Albany man receives life sentence in 1988 DeKalb County rape case

DEKALB COUNTY, GA–DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against an Albany man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman nearly 40 years ago. 

On Tuesday, May 20, jurors found Reginald Colwell, 58, guilty of Kidnapping, Rape, and Aggravated Assault in connection with the incident on December 30, 1988.   

In a sentencing hearing held today, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams, who presided over the trial, sentenced Colwell to two Life sentences*, plus 20 years to all be served consecutively.  

According to the investigation, the 20-year-old victim went to the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) to report she had been raped.  She told investigators she was headed out to meet her boyfriend earlier that evening and heard a noise as she locked the front door of their apartment.  When she turned around, a man in a ski mask put a knife to her throat and forced her into the woods behind the apartment complex on Weatherly Drive in unincorporated Stone Mountain.

The man held the victim at knifepoint and sexually assaulted her, threatening to kill her if she did not comply.  After the attack, the man ordered the woman to stay on the ground and ran off.  After waiting to make sure he did not return, the woman ran to a nearby neighborhood for help.  A woman helped the victim call her boyfriend, who then took her to the police station to file a report.

DeKalb Police searched the wooded area and recovered the victim’s purse and other belongings, which were scattered during the attack.  Officers transported the woman to Grady Memorial Hospital for a sexual assault exam.

DNA testing was not available at the time of the crime, but the biological evidence collected in the sexual assault kit was preserved at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 

In 2015, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance established the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), an effort to fund testing of previously unprocessed sexual assault kits across the country.  The DeKalb DA’s Office is part of a multijurisdictional SAKI Task Force in partnership with the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). 

Through federal SAKI funding, the evidence in this case was tested resulting in a CODIS match investigative lead to Defendant Colwell in June 2019.  An investigator with the District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) team secured a warrant to collect a DNA sample from Defendant Colwell, which confirmed the victim’s sexual assault kit contained the Defendant’s DNA.  Through their work, investigators learned Colwell was living in DeKalb County in 1988.  

The case, assigned to the District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Agatha Romanowski, with assistance from Senior Assistant District Attorney Eliazette Johnson, District Attorney Investigator Crispin Henry and Victim Advocate Julie Varnado.  DeKalb County Police Department Major S. Waits, now retired, led the initial investigation. 

*Because the crime occurred in 1988, Defendant Colwell’s Life sentences will follow the parole guidelines on the books at that time.  For more information, visit the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles website: https://pap.georgia.gov/parole-consideration/parole-process-georgia/life-sentences.)