Man convicted in rock-toss that hurt teacher Sharon Budd nears release

One of four young men convicted of leaving a teacher with brain damage after a rock they threw from an overpass hit her in the head is set to be released from jail after just two years.

Brett Lahr, 21, could leave Smithfield state prison in Pennsylvania this week after completing the minimum of his 18-month to 20-year sentence for causing life changing injuries to Sharon Budd in 2014.

One of his co-defendants, Keefer McGee, was granted parole last month after serving 11-and-a-half months in jail. 

The other two defendants, Dylan Lahr and Tyler Porter, are still serving their sentences.

The friends were arrested in July 2014 after dropping a heavy rock from an overpass onto a darkened central Pennsylvania interstate.

The 4.6-pound rock smashed through the front windshield of a car passing below, landing directly on the head of Budd, a middle school language arts teacher from Uniontown, Ohio, on her way to see a show in New York.

Budd, 54, a passenger in the vehicle driven by her daughter, suffered massive head injuries and lost an eye.

She has undergone numerous surgeries and facial reconstructive operations but has been left disfigured and brain damaged by the 'prank.'

Doctors used a piece of skull to create a bridge between her eyes and removed part of the intact parts of her skull to account for swelling. 

Buss, who is also a breast cancer survivor, has not yet been able to return to teaching.

Her husband and primary caretaker Randy Budd, shot and killed himself at his Uniontown, Ohio, home a couple weeks before McGee was paroled in August.

He had previously called his wife's injuries 'a lifelong sentence for Sharon.'

'We have four children,' Randy Budd said. 'They always went to Sharon. Now they come to me. Sharon always took care of them. Now they take care of Sharon.' 

A Pennsylvania judge ordered Dylan Lahr - who had dropped the rock that injured Budd - to serve four-and-a-half years, Porter a year and ten months and Keefer McGee 11 and a half months for the attack. Dylan's brother Brett Lahr was given 18-months.

During their trial, McGee said he, Porter and Dylan Lahr had stole steaks from a grocery store and played video games before deciding to 'smash mailboxes, throw rocks at cars, just go out and be bad.'

Dylan's brother Brett Lahr, joined them after getting off work at a sandwich shop.

McGee said they first drove two vehicles through a corn field, causing what the farmer said was less than $100 in damage, and Dylan Lahr smashed windows in a home with a baseball bat before he stopped his vehicle on the overpass.

He said Dylan Lahr and Porter had jumped out of his car at the overpass on Interstate 80, armed with rocks they had collected earlier.

'I knew they were going to throw rocks, but never thought they were going to hurt anyone as they did it,' McGee said.

In court records, Porter has been quoted as saying he dropped a rock but didn't hit anything, but Dylan Lahr struck a vehicle.

McGee testified that the rock made a 'really loud crash' when it hit Budd's Nissan Rogue. He wiped away tears before recalling how they all laughed as they drove away.

'They weren't looking for a car to hit in particular,' said McGee, who told the judge he had been involved in unspecified earlier rock-throwing incidents. 'Like, they weren't waiting for one. They hit one as they saw it.'

He drove them back to the Lahr home, where they began to watch a movie before deciding to return to the scene to see what happened — twice. During one of those trips, an alert police officer noted their license plate, leading investigators to the four.

Dylan Lahr had apologized to his vicitm in court, and asked Budd directly for forgiveness.

'I'm sorry, Sharon,' Lahr said. 'I feel horrible for what has happened and for what you and your family had to go through.'

Porter said he was sorry and that he wished every day the attack had not occurred.

Following the devastating incident, the victim's husband Randy Budd, 55, began a campaign to increase safety fencing on interstate overpasses.

But this summer, it appeared to become all too much for the father-of-four who took his own life.

Police found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on August 6, after he texted several family members telling them he loved them and made several phone calls to his brother, Harry Campbell, chief investigator for the Stark County Coroner's Office, told People.

He had also sent a message to Pennsylvania state Sen. Gene Yaw urging him to 'please' pass legislation to require fencing on highway overpasses.

Randy had been alone with his wife Sharon Budd when he shot himself.

Union County District Attorney D. Peter Johnson said that Randy was as much a victim of the four teens who injured his wife. 

'Randy Budd did not die from a gunshot,' Johnson charged. 'He died when those kids threw a rock through his windshield.'