A man got life in prison after he was convicted Thursday of raping and beating a woman.
According to prosecutors, Eddie Reid abducted a hitchhiker, bound and raped her, tossed her out a window eight feet above the ground, and abducted her again after she played dead, dragging her by her hair across several lawns. After all that, he apparently didn't think she'd call the police. He left her alone at a hospital for treatment of her injuries and even gave her his cellphone number, telling her to ring him when she was ready for him to get her.
Instead, she reported what Reid had done, and police tracked him down and arrested him.
The arrest led to a trial, and on Thursday a Fulton County Superior Court jury convicted Reid, 29, on charges of rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated sodomy and weapons charges in connection with the May 2010 attack on a 26-year-old woman. Afterward, Judge Henry Newkirk sentenced him to life in prison plus 25 years.
The victim was hitch-hiking on Jonesboro Road near Lakewood when Reid picked her up, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. Reid drove to an abandoned house on Pomona Circle near Metropolitan Parkway, bound the woman's hands and feet and raped her, Howard said. When she tried to run away, he tossed her out a window and, when she pretended to be dead, he fled.
She went to a neighbor who called 911, but, according to Howard, Reid returned and whisked her away before the police came, dragging her across several lawns by her hair.
Reid eventually took her to the hospital, and even programmed his cellphone number into her phone. When he left her alone with hospital personnel, she seized the opportunity, telling them she'd been raped.
The police came, and while they were interviewing her, Reid called her and sent her text messages asking when he should pick her up. Police traced the calls to Reid. They put him in a line-up, and the victim identified him, leading to his arrest and, ultimately, a life behind bars.
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