ATLANTA, April 5 (UPI) -- The man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a former Atlanta Braves pitcher in 1995 has been released after serving 17 years of a 27-year sentence.
Neal Evans, 47, had pleaded guilty in 1997 to second-degree murder in the death of Dave Shotkoski, who was a replacement player for the Braves during the major-league strike when he was fatally shot in West Palm Beach, Fla., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Shotkoski, who was 30, was shot on a street as he walked back to the team's hotel after dinner in West Palm Beach, where the Braves had spring training.
Shotkoski's widow, Felicia Shotkoski, expressed shock Evans was released.
"He should have been in prison for 27 years to protect everyone that is still here," she said by telephone from Chicago, where she works. "I can't change it. But what I can try and do is protect other people from going through what we went through. This is just plain wrong."
Evans had originally faced the death penalty and after his first trial ended in a hung jury, prosecutors made a deal with him.
"The inmate reached the end of his sentence according to Florida Statutes in place at the time his offense was committed," the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement Wednesday. Evans is now under community supervision for nearly 10 years.
Felicia Shotkoski said her husband knew he would be a replacement player for only a few weeks and had hoped the role might lead to a minor-league coaching job eventually.
The couple, who had been high school sweethearts in Illinois, had an 8-month-old daughter, Alexis, at the time of his death.
Evans has been in Florida prisons seven times since 1988, when he was 23, the Journal-Constitution said.
