A Fulton County teenager was sentenced this week to 45 years behind bars for the violent rape of a woman he asked for a ride.
Kenyatta Cosby was 16 years old when he suggested the 33-year-old victim take him to a store on Sept. 10, 2016, according to prosecutors with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. The woman had just gone to a home in Hapeville looking for a friend, but found the friend was not there.
Prosecutors said that was when Cosby approached her and made his request. The woman obliged.
“When Cosby and the female arrived at the store, he refused to exit the vehicle and forced her to drive to a residence along Forrest Hills Drive in Hapeville,” a spokesman for District Attorney Paul Howard said in a news release. “When they arrived at the residence, Cosby forced the victim out of the vehicle and dragged her to the backyard of the home.”
What followed was a violent attack, part of which prosecutors said was captured on a Hapeville police officer’s body camera. The woman was punched, bit multiple times, stripped of her clothes and raped, the jury heard at trial.
Hearing what sounded like a fight, neighbors called 911. Responding officers found Cosby on top of the woman, prosecutors said.
“The victim was distraught and was screaming for police to help her,” the spokesman said in the release. “Police removed Cosby from the victim, and she explained what happened. Cosby was immediately arrested.”
In the more than three years since his arrest, prosecutors and defense attorneys have argued about the now 19-year-old's ability to stand trial. Cosby, at age 11, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident and required mental health treatment, his family told Channel 2 Action News.
He faced charges in nine juvenile court cases prior to his 2016 arrest as an adult, and he was found mentally incompetent in all nine, the news station reported.
It looked like the rape case would go the same way when in 2017 he was again declared incompetent, and a judge ruled that he should not stand trial, according to court records.
The case was reinstated in April 2018 after Cosby was reevaulated and found fit for prosecution. His trial began Monday.
After the state presented its case to the jury, prosecutors said Cosby decided to plead guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and sexual battery. His plea was not negotiated, according to the district attorney’s office.
In addition to the 45-year prison stint, a judge sentenced Cosby to probation for the rest of his life.
He may still face additional charges in a separate incident, Howard’s spokesman said.
“Cosby also sodomized a fellow inmate in May 2019 while in the Fulton County Jail awaiting trial,” he said. “The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing that incident for additional charges, but it was presented as evidence at trial prior to Cosby’s guilty plea.”
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