When Heather Zielinski read a statement Monday afternoon about the shooting death last year of her son, Darius Washington, the words were her grandson’s, not her own.
“I’m sad because he didn’t deserve it,” she read from the 7-year-old’s photocopied printing, which went on to say that the boy still prays for Darius’ return but suspects he is now with a great-grandmother who recently died.
Judge Eric Allen Marks listened to that statement as well as brief comments from lawyers in Lucas County Common Pleas Court before sentencing Pete Wheatley, Jr., 20, to an agreed-upon 24 years for convictions arising from the June 22, 2025, shooting at a house in the 5800 block of Dixon Road…