A Cobb County man will serve 50 years in prison for an attack on a woman he met through a dating app.
Cobb Superior Court Judge C. LaTain Kell followed prosecutors’ recommendation and also sentenced Darryl Joseph Clark, 38, to a lifetime on probation, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said.
He was convicted earlier this month in a jury trial for aggravated sodomy and aggravated assault-strangulation in the July 2017 attack. Clark has been in custody since shortly after the attack and will receive credit for time served.
Cobb District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kim Isaza said Clark is not eligible for parole. If he’s ever released from prison upon serving his 50-year sentence, Clark will be required to register as a sex offender, the DA’s Office said.
The woman and Clark were “matched” on an dating app, and they met in public the day before the assault, prosecutors said. Clark asked her to come into his apartment. The woman declined, but agreed to meet him again the next day.
According to prosecutors, she returned to Clark’s apartment, but got up to leave when he begin touching her. The District Attorney’s Office said Clark pushed the woman down and “strangled her to the point she thought she was going to die.” He forced the woman to perform oral sex and recorded a video of the assault. Prosecutors said Clark threatened to release the video “to ruin her career if she reported the assault to police.”
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The woman reported the assault to Acworth police and received medical treatment. Prosecutors said the victim experienced bleeding in both eyes and had bruises appear on her neck and chest in the days following the assault.
The jury heard from two nurses who specialize in treating sexual assault victims. They told the court that the woman’s injuries indicated she was strangled, prosecutors said. The woman also testified that she experienced nightmares and flashbacks, and had to take a year off work.
Another woman who had an encounter with Clark also testified during the trial. She told the jury that Clark forced her to perform a sex act and turned violent when she turned him down for sex, the District Attorney’s Office said. She also said she had to obtain a protective order against Clark, the prosecution said.
“This defendant viewed women as objects, expected them to give him sex, and was willing to use threats and violence to get what he wanted,” Assistant District Attorney Drew Healy said. “Thanks to his victims being willing to come forward, this repeated predator will not be able to victimize any other women.”
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