Serial rapist sentenced to life for assaults
A man has pleaded guilty to committing multiple assaults after a task force working collaboratively to solve cold case crimes connected his DNA to at least four different rapes and assaults throughout DeKalb County.
On March 12, the years-long investigation into multiple sexual assaults dating back to 1999 came to an end when 64-year-old Wesley Cooley pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, as well as charges of kidnapping with bodily injury and additional charges stemming from assaults against four female victims ranging from ages 16 to 28 at the time the crimes occurred.
“Each of the DeKalb cases follows a similar fact pattern where Cooley approached young women who were alone, offered them a ride or other assistance, then drove them to a second location and assaulted them,” explained officials.
According to investigators, in one instance, Cooley picked up a teenager from Miller Grove High School after offering her a job at a grocery store. He then drove to a second location and assaulted the victim.
Cooley was eventually arrested in 2017 when a victim was able to escape and provide a description of Cooley and his vehicle to police, who later stopped Cooley and found the victim’s belongings in his car.
Around this time, according to officials, the DNA of an unknown perpetrator was linked to several cases in DeKalb, Fulton, and Rockdale counties dating back to 1999. When a detective from the DeKalb County Police Department received a DNA match from a 2017 case to the unknown perpetrator in the other cases, he contacted the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force (GASAKI). Through a review of the evidence in all the cases, and working in partnership with the Conyers, DeKalb and Atlanta police departments, GASAKI found evidence to identify Cooley as a suspect in the April 2017 rape. GASAKI secured a warrant for a DNA sample from Cooley and confirmed in January 2020 he was a positive DNA match to all of the cases with the same unknown perpetrator, according to officials.
After Cooley’s DNA was linked to the cases, he was arrested near his Conyers home in 2020 by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office. Cooley has been held in the DeKalb County Jail without bond since his arrest. A DeKalb County Grand Jury indicted him in April 2022.
After Cooley pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this month, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams, who presided over the hearing, sentenced Cooley to life without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to serve consecutively.
The Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force was established in 2018 in partnership with the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) as part of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar federal grant under the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, according to officials.
The team consists of prosecutors, investigators, and victim advocates from the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, the Prosecuting Attorneys Council (PAC), and CJCC (with resources from Bridging Hope) working collaboratively to solve cold case sexual assault crimes.
Additionally, officials noted that the GASAKI relies on the ongoing work and commitment of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab to process previously untested sexual assault kits.
