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NASHVILLE, Ga. — Berrien County’s district attorney plans to seek the death penalty against two suspects in the 2019 death of a teenager.

Jonathan “Sparky” Vann, 22, and Keyante Greene, 27, were indicted by a Berrien County Grand Jury in the death of 17-year-old Mercedes Hackle, according to a statement issued Wednesday from Alapaha District Attorney Don Perryman’s office.

The indictment includes charges for both malice murder and multiple counts of felony murder, the statement said.

Perryman filed notice that his office will seek the death penalty against Vann and Greene. Lethal injection is the method of execution used in Georgia, he said.

“Georgia law reserves the death penalty for only the most heinous and brutal of crimes,” Perryman said in the statement. “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.”

Authorities found the bodies of two people in mid-March 2019 and discovered a third body March 14, 2019, all near the Berrien-Atkinson county line.

The case began with a missing persons report filed early the same week.

The Berrien County Sheriff’s Office asked the GBI to assist with the missing persons investigation following the discovery of a vehicle on fire.

At 5:30 a.m., March 12, the sheriff’s office responded to the scene of a vehicle on fire in the area off Ga. 135 at the Alapaha River near the Atkinson County line. The investigation determined the car was used by Bobbie Lynn Moore, 22, according to a GBI statement.

Moore, Ronnie Wayne Hackle Jr., 27, and Mercedes Hackle did not respond to attempts to contact them and were reported missing, according to the statement.

Before the indictment, Vann was charged with three counts of malice murder in connection to the deaths and one count of arson in connection with a burned vehicle, the GBI reports. Greene was charged with two counts of malice murder in connection with the deaths of Wayne Hackle Jr. and Moore in Atkinson County and one count of malice murder for the death of Mercedes Hackle in Berrien County, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Atkinson County charges have not yet been presented to a grand jury, the DA’s statement said.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.