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Man who threw rock at driver gets prison Benyam Samuel Broeckel Saturday Feb 25, 2017 at 3:29 PM Feb 25, 2017 at 3:31 PM Nick Morgan Mail Tribune @mtcrimebeat A Medford man was sentenced to more than 4½ years in prison after admitting he injured a driver by throwing a rock at her car as she drove by. Benyam Samuel Broeckel, 28, avoided a mandatory minimum Measure 11 sentence after pleading guilty Friday to a felony assault charge in Jackson County Circuit Court, admitting he threw a large rock at an unsuspecting driver along West Main Street, injuring the victim after the rock struck her head. At about 8:15 the morning of Dec. 15, Broeckel had reportedly been yelling, pounding on vehicle windows and causing disturbances near West Medford businesses in the minutes leading up to the woman's injury. Broeckel had been throwing rocks at the Wells Fargo branch in the 2100 block of West Main Street before throwing the large rock at the woman's windshield while she was driving eastbound on the road. The victim declined to appear at the hearing, but gave prosecutors a letter, according to Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Lull. The rock went through the windshield, struck the right side of her face and hit the vehicle's back glass, according to the letter. In the letter, the victim said she lost work undergoing medical appointments related to the attack, including stitches on her ear and CT scans checking for brain injury. Two months after the attack, the victim said she still has pain in her inner ear, nose and throat, and doctors tell her the pain could linger for as long as a year.  A more difficult impact was a less tangible one. "I had to explain to my children why this would would happen to me," the letter said. Broeckel declined to make a statement prior to sentencing. After entering Broeckel's guilty plea for felony second-degree assault, Circuit Court Judge Philip Arnold sentenced him to the agreed-upon 56 months in the Oregon Department of Corrections.  Lull said the crime was taken out of Measure 11 sentencing — calling for 70 months — after getting approval from the victim.  — Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MTCrimeBeat.