COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A family mourning the loss of a father said they’re getting phone calls from a cold-hearted killer while he’s in jail.
A jury convicted the gunman who conspired with the victim’s girlfriend to carry out the murder.
Channel 2′s Chris Jose has learned that the victim’s mother says she was on the killers’ hit list.
George Vela is the victim. Yaya Gil was his girlfriend, and she orchestrated the murder.
Zackary Franks was the gunman who killed Vela. A jury convicted him of five counts, including murder.
Leigh Ann Smith, Vela’s mother, told Jose that the first phone call from Franks came 24 hours after a jury convicted him of that murder.
“The shooter actually tried to call my daughter Thursday night from the jail,” Smith said. “We don’t know why. We don’t know if he was calling to say I’m sorry.”
Smith described Franks as a cold-hearted killer. She wants a Cobb County judge to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty.
“I think the death penalty would’ve been appropriate. I believe if he were to ever get out of jail, he would kill again,” Smith said.
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In July 2019, Franks fired seven shots at Vela. Three bullets hit him.
“From my peripheral vision, I see the car leaving and it’s just shot after shot after shot,” Gil told Jose when he interviewed her two years ago.
The shooting happened outside the couple’s Mableton home after they took their kids to see “The Lion King.”
At the time, we did not know Gil had orchestrated the murder.
“He just falls. I just held him, and I already knew,” Gil said.
Gil took a plea deal and will serve 25 years in prison. Investigators say she had a sexual relationship with Franks.
In court, a new twist was revealed involving Franks’ grieving mother.
“They discussed murdering me as well,” Smith said. “The conversation during that meeting was they were going to kill me as well.”
Smith is now raising Vela’s children. It’s their third Christmas without their father.
A judge will sentence Franks on Jan. 3.
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