Man charged with killing and putting six-month-old son in hotel freezer dies in Alabama prison while awaiting trial
DOTHAN, ALABAMA: A Georgia man awaiting trial for the death of his six-month-old son, who was found in a hotel room freezer last summer, has died in the Alabama jail where he was being held.
Carlton James Mathis, 30, of Gainsville, Georgia, died in the Houston County Jail in Dothan on Friday, August 30, announced Coroner Robert Byrd.
Mathis was scheduled for trial later this year in the death of his son Curtis James Oakes, who died after ingesting methamphetamine in the summer of 2018.
The gruesome incident came to light as Mathis and his then-girlfriend, Amanda Gail Oakes, 36, were on the run from authorities. The pair had fled from Georgia with the infant after police had tried to arrest Mathis on burglary and parole violation charges. They had checked into a Dothan motel.
Oakes had then left Mathis and returned to Georgia to pick up her teenage daughter, leaving Curtis in the care of the 30-year-old. During her trip to Georgia, Mathis telephoned her and informed her that her infant son had died.
The next day, Oakes and her daughter returned to the motel and spent the night with the infant's corpse. The pair then left the infant's body in the freezer because the smell became "unbearable" and had fled to central Florida.
On June 4, 2018, law enforcement officials tracked them down to an apartment complex in Bronson. Mathis was shot four times by a SWAT team member after he allegedly brandished a handgun and held it to the head of the driver of a vehicle they entered.
They subsequently learned about the infant, with an indictment filed in connection to the case stating that his body was found wrapped in towels, placed in a garbage bag, and stuffed in a freezer in their Dothan hotel room. His body was reportedly found only five to six days after his death.
Mathis and Oakes were both charged with one count of manslaughter, and one count of abuse of a corpse, and had been remanded into custody.
At around 10 pm on August 30, a jailer found Mathis unresponsive in his cell, according to a press release from Lt. Heath Carpenter of the State Bureau of Investigation. Emergency crews performed CPR and used an automatic defibrillator but were unsuccessful in resuscitating him.
The 30-year-old's death is being investigated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. His body is reportedly being transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences to determine the cause of death.
Oakes, who had previously confessed to authorities that she and Mathis had been under the influence of illegal drugs when they placed Curtis' body in the freezer, pleaded guilty to her charges last week and was sentenced to 99 years behind bars.
She had agreed to testify against Mathis at his November trial before his sudden death.