Fulton County man sentenced to life in prison for 2022 sexual assault case

Damion Terry (Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

A Fulton County man has been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of rape and battery in a 2022 sexual assault case. It took jurors just 46 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict.

What we know:

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced that Damion Terry was convicted on April 11, 2025. Superior Court Judge Melynee Leftridge sentenced Terry to life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus an additional 12 months to be served consecutively.

The charges stem from a Jan. 15, 2022, incident in South Fulton. According to investigators, the then-20-year-old victim had attended a birthday party at a home on Koweta Road. Around 2 a.m., she went to rest in a downstairs room and fell asleep. She awoke sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. to find Terry on top of her, actively assaulting her.

The woman screamed for help, prompting two friends—Anthony Thomas and David Golden—to force open the locked door. As she began explaining what had happened, Terry reportedly emerged from a hiding place and slapped her across the face. The two men helped her upstairs and away from Terry. The victim later contacted a friend, who drove her to Piedmont Henry Hospital. A sexual assault kit was collected at the hospital, and DNA analysis conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed Terry was the source of the male DNA recovered.

Both Thomas and Golden, described as friends of the Defendant, testified during trial but were found to have lied under oath in an attempt to protect Terry. Prosecutor JaCelynn Porter, treating them as hostile witnesses, confronted Golden with a recorded phone call where he admitted to breaking down the door and expressed remorse for what happened. She also presented text messages in which Golden acknowledged the assault.

Porter criticized both men for choosing to protect their friend rather than stand up for the victim, saying their actions denied justice to someone they once considered a friend. The prosecution also presented expert testimony from a toxicologist and a sexual assault trauma specialist to explain the victim’s physical state and her response to the attack.

The case was prosecuted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Unit, including Senior Assistant District Attorney JaCelynn Porter, Deputy District Attorney Siri Patel, Senior Investigator Khristina Sanders, Victim Witness Advocate Carla Martinez, and Legal Assistant Cassie Lundy.

Fulton CountyCrime and Public SafetyNews