A Bloomington man who was accused of throwing a vise through the windshield of a moving car and injuring an Iraq war veteran will spend five years in prison after accepting a plea deal.
Gerret Parks, 40, pled guilty to one count of felony first-degree assault while the other property damage charges were dropped.
In late January, Parks threw the vise that broke the jaw of Jon Stacke as he was driving on Normandale Boulevard. While in court on Monday, Parks said he was extremely drunk at the time and barely remembered doing it.
Yet, the vice was far from the only object Parks was accused of throwing at moving vehicles in that area -- and investigators say the items got progressively more dangerous.
Investigators say Parks began with a gallon of water thrown out a driver's side window from the inside lane on Normandale Boulevard -- and a total of 14 drivers have reported similar situations between December and Parks' arrest. Among the items reported in those cases were rocks, bottles, wine, a 15-pound dumb bell, an anvil, a pipe, and -- of course -- the metal vise.
The charges against Parks in those cases were dropped after the plea agreement was accepted.
"The principal count that he plead guilty to, throwing a vise through a window of a car and breaking a man's jaw, that deserves 75 months," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said. "That's what he's getting and we think that's a just resolution."
Parks will be formally sentenced next week; however, the case against him in Wisconsin related to a drunken, high-speed police chase through St. Croix Falls, Wis., that occurred just hours after he was released from jail is still proceeding.
