Nicholas "Nicko" Tijerina exits the 139th District Court after watching Dustin Wesley Cook receive three years of supervised release after pleading no contest to criminal negligence charges Monday Feb. 4, 2014 at the 139th District Court in the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg. Cook accidentally, but negligible shot Edson Amaro and Nicholas Tijerina at Harwell Middle School when playing basketball outside the campus on Dec. 12, 2011. Photo by Gabe Hernandez/[email protected] The Monitor
Dustin Wesley Cook, 38, was spared jail time and will instead serve three years of supervised release after pleading no contest to criminal negligence charges during an emotional court hearing Monday morning. Cook, an Edinburg marksman, was target shooting toward the school from about a mile away when he struck the boys Dec. 12, 2011. The gunshots left Nicholas “Nicko” Tijerina, then 13, paralyzed and Edson Amaro, then 14, with serious internal organ damage. Nicko and his mother, who moved to Houston after the shooting, returned to face Cook in court with other family members. Edson, who still suffers ongoing physical problems from the shooting, woke up in too much pain to appear, said Assistant District Attorney Gracie Reyna. Cook was remorseful as he met the Tijerinas for the first time before the courtroom and publicly apologized. “I’ve spent the last two years praying for you to recover, as well as Edson,” he told Nicko. “I understand your anger and your frustration and I read about a year ago in the newspaper where you had mentioned (me not) reaching out. I tried since day one, but I couldn’t because of the case. “If I could go back, 1,000 times, I would.” In a statement emailed to the media after the hearing, Cook reiterated his apology but maintained that he had been neither reckless nor negligent in the shooting. The Tijerina and Amaro families both have separate civil lawsuits pending against him, seeking monetary damages.
He should go to jail for ten years for that stubborn refusal to admit his fault. How dare he maintain that he was neither reckless nor negligent?
