CANYON CITY – Dillan Dakota Easley, 15, was sentenced last week to remain in custody to age 25 for killing his foster father and another man in 2013.

Circuit Judge J. Burdette Pratt issued the sentence Wednesday, Dec. 17, after defense attorneys and state prosecutors reached a resolution in the case.

Easley had been accused of the juvenile equivalent of murder for the shootings on the night of Oct. 2, 2013, in a remote hunting cabin near Granite, in northeastern Grant County.

Police called to the scene found Michael Piete, 32, and his uncle, Kenneth Gilliland, 64, both of Baker City, dead at the scene.

Easley, accompanied by defense attorney Katherine Berger, appeared by video conference last week and admitted to two reduced charges of first-degree manslaughter. The charges are felonies that, for an adult, would bring a maximum of 20 years confinement.

Last week’s sentence also carries a maximum term of up to 20 years, but the law limits juvenile custody to age 25, which means Easley in effect faces about 10 years of confinement. He also was ordered to pay $11,652 to the state crime victim’s compensation program.

Earlier this year, prosecutors sought to get the case moved to adult court, where conviction could bring a longer sentence, but the defense team including Berger and Burns attorney John Lamborn prevailed. The court ruled the case would remain in the juvenile court system.

Once the decision was made that the case wouldn’t be moved to adult court, the prosecution’s options were limited, said Grant County District Attorney Ryan Joslin.

“The reality was even if we went to trial for murder, the potential sentence would be the same,” said Joslin, who worked with Dan Wendel, an Oregon assistant attorney general, on the case.

Easley, who was 14 at the time of the shootings, has been at the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections juvenile holding facility since the killings.

Pratt ordered him to the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority, and he is expected to be transferred to MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.

Relatives of the victim, in statements relayed by Ashley McClay of the Grant County Victims Assistance Program, expressed dismay at the outcome of the case. They felt the proceedings focused on Easley’s needs rather than the harm to their loved ones.

Bonnie Gentry, Gilliland’s sister and mother of Piete, told McClay she felt the decision was made because of the potential cost of a trial.

She also criticized the court for allowing Easley to appear for hearings by videoconference, rather than face them in person.

In a letter, Piete’s widow Carlotta, said she felt Easley would have killed everyone in the cabin if things had gone his way.

“I feel that you have no remorse,” she wrote. “I believe you are so broken you can’t be fixed.”

Pratt noted that during the hearings, he searched for “the why” but never got an answer.

“I suppose no one will every know why this happened,” he said, adding he could understand the family’s disappointment.

Pratt offered Easley a chance to speak at the hearing, but he declined.

According to testimony in early hearings, the shootings occurred at the family hunt cabin in the middle of the night, after Gilliland and Easley had arisen and stepped outside to relieve themselves.

The defense contended the boy was frightened by what looked like the reflection of wolf eyes in the darkness, and he began firing a gun he had taken along from the cabin.

Prosecutors differed, noting that the shots that killed Gilliland were not fired out into the woods but back at the cabin. The investigation indicated that Gilliland was killed first by the porch, and Piete was killed by subsequent shots fired from inside the cabin toward the loft where he had been sleeping.

As the shooting took place, another man in the hunt party fled and managed to get to a truck, driving away to call for help.

The boy initially ran from the cabin, but returned after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. Another man in the hunting party subdued him and duct-taped him to a chair until authorities arrived to investigate.