DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A serial rapist has pled guilty in a 1994 DeKalb County cold case surrounding the sexual assault of a then-15-year-old.
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said Charlie Scott, 59, pled guilty as indicted to charges of rape, kidnapping and aggravated assault last Thursday.
Scott is accused of a sexual assault that happened on Aug. 6, 1994, at the Colony Ridge Apartment complex on Glenwood Road in unincorporated Decatur. Scott approached the 15-year-old girl while she was walking home after helping her mother at work, prosecutors said. He was accused of pointing a pistol at her and threatening to kill her if she screamed.
"Defendant Scott then forced the victim into the bushes and raped her. Before fleeing, he said that he would come back and kill her if she told anyone," a news release from the district attorney's office read.
A witness at the complex saw a man coming out of the area fixing his pants, then saw the victim screaming and crying that she had been raped, prosecutors said. The witness helped the girl contact authorities.
The DA's office said the case sat cold until March 2020 when DNA from the sexual assault kit that was collected at the time of rape was tested and Scott was identified as a suspect. He was confirmed a match after his DNA was collected following his arrest in April 2022. Investigators also linked Scott to several other sexual assault cases in DeKalb County during the same time period.
According to prosecutors, Scott was on the run at the time of the assault. In 1995, Scott was featured on an episode of "America's Most Wanted" as a suspect in a series of sexual assaults and had escaped custody across three states.
In 1995, he was finally taken into custody for crimes that unfolded in Alabama, Georgia and Texas in the military court system, according to the DA. He was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years and released in 2020 after serving 28 years in confinement.
Once released from federal custody, Scott became a truck driver and during a weight station in Missouri in 2021 his DeKalb County warrants were revealed. He was taken into custody again and indicted by a DeKalb County grand jury in May 2021.
A judge has sentenced Scott to serve 15 years in custody and the rest of life on probation. Once on probation, Scott cannot have any contact with minors or any victims from a previous case.
