Mom of Four Struck by Huge Rock During Road Trip Vacation
GRACE: Heart-breaking tragedy. A beloved teacher, breast cancer survivor, mother of four goes on summer vacation with the whole family when out of nowhere the car`s front windshield destroyed by a huge rock the size of a soccer ball, shattering mom, Sharon Budd`s face and head. Tonight we uncover this was just the tip of a crime spree iceberg.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keefer, what do you say about all this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no comment at this time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you had -- you said that you threw rocks before. I mean, what do you --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no comment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He told the court, quote, "We were all laughing thinking it was funny. We laughed, tossed out rocks and drove home."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very malicious, violent.</s>GRACE: In the last hours we learn one of the perpetrators is testifying against the others, I guess trying to save his own skin. Listen to the injuries on this mother. I`m talking about a mom of four, Sharon Budd, middle school teacher, breast cancer survivor. On a family vacation, she loses sight in the right eye, has already undergone two surgeries, one which saved her life. She is looking at a complete restructuring of her skull with man-made material. They`re going to have to try and put together her face, what was once her face. It goes on and on. She`s speaking through a trach right now or breathing through a trach. Straight out to Sarah Bartlett with WKOK. Sarah, how did this whole thing happen?</s>SARAH BARTLETT, REPORTER, WKOK: Nancy, it started when we heard that a rock was thrown off an overpass. And once we heard about Sharon`s injuries we realized that this was much more serious than we thought. Now we have four 17- and 18-year-old boys who admit that they threw the rock over the overpass.</s>GRACE: Now Keefer McGee is apparently testifying against the other two. This is what the father, Randi Budd, tells us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were all awake. And all of a sudden it`s as if somebody would have put a grenade in that car, that`s what it sounded like. I mean it just was an explosion. And none of us. We didn`t know what happened. I looked up and just saw a big, big hole in the windshield. I still didn`t know -- my daughter started screaming. She goes, dad, what should I do? What happened? And I said -- and so I talked to her over to the side of the highway. We came to a stop. She turned the lights on and saw her mom`s head sideways and saw the most gruesome thing that probably anybody could ever see with her head split open with her base of her skull and her brains visible. Kayley screamed and ran from the car. I immediately ran around to the car to see what she saw. And oh, my god, it was gruesome. I called 911 immediately. Kayley, she`s so strong. She came right back in. So I was -- I was on the passenger side. Kayley climbed in in the driver side and we just -- we just held her hand. That`s what we thought at the time when she was just bleeding out. There was blood coming out of her nose, her mouth, her brain. And then she came to. And when I mean came to she started moving. And she was just moving all over the place and trying to grab at her face. I don`t know if she remembers it. We were trying to keep her hands down so she didn`t injure it more. And then she started -- she started gurgling in her own blood. And we just kept waiting and waiting for the ambulance. The only way she could breathe was through her brain.</s>GRACE: To Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner, forensic pathologist joining us out of Philly tonight. Dr. Manion, they spent a large amount of time cleaning pieces off her skull that were jutting out of her brain. They had to actually remove a portion of this mother of four schoolteacher brain. They`re having to replace her whole skull with a man-made skull. Can she ever -- can she ever make a comeback, Dr. Manion?</s>DR. BILL MANION, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ: Well, frankly I`m surprised she lived. I mean, there are so many blood vessels, arteries, middle</s>GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Jeff Gold, New York, Patrick McDonough, Atlanta. First to you, McDonough. They`re of course being charged as adults as they should be. They`re 17- and 18 years old. But you know the law presumes you intend the natural consequences of your act. I once told my juries, what that means is, I take a piece of fine China. I throw it to the cement floor. The law presumes I mean to break it. So when you throw a boulder the size of a soccer ball off an overpass onto a car, the law assumes you mean to injure someone. What about it?</s>PATRICK MCDONOUGH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. Sure. This was a tragic event. But according to you, everybody`s the same.</s>GRACE: So tragic an event it`s a crime.</s>MCDONOUGH: All four are equally the same. And you`ve got one of these co- defendants, one of these kids that wasn`t even out of the car when this took place. There`s no information or evidence that says they all got together and said let`s take this boulder and drop it off. You`ve got one kid that did that.</s>GRACE: Wait, wait.</s>MCDONOUGH: One of the kids isn`t even out of the car.</s>GRACE: What do you mean there`s no evidence they didn`t all plan it? Also with us is Clark Goldband. Now this is a 4 to 8-pound boulder the size of a soccer ball. Weren`t they all on the overpass, Clark?</s>CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Size of a cantaloupe, Nancy. It`s not clear who was in and out of the car. It really depends who you believe. In fact, Nancy, one of the kids`s attorneys that`s charged say he shouldn`t be facing any charges because he never actually got out of the vehicle. What`s interesting is how these suspects were caught.</s>GRACE: You mean out of the vehicle on the overpass? What?</s>GOLDBAND: Correct.</s>GRACE: In other words he`s behind the wheel as the other three throw the boulder over? You know, Clark, I`m actually surprised that you even repeated that.</s>GOLDBAND: But, Nancy, what`s interesting is how these kids got caught.</s>GRACE: Why do you keep saying kids? They`re 18. They`re being tried as adults. This was part of a crime spree.</s>GOLDBAND: Yes. Yes. OK. How these suspects got caught, Nancy, they went back to a home, started to watch a movie. But then they went back to the scene not once but twice according to authorities. And when police noticed the second time a car driving slowly, an officer took down the license plate and then went to the home. That`s how he tracked them down.