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Man Gets Four Life Sentences, Plus 280 Years, For Christmas Massacre

By Jim Hagerty
Published on: 13:17 PST, Sep 8, 2017

Martia Flint was planning on a special Christmas in 2014. She had just reunited with a former boyfriend who had moved in with her and her two children in time for the holidays.

Those days would never come though, because a man named Calvin Carter saw to it that all four members of Flint’s young family were in the morgue instead of opening gifts under the Christmas tree.

Friday, September 8, a Winnebago County, Illinois, judge sentenced Carter, 24, to four life sentences, plus 280 years in prison for gunning them down.

On December 20, 2014, Carter, who Flint previously dated, pounded on the door of her duplex. When he didn’t get a response, he kicked his way inside and opened fire with a.45 caliber handgun.

Prosecutors say Flint was watching TV when Carter started shooting. She immediately ran down a hallway toward the rest of her family. Carter followed and shot Flint’s son, 6-year-old Tyrone, in the back, wounding him. He also wounded 24-year-old Demonte Rhodes. But it was Martia Flint he was after. Carter found her in a bedroom, attempting to shield her youngest, 4-year-old Tobias, from the terror. Sadly, she was no match. Carter shot them both dead at close range.

But, he did not stop there. He wasn’t finished avenging his breakup with Flint. After killing his first two victims, Carter found Tyrone and Rhodes in the kitchen and finished them off before fleeing into the crisp December night.

During trial, prosecutors told the jury that Flint attempted to make her relationship with Carter work initially. She confided in friends, however, that he was jealous and controlling and that he wanted to move into her apartment, something she was not ready for. Things eventually got violent. That’s when Flint ended things.

According to a string of text messages between the couple, Flint attempted to keep the breakup friendly, offering to be there if Carter ever needed to talk. But a friend is not what he wanted. He became obsessed, begging her to take him back. The more Flint rebuked him, the more relentless Calvin became, prosecutors said.

Even after she moved on and rekindled her relationship with Rhodes, Carter persisted. Flint was no longer willing to remain in his life.

“Leave me alone,” Flint texted. “I am scared of you now.”

That is one of the last times Flint heard from Carter until the night he killed everyone in her house. After the quadruple homicide, Carter hid the gun, a sweatshirt, and a glove near an abandoned house. The sweatshirt contained Carter’s DNA, the glove matched others he owned and the shell casings and bullets from the scene matched the firearm.

The jury deliberated for three hours on July 17, before handing down the verdict of guilty. Carter was also convicted of first-degree home invasion.

[Featured Image By Winnebago County Jail]

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