A DeKalb County jury convicted a man Friday of raping three women nearly a decade ago -- cases that were only solved after a detective discovered police had overlooked a critical lead in 2002.
Superior Court Judge Linda W. Hunter sentenced Sylvester Antonio Ray to five consecutive life sentences for rape and kidnapping convictions.
"These were the type of rapes I haven't seen in a long time," she told Ray as she gave him the maximum sentence. "These were stranger-on-stranger attacks. These women were going about their business and were literally snatched off the streets."
Hunter told the 40-year-old Ray, who stood before her in a light gray suit and peach shirt, that she hoped he understood how his acts had devastated his victims. Two women moved out of state after the attacks in 2002 and 2003. One still lives in DeKalb.
A fourth -- S.J., the first of Ray's four DeKalb victims -- in the end refused to testify, which resulted in the charges involving her rape being dismissed. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not identify rape victims by name.
The three other women may never have become victims if DeKalb police had tracked down a tag number that S.J. had memorized and was noted in the incident report. It led to car owned by Ray's long-time fiance, Valerie Knight.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined in 2005 by DNA analysis that the four women had all been raped by the same unknown man. The bureau informed DeKalb police but the department made no headway.
In 2010, DeKalb police assigned a new detective, Lt. J.C. Popp, to the cases. He discovered the overlooked tag number and quickly associated Ray with Knight.
He showed Ray's picture to the women and three identified Ray as their attacker. S.J., the one who memorized the tag number, was unable to make an identification. Ray's DNA matched the womens' attacker.
DeKalb police declined to comment on the investigation in 2002, whether they reopened the case unsuccessfully after the GBI linked the rapes in 2005 or why Popp was assigned in 2010.
District Attorney Robert James, the lead prosecutor at trial, said it is unfair to conclude the failure to follow up on the tag number resulted in three more rapes. S.J., the first victim, could not make an identification eight years after her attack and if she had also been unable in 2002, police could have not have made an arrest, James said.
"If she could have ID'd him, perhaps that would be a strong point," he said. "Was it a perfect investigation? No. But I haven't seen many perfect investigations."
Police had no reason in 2002 and 2003 to think that a serial rapist was on the loose because the rapes had no common pattern. The women varied in age by 17 years, were of different body types and were abducted and attacked in different ways.
One said she was attacked after Ray offered her a ride from a bar late at night; another said she was kidnapped from a strip mall parking lot in the middle of the day; another said she was kidnapped at gunpoint when Ray called her over to his car one night.
Ray testified he had the misfortune to have had consensual sex with different women over six months who all decided to falsely accuse him.
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