DeKalb County prosecutors believe Gary Wendale Mincey is the serial rapist who attacked, or tried to rape, five women during a string of sexual assaults in the fall of 2011.
Today, Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicole Marchand Golden and assistant district attorney Pat Jackson, along with Mincey’s public defender Letitia Delan begin to choose a jury in his trial.
Between October and November of 2011, prosecutors say Mincey, 36, followed his victims home from various locations in DeKalb County, threatened their lives, robbed them and then sexually assaulted them.
Mincey is charged with aggravated sodomy and robbery by force, along with multiple counts of rape, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated assault, and armed robbery.
Two victims were attacked after they left the Publix supermarket on Flakes Mill in south DeKalb, unofficially earning Mincey the moniker of the “Publix Rapist.”
A third woman, he allegedly followed home from the Stone Mountain night club near the McDonald’s restaurant where he worked, and two other women prosecutors say he identified at a lounge on Glenwood Avenue in Decatur.
Mincey is said to have threatened his victims with either a gun, a knife or a Taser, or a combination of the weapons.
Among the items prosecutors say he stole from the women were a laptop, a set of car keys, jewelry, cell phones, money and other personal belongings.
Mincey allegedly used one of those cell phones, which helped police track him down, prosecutors said. He was found on Nov. 30, 2011, in possession of the phone and other items belonging to his final victim, and arrested, authorities said.
His mother found more stolen items in his room after Mincey’s arrest, and reported them to police. Victims were able to identify their belongings, prosecutors said.
He has remained in the DeKalb County jail without bond since his arrest.
In that time, Mincey’s attorneys had requested an independent analysis of DNA collected from his alleged third victim, and that the use of the term “rape” be restricted during the trial proceedings, according to court documents.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gail C. Flake denied both requests, according to court records.
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