A Tillamook man will serve a year in prison for accidentally killing his best friend on a bowhunting trip near La Pine, ending a case that divided the victim’s family on whether the man responsible should go to prison.

Michael “Shawn” Pekarek, 55, appeared Monday in Deschutes County Circuit Court, where he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for releasing an arrow that struck and killed his hunting partner and longtime friend Jeffrey Lynn Cummings.

The Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office in September 2016 charged Pekarek with first-degree manslaughter — a Measure 11 offense with a steep automatic prison term — along with the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

The case dragged on for more than two years…