NELSONVILLE – Jessica Pyke is feeling relief for the first time in almost three months.
On Tuesday, a 14-year-old Nelsonville boy pleaded guilty in Athens County Juvenile Court for recklessly killing Pyke s firstborn son while playing with a gun.
Eli Spangler was 11, when he was shot and killed on March 6.
On Monday, Pyke was sitting on her front porch, fidgeting with a cigarette and unable to wrap her mind around the fact that someone had finally been charged in Eli s death after weeks without answers.
Less than a day later, she watched as the friend who shot her son pleaded guilty in Judge Zach Saunders courtroom. The boy s father, Donald Platt, who was home the night Eli was killed, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, tampering with evidence and child endangerment, both third-degree felonies, according to the Athens County Prosecutor s Office.