As soon as they heard the news of Radonjić's dealings in Kotor, the chieftains called for an urgent council to decide what was to be done with him. Radonjić faced the chieftains on . He was divested of power, stripped of all his titles, and his gubernatorial seal (a symbol of his office) was taken away from him. At noon, the council decided that he was guilty of treason and condemned him to death by firing squad alongside his brother Marko, a co-conspirator. Radonjić had failed to win over the chieftains; historian Barbara Jelavich asserts that the vast majority of chiefs backed the Petrovićes solely because they saw an ecclesiastical leader like Njegoš as posing less of a threat to their own power. The chieftains later wrote a report to Gagić explaining that Radonjić and his brother would be shot because " dared to make secret arrangements with the imperialists to surrender the independence of Montenegro to Austria." The other Radonjićes were to be forced into exile. Several weeks later, Njegoš commuted Radonjić's sentence in a well-timed display of clemency, first to life imprisonment and then to exile. Radonjić's youngest brother, Djuzo, was not as fortunate; he was ambushed by a close friend on the day of his family's "slava" (patron saint day) and killed. Many of the other Radonjićes also met violent ends, either being killed in raids or driven out with their families after their villages were torched. By 1831, Milutinović (now Njegoš's personal secretary) was also forced into exile after entering into a disagreement with the young "vladika". In the weeks before he forced him into exile, Njegoš had become very critical of his old mentor and frequently pointed out his shortcomings before others. Milutinović was given permission to return shortly afterwards on the understanding that their relationship would be on the young man's terms. Djilas suggests that this episode occurred because Milutinović had "taken liberties" trying to influence Njegoš's decisions during his early days on the throne.