Zachary Callens was a sixteen year old from Texas when he murdered his parents
According to court documents Zachary Callens was upset that his parents were planning on sending him to public school and he felt they were too strict so he planned on a way to kill them
While his parents slept Zachary Callens would go into their bedroom wearing a set of headphones and armed with a hunting rifle equipped with a flashlight. Zachary would shoot and kill his parents
Zachary Callens would be arrested and sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after thirty years
Zachary Callens Photos
Zachary Callens Now
SID Number: 50570559
TDCJ Number: 02093547
Name: CALLENS,ZACHARY ELLIOT
Race: W
Gender: M
Age: 26
Maximum Sentence Date: LIFE SENTENCE
Current Facility: TELFORD
Projected Release Date: LIFE SENTENCE
Parole Eligibility Date: 2044-08-11
Zachary Callens Sentencing
A Frisco teen was sentenced to life in prison Monday for murdering his parents two years ago.
Zachary Callens, 18, was sentenced at the Collin County Courthouse for the Aug. 11, 2014, slayings of his parents, Ryan and Maria Elena Callens.
Defense attorneys had asked jurors to give their client a lighter sentence, recommending 16 years for each slaying to match Zachary’s age at the time of the offense. But the jury took about 70 minutes to reject that plea. Zachary Callens, the youngest of five children, must serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.
As they did in the guilt-innocence phase of the trial, defense attorneys called no witnesses.
But all four of Callens’ siblings and three of his aunts testified for the prosecution. All said that he had no remorse over his actions, is a continuing threat to society and deserves a harsh sentence.
“It was very hard for him to hear his siblings ask for him never to be allowed on the streets again,” said defense attorney April Steele, who sat next to her client and saw his tears while his two brothers and two sisters testified against him.
All told, about a dozen family members attended the six-day trial, including several of Ryan Callens’ nine siblings. Elena Callens’ two sisters were in Spain and one, Joan Maria Escudero, testified by Skype on Monday.
“They’re terrified if he gets out,” prosecutor Danette Broome told jurors. “He holds grudges. You don’t think he’s going to hold that grudge against them?”
In pushing for a lighter sentence, Steele emphasized Callens’ age at the time of the offense and called his long curly hair and plaid shirt “schoolboy” in appearance. A picture in evidence of a lockbox with ammunition for the Martin Model 60 rifle he used to kill his parents also showed Legos and his backpack.
“Do you put a 5-year-old in timeout for an hour? No. Age-appropriate punishment,” Steele told the jury. “He’s a kid.”
Testimony during the trial showed that Zachary Callens, who was home-schooled, was angry at his parents because they had grounded him for not keeping up with his schoolwork and general disobedience.
“They had a lot of life left to live,” Broome said of the boy’s parents during his closing argument..
But a state district judge had already made that decision a year ago, ruling that Zachary Callens should be tried as an adult. The brutal shooting, the lack of empathy for his family members and his low amenability to treatment were cited as reasons for the ruling.
Ryan Callens, 48, was shot twice in the doorway to his bedroom at the Frisco home. Maria Elena Callens, 49, was shot seven times while in the bed nearby.