Newsday.com

An East Meadow man who threw a 10-to-15-pound stereo out the window of a moving car, striking a teenage boy and causing him to lose his spleen, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday.

Christopher Criswell, 22, and three friends were returning from a pickup football game in a nearby East Meadow park on Oct. 24 when he tossed the metal-encased detachable car stereo out the window - hitting the 16-year-old victim, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Criswell pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on Feb. 27. Judge Susan T. Kluewer sentenced Criswell Monday.

Rice said that during the attack Criswell took the car stereo and threw it at two boys, hitting the 16-year-old in the back as he stopped his bicycle to take a call on his cell phone.

The victim collapsed to the ground before eventually making it home and then to the hospital, Rice said. At the hospital he was discovered to have a ruptured spleen, and it was removed during surgery, Rice said in a prepared statement.

Without a spleen, the body's immune system is significantly compromised.

Rice said Criswell told investigators in a statement that he threw the stereo as "a goof."

"A young boy is permanently injured because a grown man decided it would be fun to hurt him," Rice said. "Hopefully Mr. Criswell will use the next two years to turn his life around."


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i'll be honest, i am surprised he got the sentence he did.

not that he didn't deserve it - i wasn't there.