A CRUEL WAY TO DIE

Chelton Hicks

[ Photo: Chelton Hicks' parents, Chris Hicks and Suzzett Calloway, face
felony murder charges.]

Chris Hicks screamed for his wife to grab the fire extinguisher, but
it was too late.

In an instant, fire blocked the way to their baby's
room.

It was Feb. 17, 2001 -- four days before Chelton Hicks' first
birthday.

Hicks and his wife, Suzzett Calloway, scrambled out of their rented
home on a suburban street in Catoosa County. They found a ladder and
propped it up to Chelton's window, Calloway told a court in October
2002.

Hicks climbed up, reached inside and grabbed Chelton. But the boy was
burned over one-third of his body.

Calloway cradled her son and ran out to the road hollering: "Help me.
Help me. Help my son."

Investigators say Chelton's father caused the fire while making
methamphetamine, a charge he denies. In a federal trial of Hicks and
Calloway, a friend who testified for the government said Chelton was
in bed when Chris Hicks started cooking up the ingredients in a
coffeepot over a propane flame. When the vapors caught fire, he
dropped the pot and flames spread, the witness said.

[Photo: Chelton Hicks was burned over one-third of his body in a fire that
police accuse his father of starting while making methamphetamine. The boy
later died.]

Calloway denied methamphetamine was being made in the house. She said
a wall heater started the fire.

Chelton was hospitalized for months. He endured a tracheotomy, and
skin grafts on his face, chest, arms and hands.

In a photo taken in a hospital, Chelton's hands are burned, his
fingers swollen. He struggles to handle a book. His face and head also
are scarred from burns and skin grafts.

Four months after the fire, Chelton was in foster care when his
breathing tube became clogged. He died in a Macon hospital, according
to documents from the state's Division of Family and Children Services.

The federal jury convicted Hicks, 32, and Calloway, 30, of attempting
to manufacture methamphetamine, conspiracy to manufacture
methamphetamine, and creating a substantial risk of harm during the
attempted manufacture of the drug.

In December 2002, each was sentenced to 20 years in
prison.

In January, they're scheduled to go on trial in Catoosa County
Superior Court, charged with felony murder in their son's death.