Man Sentenced In Kidnapping, Rape Of Woman Nearly 40 Years Ago

DECATUR, GA — A 58-year-old Albany man convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman nearly 40 years ago in Stone Mountain was given two life in prison sentences Tuesday, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston's office announced.

Prosecutors said Reginald Colwell was convicted of kidnapping, rape and aggravated assault on May 20 during a jury trial.

His conviction came almost 37 years after a 20-year-old woman notified DeKalb County officers that she was raped while heading to meet her boyfriend on Dec. 30, 1988, prosecutors said.

As she locked the front door of their Weatherly Drive apartment, prosecutors said she turned around and a man in a ski mask put a knife to her throat, forcing her go into the woods behind the apartment complex.

He then sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and threatened to kill her, prosecutors said. Afterward, he demanded she stay on the ground before he ran from the scene, prosecutors said.

Someone helped the woman call her boyfriend, and he drove her to the police station to file a report, prosecutors said. Police took the woman to Grady Memorial Hospital for a sexual assault exam, prosecutors said.

During a police search, prosecutors said officers recovered the woman's purse and belongings that had been scattered during the attack.

Since DNA testing was not available at the time, prosecutors said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation preserved the evidence from the sexual assault kit.

Then, in 2015, the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative was established, and the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office joined the multi-jurisdictional SAKI Task Force, prosecutors said.

With the federal funding, in June 2019, the evidence from the sexual assault was tested and a CODIS match led to authorities identifying Colwell, prosecutors said.

A DNA sample was collected from Colwell, which prosecutors said matched the woman's sexual assault kit. Colwell was living in DeKalb County in 1988, prosecutors said.

After his conviction, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams on Tuesday sentenced Colwell to two life sentences plus 20 years to be served consecutively, prosecutors said.