘Hey son, how are you? How’s your day?’ Touch his face, see his face. This is outrageous.”
Authorities charged the teens for dropping a sandbag from a freeway overpass onto a car carrying 22-year-old Marquise Byrd on December 19, 2017. The sandbag struck the vehicle’s window and hit Byrd. The victim later died at a local hospital.
Two similar incidents took place in Michigan and Pennsylvania. In October, five teens were arrested in Michigan for allegedly throwing a rock over a highway overpass, fatally striking a motorist below.
In 2015, several teens threw a rock into incoming traffic on I-80 in Pennsylvania, seriously injuring a passenger. The teens were convicted of multiple offenses and were tried as adults.
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