Mother's chilling 911 call: 'My children are trying to kill me'
10/23/2015 7:00 am PDT
UPDATE Nov. 8, 2016: Christopher, 22, and Cameron Ervin, 17, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to 50 years: 20 years in confinement, and 30 years' probation, WGCL reports .
The two brothers were arrested on Sept. 5, 2015, accused of the trying to kill their mother and father.
The Ervins seemed to be the picture-perfect suburban family. But the dream of the white picket fence became the nightmare of yellow crime-scene tape.
"Please send someone to my house. My children are trying to kill me!" That's the chilling 911 call from a terrified Yvonne Ervin saying her two sons tried to kill her and her husband Zachary by blowing up the house with only the parents inside.
"To turn on the gas in a fireplace and leave a lit candle is kind of a 'TV' way to do it," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter.
But this is no TV movie -- it's a real-life drama taking place in Snellville, an affluent suburb of Atlanta.
Prosecutors say 22-year-old Christopher Ervin and his 17-year-old brother Cameron put drugs in their food, lit a candle, turned on the gas and left the parents for dead.
Police say the boys waited out front for the house to explode. When it didn't, they rushed inside and allegedly attacked their parents.
Yvonne managed to escape their clutches, running upstairs to call 911. Zachary managed to fight off his sons after they allegedly stabbed him.
Police quickly arrived and arrested the boys, one of whom reportedly told detectives he had been planning this since he was 11 years old.
Christopher, who was once a high school football star, and Cameron, who planned a career in the Army, face charges of aggravated assault and arson.
Prosecutors did not charge the pair with attempted murder. In Georgia aggravated assault -- assault with the intent to murder -- carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, while attempted murder has a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Christopher and Cameron Ervin were held without bail.
The parents, recovering from the wounds that nearly killed them, say they forgive their sons.