A North Georgia man who made off to Florida after allegedly placing his 6-month-old son in an Alabama hotel room freezer now faces a charge of murder in the baby’s death.
Carlton James Mathis, 28, of Gainesville, is currently being held in a Florida jail on charges stemming from his June 4 arrest, when authorities said he attempted to run and was shot four times by SWAT officers. When he is released, he’ll be arrested in Dothan, Ala., in connection with his son’s murder, police said Tuesday.
Both Mathis and the child’s mother, Amanda Gail Oakes, 36, of Murrayville, were previously charged with abuse of a corpse after investigators found the body of Carlton James Oakes in a freezer at the Dothan InTown Suites.
Credit: Dothan Police Department
Credit: Dothan Police Department
The body had been there five or six days, according to police.
They were arrested outside a Bronson, Fla., apartment after a standoff with SWAT, marking the end of a multistate manhunt that began three days earlier in Hall County. Hall sheriff’s deputies were tipped off that the couple was staying in the Dothan area and it was possible their son was dead.
MORE: Georgia man accused of killing baby, shot by Florida SWAT officers
Once in police custody, Mathis and Oakes provided investigators with information that led them back to the Dothan hotel, and the baby’s body was discovered.
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Police have not released the 6-month-old’s cause of death.
Oakes also faces a charge of manslaughter and is being held in the Houston County, Ala., jail. Her bond is set at $400,000.
MORE: Georgia mother charged with manslaughter in death of baby found in hotel freezer
Dothan police Lt. Lynn Watkins said it will be up to a judge to decide if Mathis will be extradited to Alabama or if his Florida charges will be disposed first, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
A Florida judge set Mathis’ bond at $1 million on charges of assault, drug possession, weapon possession by a convicted felon and child neglect.
Dothan police have placed a hold on Mathis, and he will not be granted bond on the murder charge, according to authorities.
In addition to his charges in Alabama and Florida, Mathis is also a person of interest in a gas station robbery, Hall County sheriff’s deputies told Channel 2 Action News. He is wanted there for allegedly violating his probation, officials said.
