Midtown rapist gets life sentence in crime spree

By Christopher Seward

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Midtown rapist who went on a crime spree has been sentenced to life in prison.

Lavelle McNutt, 53, pleaded guilty Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court to crimes against four women in 2007 and 2009, including rape, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated assault and burglary, according to a news release from the Fulton County District Attorney's office.

In April 2007, authorities said, McNutt raped a woman inside her Sandy Springs home on Riverside Drive after holding a knife to her neck and bounding her with duct tape.

Later in February 2009, McNutt was charged with being a Peeping Tom after a woman at Macy’s at Lenox Square in Buckhead discovered a man watching her disrobe in the women’s dressing room.

In March 2009, prosecutors say McNutt attacked a Buckhead woman as she was leaving her apartment on Canterbury Road. He began dragging her away when she broke free and ran for help.

That same day in March, McNutt stole the purse and apartment key card of a woman walking her dog in Piedmont Park. The next day the woman found underwear missing from her home and later discovered hanging in a tree.

Photo lineups and DNA linked McNutt, a criminal who has had extensive run-ins with the law, including aggravated sodomy and assault,  with the crimes against the four women.