Stolen Douglasville Cell Phone Critical In Crime Spree Conviction

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — Two young Atlanta men have admitted their roles in the 2015 murder of a man they also carjacked. On Dec. 13, 2015, Christopher Iverson Green and Cameron Miguel Mathis were engaged in a multi-county crime spree that began at 3 a.m. in DeKalb County and ended hours later in the parking lot of the Concepts 21 apartment complex on Six Flags Drive in Austell.

Green, who was just 15 at the time, and Mathis, who was 16, began by carjacking a woman in DeKalb, though they soon crashed her vehicle on Interstate 20 in a fiery wreck. From there, they took a Kia Sorento from two men at gunpoint and returned to Green's residence in Atlanta for several hours.

Shortly before 9 a.m., the two drove the stolen Sorento to Douglasville, where they used a firearm to rob a man of his cell phone and other items as he walked to his tractor trailer. Still in the Sorento, they drove into Cobb, where they encountered Franklin Callens in the Concepts 21 parking lot and shot him once in the chest with a .357 revolver before driving away his 2013 Toyota Corolla.

Callens, 27, who lived at the complex and was heading to his job, died of his wounds. His Corolla was later found abandoned in Clayton County. Police tracked the Douglasville victim's stolen cell phone to Green's residence, where they also recovered property stolen from other victims.

On Monday as jury selection was set to begin, Green and Mathis each entered guilty pleas. Green pleaded guilty to malice murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, and Cobb Superior Court Judge C. LaTain Kell sentenced him to life in prison plus five years on probation.

Mathis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony. Kell sentenced Mathis to serve 25 years in prison.

Both were arrested within hours of the killing and will get credit for the time they have already spent in custody.

Charges remain pending against both defendants in DeKalb, Fulton and Douglas counties.

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Patch Editor Tim Darnell contributed to this reporting.

Franklin Callens. Image Cobb DA