A man who raped and killed a 60-year-old woman in Atlanta after helping her move in 2000 will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was quickly convicted Friday in a trial delayed by years of legal battles.
The jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding 64-year-old Vernon Spear guilty of felony murder and rape, among other counts, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a statement.
Spear was first linked to the killing of Edna Mae Whitt through DNA evidence in 2014, but “persistent competency issues hindered the progress of the case,” Willis said. On Nov. 7, a special trial resulted in Spear being deemed competent to stand trial for his decades-old murder charges.
“This conviction was the result of relentless investigation and skillful prosecution, and underscores the crucial role DNA testing plays in solving sexual assault crimes,” Willis said. “After enduring a 23-year wait, Ms. Edna Mae Whitt’s family can finally find a sense of closure.”
Spear’s charges stemmed from Whitt’s brutal killing in March 2000. The woman got help from four men, including Spear, to relocate from Richardson Street to McDaniel Street in southwest Atlanta, Willis said.
The day after her move, a friend went to visit Whitt and found her front window broken. The friend called police, and officers found Whitt dead inside. Her body showed signs of a physical struggle and sexual assault. Investigators determined her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
The case languished for more than a decade before an Atlanta police detective used DNA analysis to eliminate three of the four men who helped Whitt move, according to Willis. Between 2000-2011, Spear was booked into the Fulton jail at least a dozen times on charges ranging from shoplifting and burglary to aggravated assault and possession of cocaine.
In 2014, when Spear was in federal custody on gun charges, his DNA was added to a federal database that matched him to the evidence in Whitt’s rape kit. He has remained in the Fulton jail for more than a decade as his competency was challenged in the courts.
Spear was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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