GUILTY TN - Lucas Dillon, 5, dies of blunt force trauma, Whitwell, 27 March 2015

On a beautiful spring day before Easter when children across the country were hunting for Easter Eggs, one little boy was laid to rest.Hundreds of people holding hundreds of blue balloons lined Morrison Spring Road in Whitwell following his funeral at Whitwell Memorial Funeral Home.

His classmate and friend Gabriel Ross came up with the idea and his mother took it from there.

"He asked me if he could write a letter to his friend. Then he asked me how we could send it to him and I told him we could put it on a balloon and send it to him," said Gabriel's mother Keilli Ross. "He wanted all his friends to get together and it just escalated from there to this. And we are so grateful for the community to do this for him and to have him say goodbye to his friend."

Over five hundred balloons were donated from a local Wal-Mart and Ingles. Friends and teachers of Lucas's arranged the donations and balloon release.

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Early autopsy results indicated the boy died of "blunt force trauma" to his head, and the investigation was upgraded from a death investigation to a homicide investigation, authorities said.

"We're still awaiting the full and final autopsy report," DeVine said. "At this point, however, I don't have any additional detail I'm able to offer."..
12th Judicial District Attorney General Mike Taylor said the full autopsy report will dictate the next steps in the case.

"I really don't know why it's taking so long. It seems like when you're dealing with children, it takes longer," Taylor said...

Taylor said TBI agents have been conducting interviews with anyone who had access to Lucas 24 to 48 hours before his injury.

"As far as I know, they have interviewed everybody who had contact with him," he said. That includes Lucas' father and his father's fianceé.

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It was a Saturday in March 2015 when Michael picked up his son, Nathan, to take him to work at Westrock in Jasper and left little Lucas Dillon with Nathan's girlfriend, Holly Rutledge...

On Monday, a Marion County grand jury indicted Rutledge on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. She was arrested Friday by the Whitwell Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

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[Mother] Jessica and her sister Whitney say they had a feeling something wasn't right from the beginning.

"It was a different story like every week. At first she was trying to say he took a nap and just didn't wake up from it. But he's not taken a nap since he was 2 years old and no child takes a nap at 9 o'clock in the morning," said Whitney Van Hoosier.

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Holly Rutledge was 30 when she was arrested on Feb, 5, 2016, on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Lucas Dillon. The jury began deliberations Thursday night and reached a verdict mid-afternoon Friday. She was not found guilty on the first-degree murder charge.

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A Whitwell, Tenn., woman convicted of reckless homicide and aggravated assault in the 2015 beating death of a 5-year-old boy was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.

"Obviously, nothing the court does can change what happened to Lucas, but we're very satisfied with the judge's ruling in imposing the sentence," Strain said Tuesday.

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