Man Gets Two Life Sentences for 1988 Cold Case Rape in DeKalb County
Reginald Colwell, 58, of Albany, has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 20 years after a DeKalb County jury found him guilty of Kidnapping, Rape, and Aggravated Assault. The conviction, secured after a trial that began on May 20, 2025, and concluded with the verdict on May 27, 2025, addresses a cold case from December 30, 1988. The sentencing was handed down today by DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Gregory A. Adams, who presided over the proceedings.
The egregious incident nearly 40 years ago involved a 20-year-old woman who reported to the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) that she had been brutally attacked. As she was locking the front door of her apartment, she heard a noise. Upon turning, she was confronted by a man in a ski mask who held a knife to her throat and forced her into the woods behind the apartment complex on Weatherly Drive in unincorporated Stone Mountain. The assailant sexually assaulted her at knifepoint, threatening her life if she resisted. After the attack, the man ordered her to remain on the ground before fleeing. The victim waited to ensure he was gone, then ran to a nearby neighborhood for help, where a woman assisted her in contacting her boyfriend, who subsequently took her to the police station.
DKPD officers immediately searched the wooded area and recovered the victim’s purse and other belongings scattered during the attack. The victim was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital for a sexual assault examination.
Despite the crime occurring before the widespread availability of DNA testing, the biological evidence collected in the sexual assault kit was meticulously preserved at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). The breakthrough came in 2015, when the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance established the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), a federal effort to fund the testing of previously unprocessed sexual assault kits nationwide. The DeKalb District Attorney’s Office is an integral part of a multi-jurisdictional SAKI Task Force, in partnership with the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC).
Through this federal SAKI funding, the evidence from this 1988 case was finally tested, resulting in a crucial CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) match investigative lead to Defendant Colwell in June 2019. An investigator with the District Attorney’s SAKI team then secured a warrant to collect a DNA sample from Colwell, which definitively confirmed his DNA was present in the victim’s sexual assault kit. Further investigative work revealed that Colwell was indeed living in DeKalb County in 1988, establishing a direct link to the crime.
The case, handled by 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. The initial investigation in 1988 was led by then-Major S. Waits of the DeKalb County Police Department, who has since retired.
District Attorney Sherry Boston commended the collaborative effort, stating that the conviction brings “long-overdue justice to the many women he harmed over four decades.” The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office expressed profound gratitude to their committed staff and law enforcement partners for their tireless work in securing accountability for this heinous crime.
