A man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was convicted of fatally shooting his “best friend” more than three years ago over a social media post that claimed he was an informant for law enforcement, prosecutors said Monday.
Malik Mason was found guilty of murder in the death of 25-year-old Cha’leb Christopher Brown, who was shot at a Douglasville apartment complex on Nov. 6, 2020. On Friday, Douglas County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Adams sentenced Mason to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 16 years, the district attorney’s office wrote in a news release.
Police were called to the Ravenswood Apartments just before 10 p.m. that day and discovered Brown on the ground bleeding and suffering from a single gunshot wound to his neck. Emergency personnel tried to save Brown, who died at the scene.
Witnesses told officers that Mason arrived at the complex parking lot with his girlfriend a few minutes before the shooting and started speaking with the victim. Prosecutors said the conversation became heated over a social media post that claimed Mason was “a rat.”
“As things escalated verbally, Mason shot the victim, who was unarmed, in the neck,” the DA’s office said. “(He) fired his weapon knowing that there was a minor child present.”
According to prosecutors, witnesses identified Mason and testified to watching him shoot Brown. Mason drove away after the gunfire and was arrested days later in Alabama. He was eventually booked into the Douglas County Jail.
Mason called Brown his “best friend,” though he never took responsibility for the shooting, the DA’s office said.
“It’s difficult to understand how two young men who were friends would let a social media post lead to the murder of one,” Douglas County District Attorney Dalia Racine said in a statement. “Too often we see people mistake the recklessness of the virtual world for the permanence of consequences in the real world. Unfortunately, the wakeup call, like in this case, can be disastrous and devastating to our families and our communities.”
A jury found Mason guilty of two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the third degree, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a first-offender probationer, prosecutors said.
His girlfriend was also arrested in connection to the shooting and faced one count of party to a crime of murder. However, she agreed to testify and pleaded guilty to a charge of hindering the apprehension of a criminal, the DA’s office said. Her sentencing will be announced at a later date.
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