A man who went to prison for rape nearly 30 years ago was convicted Friday of two cold-case rapes in Marietta from 1986 and this time will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Antonio Ledell Brooks, 48, was arrested in 1988 after raping a woman on Powers Ferry Place. The woman later recognized him at her apartment complex and notified police, and he was convicted and sent to prison.
Two earlier cases from 1986 were not linked to Brooks until 27 years after the crimes.
One woman, 24, was assaulted by Brooks wielding a knife in a Franklin Road apartment. Two days later, a 23-year-old woman was raped and severely beaten about a block away from the previous attack, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s office.
Neither woman knew their attacker, but they each went to WelllStar Kennestone Hospital and rape kits were collected. At the time, police could not identify the suspect.
Justice for the women came after Brooks’ DNA was collected and sent to the GBI in 2008.
Marietta police asked the GBI to analyze the 1986 rape kits in 2013, and Brooks’ DNA was matched to those crimes.
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“What happened to these women is every person’s nightmare and despite the passage of over 30 years, justice was served today. The defendant has forfeited his right to live in a free society, and the judge’s sentence should ensure that he can never victimize again,” Assistant District Attorney Courtney Veal, a prosecutor in the case, said in a statement.
Cobb jurors convicted Brooks on Friday of two counts each of rape, aggravated assault and false imprisonment, and one count of burglary. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 20 years.
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