Arrest made in I-5 rock throwing case
SUTHERLIN, Ore. -- A Sutherlin teen is behind bars after state troopers said he was involved in the November rock throwing incident that injured two University of Oregon students.
Oregon State Police troopers said on November 26, 2012, at about 10:40 p.m., Molly Grabill, 20, of Poway, Calif., and her passenger, Chris Brewer, 19, of Vista, Calif., were driving northbound on I-5 when a rock hit their car. Troopers said the rock was larger than a baseball.
Authorities said it was thrown from the overpass at Isadore Road.
Grabill, who was driving, was hit in the face and sustained serious injures.
Brewer grabbed the steering wheel but was unable to keep the car under control as it traveled onto the shoulder and rolled on the freeway. It came to a rest facing the opposite direction.
Detectives from OSP say the investigation and tips from the public led them to Sutherlin teen Matthew Logan McKinney, 19. Authorities say they arrested McKinney at his home following a meeting with detectives.
McKinney was taken to the Douglas County Jail and was charged with second and fourth degree assault, as well as throwing an object off an overpass, among others.
State police said other arrests are pending.
Grabill is a student athlete at the UO. After the incident, university athletic director Rob Mullens urged people with information about the case to contact police.
Root cause. Â We need to look at his upbringing. Â Who are his parents. Â I have to tell you, baby boomers have done a terrible job bringing up the next generation and managing the country. Â Now we will have to live with this mess for at least a generation; that is if America can survive as a super power for that long.
Hi sentencing should include. Getting into a car with officefs support, having the vehicle locked down with him in it. and then having the car remoty controlled ,drive under 10 under passes that are modles of those on I5 and then at some point hurle a rock at him..tbis also can be done via VR if he is placed on hypnotics.it would seem so real he would soil hiself.
Hopefully with a little jail time someone re-arranges his face like he did the victims face. That is just for starters. Little POS. Lucky no one got killed. White piece of trash.
Whoa hey not Hispanic or black.  What the deuce man?!
i wonder what kind of punishment ,can be put upon this idiot and who ever else was involved? life in prison without parole ? no ,that won,t work for him, because some bleeding heart lawyer will get him of on a plea bargain. something severe needs to happen the them. hope they get a judge with some big kahooneys
 @onabudget Make them shovel manure literally, until they pay off the damages.
@onabudget
Â
I doubt he was throwing rocks off the overpass by himself. Â Perhaps a group of 19 year old boys? Â Hmm, I wonder who tipped of the police....
Second degree assaault?
Â
A rock falling from an overpass and hitting a vehicle going 60mph probably has the same relative collision energy as a small caliber handgun round. How about attempted murder?
I wonder how much he understands about the power of physics that played into this crime. A car, going 75 mph, having a projectile thrown at it, equates into quite the "missile". He's needing some real education on how he could have killed either one or both people in that car!Â
I hope he sings like a jailbird, and tells all about who else was on that overpass with him.Â
Great job on the part of LE! And glad that people stepped up and helped out by reporting. Hopefully this will teach some people a lesson. Perhaps get the word out that this is a stupid and criminal act!
Â
Â
Hooray for the detectives!!!!!! I hope the judge throws the book at this little troglodyte.
Why isn't he charged with attempted murder? Â At least he is an adult and will be tried as one. Â If he was a juvenile, he would have his hands slapped and that would be it. Â It's time to set an example even though the do-gooders don't believe in punishing criminals.
You can't fix stupid. ' Nuf said......
He's missing the bolts on his neck.
As part of his sentence, he should have to pay for the fence protecting the overpass! There are usually fences along the overpasses in the Portland/Salem stretch of I-5.
I hope they throw the book at him and it's going 75mph. Loser needs his world rocked in prison.
I guess it's a felony in Oregon to throw anything from an over-pass so he should get the harshest penalty by law and have to do some serious community work like maybe 1000 hrs.
Sutherlin. That about says it all.
This comment has been deleted
 @RandyH Maybe, maybe not. But we can spell here and we understand the civic and social responsibility of  tolerance. Some of us, anyway.
 @Old29  @RandyH Say that to the nightly gang shootings all over Portland and pedestrians getting killed on the streets by other drivers every day. I'll stay across the river to live and just come over to work. I was born in Portland but... isn't where I'd want to raise my kids. Least not within city limits.
O those Ducks
 @oodathunked What? He's not a Duck. He's just a 19 year old punk. It was the young lady that is an athlete at U of O. She was the victim of this loser's stupid stunt.
Another "too dumb to be allow out in public" person. Too bad there is no "too stupid law". He should be charged with 2 counts of attempted murder also. This moron needs life without parole cause we are going to be spending millions on him as he does stupid stuff through his life and we have to haul his ass back to court, lawyers and jail every time he gets out of prison. Save the taxpayers money and harm and keep him in.
You'd think he'd be too tired to throw rocks after holding up that big head all day. Kudos to the detectives.
 @PDX_Fanatic Well, what else was he going to do after dropping out of high school and running out of money for pot and meth?
Mom and dad are also aunt and uncle?
 @RalphCramdenÂ
Â
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H-OD6CFoDI
Â
Â
;^)
@RalphCramden Is that even possible?
 @Oregon7812    If siblings marry and produce offspring, they would be both mother and father, and aunt and uncle to the children. Repulsive.
<Blatant sarcasm mode *On*>
We need to work up a commission which would in turn appoint a committee to thrash out a referendum for the next ballot: we must ban rocks near roads and highways! Random rocks falling for whatever reason MUST BE DECLARED ILLEGAL!
<mode *Off*>
 @Jumpin' Jehosophat and those killer trees within 100' of a roadway that keep crushing people and vehicles.
@32jim2 @Jumpin' Jehosophat 1001...
 @Jumpin' Jehosophat Congrats on being the 1,000th person here to make this tired and uninspired "joke".
@Scorcho @Jumpin' Jehosophat Way more than a piddly 1,000. This joke is so tired it long ago ceased to be funny. Actually, it never was funny. Not really a joke, either. Just an insipid comment.
"State police said other arrests are pending." Will they all face the same charges? Because others were apparently involved, it appears that there is rampant stupidity and immaturity among the young "men" of Sutherlin.
Throwing rocks at that age? Rather juvenile behavior it seems to me. Something a little kid who didn't know any better would do. What a jerk.
What a punk. The look on his face says it all - no remorse or anything. Lock him up for a long time.
Student athlete? I don't think throwing rocks that could possibly kill someone is going to look good to the coach or the School, But I guess that will be the least of his problems. He must have rocks in his head too.
 @Pointblank The driver is the student athlete.Â
 @Pointblank Not sure what you're saying here but it sounds like you think the guy that threw the rock is the student athlete. It's the girl driving the car that is the student athlete. Check out the pictures and you'll see.
future bubba in training
"was charged with second and fourth degree assault, as well as throwing an object off an overpass, among others"
Â
How about "attempted manslaughter"? Â WTH did he think the result of his actions would be? Â Any reasonable person would understand the consequences and you can bet that he did to. Â He did it because he was ticked off at/about something or somebody at the time and was acting out. Â This is no different than shooting randomly at passing cars with any other form of deadly weapon.
@negativerep There is no such crime. If you try to kill someone, it is attempted murder. If you do kill someone through negligence, it is manslaughter. You cannot attempt to kill someone by accident.
 @Mechanic Good point.  Thanks for the correction.  I guess "murder" carries the implication of intent and it probably wasn't the intent of the dumb-a to kill anybody.  It seems like there needs to be a harsher charge somewhere between aggr. assault and flat out attempted murder.
What a pathetic example of a human. Hopefully he will be kicked off his sports team for this behavior. Has this moron no idea of how horrific his actions were? He is so lucky he didn't kill someone. He is a fine example of white trash!
 @wondering He's not the student athlete. It's the girl that is the student athlete. He's just a punk.
@scoreboard @wondering I think he plays for the local church softball team. Wondering is hoping he is kicked off that team.
Remove him from the civilized world. Execute him. Society needs to stop this downward spiral and get tough on violent crime.
This comment has been deleted
@gunnutz Double check the wording and spelling. Please! "Execute," rather than "executing." "Ridiculous" rather than "rediculous."
@gunnutz No it's not! When people know that a death penalty will result if they are caught, they curb their tendencies to commit the crime. It's a clinical fact. In Singapore, if you spit gum onto the sidewalk or disgard trash, you go to prison for one year, no time off for good behavior. Guess what, you don't see trashy streets and gum on the sidewalks. It works. Stiffer penalties are needed in all aspects of the criminal justice system.
 @Oregon7812 Hands and feet Tide?
@Mechanic What punishments are a good detergent to crime?
@None There are no "clinical facts" that show the death penalty is a deterrence to crime.
@Jumpin' Jehosophat @None Your assertion is mostly correct. The severity of the punishment does have some DETERRENT effect (not "deterant"), but it is the probablility of punishment that is the greater factor. And again, the spelling should be "ridiculous."
 @None Fear of a death penalty has never been an effective deterant. Yes, it's a good way to ensure that person doesn't recommit, but the OP posted a rediculous statement, indeed
@scared_citizen Raise taxes (Bond measures maybe) to build more prisons. Stop giving the inmates cable tv would be a good start and start treating them like prisonors would make prison not so much "easy time".
@None  The reason that they can afford this in Singapore is that they treat the prisoners differently and spen significantly less on housing them. From what I have read, we already have the highest per capita # of incarcerated people in the world. I dont know what the answer is but we have to do something.