Long Island man gets prison for tossing bricks on cars on Meadowbrook Parkway

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - A judge on Long Island sentenced a 21-year-old man to five years in prison for throwing a brick through the windshield of a car on the Meadowbrook Parkway in 2015. A passenger suffered permanent eye damage.

Last May, a jury convicted Jacob Palant, of Syosset, of assault, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief.

Palant and a co-defendant, Andrew Denton, tossed paving bricks and cinder blocks at cars from an overpass in Uniondale two different times on December 26, 2015, Nassau County prosecutors said. The first time, the bricks didn't hit any vehicles. But hours later, they threw more bricks onto the parkway, striking a BMW and a Jeep, the DA said.

The brick smashed through the BMW's windshield, shattering glass all over the car, prosecutors said. Shards of glass struck the driver, a 21-year-old man, and his passenger, his 23-year-old girlfriend. She sustained a permanent scar on her cornea and has blurry vision in that eye. The driver suffered a shoulder laceration.

"Jacob Palant and Andrew Denton endangered lives by throwing paving stones and cinderblocks at passing vehicles from a highway overpass," District Attorney Madeleine Singas said. "People could have been killed from this depraved behavior and it is a miracle that only one young woman suffered permanent injuries due to their actions."

The Jeep sustained about $5,000 in damages. The driver was not hurt.

Last year, a judge sentenced Denton, of East Meadow, to 10 years in prison. His lawyer said witnesses didn't tell the truth, the AP reported.

With the AP