Two men, including one with multiple felony convictions, were found guilty of rape in separate cases in Fulton County, officials said.
Antonio Thomas, 53, and Gregory Moore, 60, were both handed life sentences following the verdicts, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s office. Thomas, who was also convicted of aggravated sodomy, got life without parole. Moore will have to serve 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors said the then 23-year-old victim in Thomas’ case was sleeping when her boyfriend woke her up and said he was going to the store about 8 a.m. May 14, 2016.
The woman drifted back to sleep, but awoke a short time later to Thomas raping and sodomizing her, authorities said. Thomas, a friend of the victim’s boyfriend since second grade, had been staying in the couple’s Atlanta apartment as a guest.
Thomas stopped the attack when the woman started yelling at him, according to prosecutors.
“The victim then chased the defendant out of the home and down the street from where she lived,” the DA’s office said in a news release. “The victim’s boyfriend saw her chasing the defendant out of the house and joined in.”
Thomas outran the woman and her boyfriend and never came back, officials said. Atlanta police arrested him Aug. 4, nearly three months after the rape.
Records show Thomas has 26 prior felony arrests and nine previous felony convictions, including a 1996 statutory rape conviction in DeKalb County.
Moore was convicted of raping a woman on April 8, 2015, according to the DA’s office.
The victim, who was 27 years old at the time, was at a local park drinking and smoking marijuana with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Moore, a friend of the mother’s boyfriend, joined them.
“As the group prepared to leave, Moore suggested to the victim that he should take her to a bar for drinks, since she was scheduled to leave Atlanta and return to her home in Florida the following day,” the DA’s office said in another news release. “The victim reluctantly agreed, and Moore then drove her to a local bar.”
The woman smoked marijuana on the way to the bar, and Moore bought her more drinks when they got to the location, according to prosecutors.
“As they left the bar, Moore told the victim that he would drive her home,” the DA’s office said. “Overwhelmed by all the intoxicants in her system, the victim passed out in the vehicle.”
When she got up the next morning, she was disoriented, naked and on the floor of Moore’s house, officials said.
The woman put on a pair of pants and ran to a nearby gas station, where she called her mother and police. She was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for a sexual assault kit.
A GBI forensic analysis matched Moore’s DNA to evidence collected from the woman’s body during the kit, the DA’s office said.
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