The parents of a six-month-old Hall County boy found dead in a hotel in Dothan, Alabama on Monday are facing charges in the infant's death.
For now, Carlton James Mathis, 28, and Amanda Gail Oakes, 36, of Murrayville, are charged with abuse of a corpse, but those charges could be upgraded to murder, according to Dothan Police Lt. Lynn Watkins. The baby's body has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science in Montgomery for autopsy to determine the cause of death. Watkins said results could be available as soon as Wednesday.
Dothan police give timeline of the incident
Watkins said in a phone interview with AccessWDUN the case actually began to unfold on Friday, June 1 when Dothan police were notified by the Hall County Sheriff's Office that Mathis and Oakes might be in Alabama with their infant son, identified as Curtis James Oakes.
"They had information that the child was possibly deceased," Watkins said. "That was mainly all the information they could give us."
Watkins said officers with the Dothan Police Department were unable to locate Mathis and Oakes in their area, but they got information the pair might have traveled to Florida.
"We passed that information along to Florida law enforcement in hopes of making contact with those two and the child," Watkins said.
Watkins said early on Monday morning, authorities from Levy County and Alachua County, Florida were able to find Mathis in a vehicle outside an apartment complex in Bronson, Florida. Mathis pulled a weapon, pointed it at the driver of the vehicle and ordered the driver to drive through the patrol cars that had boxed them in, according to Watkins.
"At some point, he [Mathis] was able to exit the vehicle and shots were fired," Watkins said. "Mr. Mathis was hit four times in the torso by one of the SWAT officers from Alachua County."
Mathis remains hospitalized, Oakes is in law enforcement custody
Watkins said Mathis was taken to a Florida hospital and is under the custody of the Levy County Sheriff's Office. They are holding him for now for a parole violation warrant out of Hall County. He is in stable condition, according to Watkins.
Oakes was taken into custody along with her 14-year-old daughter, according to Watkins.
"I sent some of my investigators to Florida to do interviews," Watkins said. "We have not yet talked to Mr. Mathis because of his treatment at the hospital, [but] we did talk to Mrs. Oakes and we did talk to the daughter. Based on the information we got once we got down there, we served a search warrant on the In Town Suites here in Dothan."
It was at the hotel investigators made a gruesome discovery.
"We did locate the remains of an infant child in the freezer of the hotel room. The child's remains have been sent to Montgomery for an autopsy," Watkins said. "We do expect more charges to be filed once those autopsy results are available."
Watkins said investigators believe the baby had been dead for at least 24 hours before it was placed in the freezer, and they think he had been dead for as many as five or six days. Watkins would not speculate on how the baby might have died.
Officer: "This child was failed by his parents"
Watkins said investigating crimes against children is one of the more difficult aspects of a police officer's job. He said this case, since it involved an infant, has been even more difficult.
"Children generally don't have the ability to defend themselves or have people speak up for them," Watkins said. "They depend on their parents for that...and in this case particularly, this child was failed by his parents in that regard."
Watkins said he was unsure of how long it would be before Mathis could be extradited to face charges in Dothan, noting that some eight agencies have been involved in the case and Mathis could face charges in at least three jurisdicitions in different states.
