FLINT, Mich. – Kyle Anger, a teenager accused of throwing the rock onto I-75 that killed a man in 2017, pleaded guilty on Friday to second-degree murder.
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WILX reports three of the four other teenagers involved, Trevor Gray, Mikadyn Payne and Mark Sekelski, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The fifth teenager involved, Alexzander Miller, did not appear in court because his attorney had a murder trial in Saginaw and was not available.
Gray, Payne and Sekelsky all admitted to throwing multiple rocks from the Dodge Road overpass in Vienna Township onto the southbound lanes of I-75 and both said Anger threw the rock that killed Kenneth White.
Anger admitted to throwing the deadly rock.
Attorneys for Gray, Payne and Sekelsky asked the judge for a five-year probation sentence as juveniles. The judge said he would decide at sentencing whether to accept the deal.
What happened
Police said the teenagers damaged several cars the night of Oct. 18, 2017 when they threw rocks off at least two overpasses in Vienna Township. Kenneth Andrew White, 32, of Mount Morris Township, was in a van at the time heading south on I-75 when the windshield was struck by a large rock in Vienna Township, police said. The rock went through the windshield and hit White, who was in the passenger seat. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Sheriff Robert Pickell said he wasn't willing to call the incident a prank, since it resulted in a death.
"It's not a prank," Pickell said. "It's second-degree murder. I don't think anybody's laughing. You make a bad decision, you could be spending the rest of your life in prison. This is not a prank."
READ: Family heartbroken after man killed by rock thrown from overpass on I-75
"I don't believe this was a deliberate act to take someone's life," Leyton said. "It was a willful and wanton act that resulted in someone's death. These people should've known better. They should've known this could kill someone, and under Michigan law, that's second-degree murder."
"We know we found 20 rocks, one weighing 20 pounds, on I-75," Pickell said.
Police said it was a six-pound rock thrown from the Dodge Road overpass that went through the windshield of a van White was riding in. White was hit in the chest and head, causing major trauma.
Investigators said the five teens left the overpass and drove to a McDonald's to eat.
White leaves a fiancee and a young son.
"Nobody wins when young people are charged," Pickell said. "A young boy is left without a father, and many families are grieving."
All five boys went to Clio High School.
Police said Anger turned himself in at the county jail, and the others were arrested.
Family devastated; victim had 5-year-old son
White's family and the community are torn apart by White's death. Amy Cagle had to tell her 5-year-old son that his father was killed coming home from work.
"He was a good man and a good father," Cagle said.
Police said somebody threw the large rock off of the Dodge Road overpass north of Flint, hitting the van White was riding home in from his construction job.
"For some senseless act, for it to be just a rock, just to take him so soon," Cagle said.
Before White and his friend came through the area on I-75, police said 20 rocks had already been thrown. Four other cars had pulled over, and drivers called 911.
"I just don't understand what a person could be thinking to even want to do something like that," said Alicia Waskoski, White's sister. "To know they're putting lives in danger by just throwing rocks over the interpass."
"We have a family here," Genesee County Undersheriff Chris Swanson said. "This guy's got a fiancee. He's got a child. He's on his way back from a hard day's work and out of the blue comes a rock and he loses his life."
"He took away a child's father, and the love of my life," Cagle said. "His stupid act took away a life."