FLINT, Mich. — Four Michigan teens charged with murder in a fatal rock-throwing incident have agreed to accept a lesser charge of manslaughter, an attorney said Monday.
The plea deal was disclosed in court, although no guilty pleas were immediately made. Attorney Jim Gust, who represents one of the four, said they're expected to spend some time in juvenile detention, not prison.
"None of the juveniles threw the rock that actually killed the man," Gust told The Associated Press. "Just young boys doing something stupid."
The boys, ages 15 to 17, were charged last fall with second-degree murder in the death of Kenneth White, who was in a van on Interstate 75 when a rock crashed through the windshield. That rock and many others were thrown from an I-75 overpass in Genesee County, north of Detroit.
A fifth teen, Kyle Anger, 18, is accused of throwing the rock that struck the van. He wasn't in court Monday.
"No matter what time they get, it's not going to bring back my son," White's mother, Theresa Simpson, said outside court. "I'm going to put it in my own son's words, Kenneth Andrew White: 'It is what it is.' I have to accept what's going on."
Gust predicts the four teens will return to court in 30 to 60 days.
