LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A man pleaded guilty in a road rage shooting on Interstate 65 that left a young girl paralyzed two years ago.
Onyx Sands was in the backseat of her father's car when she was shot July 10, 2023. It was just two days after her 6th birthday.
Onyx is paralyzed from the waist down and gets around in her pink wheelchair. This week, her family is finally seeing some progress in the case.
Jonathan Rivera pleaded guilty to complicity to wanton endangerment. He agreed to testify against Shelby Bisconer and Edward Sark, who are also charged in the case.
"I get in trouble and I have to pay consequences," Onyx Sands said. "So when adults get in trouble, they need to face consequences, too."
Bisconer and Sark are expected to go on trial in September. Rivera's sentencing is set for October.
Chyna Sands believes the people responsible for forever changing the course of her daughter's life deserve major consequences.
"They need to go to jail for life," she said. "Or let's put them in there until my baby starts walking again. I would like to know that their tomorrow, their next week and their next month looks like them sitting and thinking about what they've done to my child."
Onyx has come a long way since that fateful day. She can get in and out of her wheelchair on her own and she just started third grade.
"I'm still 'Onyx Strong,'" she said.
She loves coloring and playing with her classmates. However, years later, she still has complications from the shooting. Her mother said she was in the hospital for the first two days of school.
"... due to an illness that came secondary from her injury," Chyna Sands said. "We get hit with things all the time but we keep rolling."
Just like the gemstone she's named after, Onyx is resilient and shines bright through it all. She hasn't lost her bubbly personality or infectious smile.
"I feel like it makes me happy," she said. "It's a good name for me because I am strong."
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