Atlanta man sentenced to two life sentences in kidnapping and sexual assault

DECATUR, GA—Evariuel Martez Billings, 44, of Atlanta has been sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a 20-year-old woman, sexually assaulting her and leading police on a chase.  

DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced the conviction by jury trial on Monday, March 31. 

Jurors found Billings, 44, guilty of Kidnapping, Aggravated Sexual Battery, Aggravated Sodomy, Sexual Battery, and Fleeing Or Attempting To Elude A Police Officer For A Felony Offense in connection with the abduction and sexual assault on Aug.1, 2023. 

According to the investigation, Billings approached the victim as she was sitting in a parked Volkswagen Jetta with the windows down waiting for her boyfriend and a friend outside of an auto repair shop on Shirley Drive in Atlanta. Billings asked to use the woman’s phone. When she refused, he got upset and yelled at her. She turned the car on and attempted to call her boyfriend, who did not pick up. To avoid further conflict, she handed the phone to Billings.  

Billings told the victim he didn’t want her phone, reached through the window to open the car door, pushed the victim into the passenger seat, and drove off. The victim begged to be let out of the car. 

Billings told the victim he would let her go when he got where he needed to go, but instead he drove around aimlessly. He questioned the victim about how old she was and who she had been waiting for at the shop.  

The victim’s boyfriend called her repeatedly and Billings warned her not to answer or he would kill her. Billings ordered the young woman to look up porn on her phone and while she had the phone, she was able to answer one of her boyfriend’s calls and ask for help. 

Defendant Billings sexually assaulted the victim repeatedly, yelling at her to follow his instructions when she resisted. He then forced her to perform oral sex on him while he watched the porn on the phone and drove, getting more aggressive with the victim as calls kept coming in on her phone.

During the ordeal, the victim secretly used the phone to send her boyfriend her location multiple times. 

Doraville Police began following the car and tried to pull it over. Defendant Billings sped up and started driving more erratically, telling the victim he was going to crash the car and kill them both. After a 12-minute chase, an unmarked Doraville police unit executed a PIT maneuver to disable the car. After the Jetta came to a stop, Defendant Billings told the victim he would kill her if she got out of the car. Doraville Police pulled Billings out of the car and arrested him more than two and a half hours after the abduction had begun. The victim and the defendant both suffered minor injuries.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Courtney L. Johnson presided over the trial. Immediately following the guilty verdicts, Judge Johnson sentenced Billings to two consecutive Life Without the Possibility of Parole sentences, plus 31 years to serve in custody. Billings was also sentenced to pay a $10,000 fine.

The case, assigned to the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Ashley Johnson, Senior Assistant District Attorney Tyshawn Jackson, District Attorney Investigator Jerad Wheeler and Victim Advocate Britney Winley. Doraville Police Department Detective K. Harris led the initial investigation.