Back in June of 2009, I posted that Zachary Neagle had become a client. He was charged with murder – having shot his father in the head as he was asleep on a couch in their home. The case presented the ultimate challenge; convincing folks that Zach killed his father to protect his younger brother and sister from the sexual assaults he had been subjected to. Zach was charged as an adult, but the picture shows just how juvenile he was, wrapped in chains and clad in a yellow jumpsuit. He was just a kid.

Idaho law provided that if Zach went to trial and lost – a jury not believing he had to kill to protect his siblings – he would serve a life sentence in an adult prison. Ultimately we settled the case for a blended sentence that placed Zach with Idaho Juvenile Corrections. He plead guilty to manslaughter. If he did well in Juvenile Corrections, he had a chance to avoid adult prison and could be placed on adult probation.

As I noted in January of 2011, Zach was working hard in the Juvenile Corrections world to build a life. He was going to school, and working on the skills he would need to re-enter the world. I hoped someday he would leave confinement and be free – at least free of jails, prisons or corrections centers.

August 1st was my birthday, and it was the day Zach ended his time in juvenile corrections and began adult probation as part of his sentence. I would like to report that the transition to real life (albeit on probation) has been seamless, but it has not. It may take some time. He has a good job, has supporters who care and love him, and he has a chance. But he has to work at this. Any mistake could land him in jail or worse, adult prison, the very place we have been trying to avoid since Charles Crafts called me that June day more than five years ago. 

Since so many of you call, ask and write, I wanted to report that he is making it. So far. 

Now he needs to work at staying free. He needs to fly right and stay out of any trouble.