Dick Perryman

District Attorney
ALAPAHA JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
ATKINSON, BERRIEN, CLINCH, COOK, & LANIER COUNTIES

DA Dick Perryman to seek the Death Penalty

Jonathan Vann (AKA: Sparky), age 22, and Keyante Greene, age 27, were indicted by a
Berrien County Grand Jury for the 2019 murder of 17 year old Mercedes Hackle. The indictment
included charges for both Malice Murder and multiple counts of Felony Murder. They are
charged with hitting Mercedes Hackle in the head and shooting her in the face. Additional
charges in the indictment include kidnapping, burning the victim's body to conceal her death,
tampering with evidence to cover up their crimes and aggravated battery.

District Attorney Dick Perryman has filed notice that his office intends to seek the death
penalty in this case against Vann and Greene. DA Perryman added, "Georgia law reserves the
death penalty for only the most heinous and brutal of crimes. In this case, we believe the facts
and evidence fit the statutory requirements to allow the imposition of the death penalty. The
families of the victims in these murders have suffered immeasurably and the current penalty
prescribed by law for these Defendants includes lethal injection. This indictment sets the stage
for this case to move to trial before a Berrien County jury. Both men are presumed innocent
until proven guilty.”

The pair also have murder charges pending against them in Atkinson County for the
deaths of Bobbie Lynn Moore and Ronnie Wayne Hackle, Jr. An indictment is not a conviction.
The Atkinson County charges have not yet been presented to a Grand Jury.