WATCH:
EAGLE — A 14-year-old boy will spend 10 years behind bars after pleading guilty to killing his father and trying to conceal the slaying for six days by keeping the body at home and telling the man’s employer he was sick.
The boy entered the plea Tuesday under a deal with prosecutors and will be sentenced Thursday, The Vail Daily reported.
He will serve seven years in youth prison before entering adult prison on his 21st birthday to serve the last three years of his sentence.
Investigators say the teen was 13 when he shot his 50-year-old father twice in the head with a rifle on or around April 30, when the man was scheduled to meet with a sheriff’s deputy investigating a graffiti case involving the teen.
The father didn’t show up for the meeting or work. The son called his father’s boss for several days to say he was sick, but the employer became suspicious and alerted authorities.
When deputies arrived at the home, the boy answered the door and told them his father was dead inside.
His father was shot twice in the head with a .22 caliber rifle, once in the back of the head and again with the gun’s muzzle against his father’s temple, said Eagle County Coroner Kara Bettis.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, the teen sat quietly and answered questions from Judge Fred Gannett to make sure the teen knew what he was agreeing to.
After the proceedings, the boy smiled softly when his mother, who was divorced from the father, was allowed to sit beside him at the defendant’s table to talk before he was taken back into detention.
The boy celebrated his 14th birthday in juvenile prison.
The boy’s grandparents — his father’s parents — objected to the sentence, saying it was too harsh, attorney Ann Roan said.
He will be sentenced officially at 9 a.m. Thursday in Gannett’s courtroom.
