ATLANTA – Justice has finally come for a woman who was raped in 2007 and spotted her alleged attacker at a MARTA station six years later -- and helped bring peace to other women who were also sexually assaulted by him.
Antonio White, 54, has been convicted of rape and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
According to prosecutors, the victim was waiting for a train at the Five Points MARTA station in Atlanta on Oct. 13, 2013 when she recognized White as the man who allegedly raped her six years earlier. It was the first time she had seen her attacker since he sexually assaulted her in 2007. The woman was overcome with emotion and began to yell out to draw attention to White. Hearing her cries for help, MARTA Police arrested White and turned him over to Atlanta Police.
Authorities said the attack happened on Aug. 12, 2007 while the woman was walking to the Hamilton E. Holmes MARTA station. White allegedly drove up in his gray Chevrolet Lumina and asked the woman if she wanted a ride, according to police.
The victim knew White from the former Carver Homes neighborhood in Southeast Atlanta where they had both lived, so she agreed to get in his car. But instead of driving her home, White took the woman to an abandoned home on Bowen Avenue. Police said she was trapped inside the car, because the door handle and window button were missing.
As White opened his car door, the victim opened her door and ran, but he chased her with a gun, according to prosecutors. He grabbed her hair from behind and pulled her back inside the car at gunpoint, and raped the victim in his car, warning her: “Shut up that screaming (expletive) or I’ll kill you,” according to police.
For years, the woman never reported the rape because friends and family warned her that nothing would ever become of the case, because she didn’t know White’s real name.
After she saw him at the MARTA station six years later, detectives learned White sexually assaulted several other women in the Carver Homes/Lakewood area between 1983 and 2008.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence linking White to four other sexual assault accusations.
Police said White would typically approach women on the street and assault them in wooded areas.
Before this trial, White had one prior rape conviction, a robbery conviction and pleaded guilty to sexual battery.
He has been convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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