Georgia man sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in serial rape cold case investigation
A man who investigators say was linked to at least eight metro Atlanta sexual assault cold case crimes will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to all his charges.
Wesley Cooley had been indicted by a grand jury on three counts of rape, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated sodomy, criminal attempt to commit rape, and aggravated assault in DeKalb County.
Cooley has been in custody at the jail without bond since he was arrested on Feb. 24, 2020, near his home in Conyers.
"Each of the DeKalb cases follows a similar fact pattern where Defendant Cooley approached young women who were alone, offered them a ride or other assistance, then drove them to a second location and assaulted them," the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. "He has also been linked to similar sexual assault cases in Rockdale and Fulton counties."
In one case, District Attorney Sherry Boston said that Cooley threatened his victim with a brick and forced her to take off her clothes. The woman was able to escape to a nearby house after a struggle, and Cooley was arrested at a traffic stop. Despite the arrest, Boston say he was not connected with the other assaults.
Authorities say a DNA match that year identified Cooley as a suspect in a 2017 rape in Tucker. Further investigation linked the attacker in that case to seven other sexual assault cases across the metro area that spanned a period of nearly two decades, the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office said.
The assaults include four in DeKalb County, two in Atlanta, and one in Conyers. Authorities say the victims' ages range from 16 to 38.
At the time of his arrest, investigators said that Cooley may be connected to other crimes in the area and asked anyone who may have been a victim to come forward.
"Wesley Cooley terrified the DeKalb County community for years, and today his victims finally received justice," Boston said.
Following his guilty plea, the judge sentenced Cooley to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 50 years.
