FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Fulton County judge sentenced a man to life in prison after he killed a woman he met on a dating app. Prosecutors said the victim had rejected him before she was murdered.
Channel 2 investigator reporter Ashli Lincoln was the only reporter in the courtroom on Tuesday when the judge sentenced Antonio Wilson in the 2019 murder of Fabiola Thomas.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis says her office is proactively litigating domestic violence cases.
“It’s one of the hardest crimes to make sure that we combat,” Willis told Lincoln in an exclusive interview. “This is an issue that’s really close to home for me.”
The Brenda Bayham Domestic Violence Unit is named after Willis’ late aunt who was stabbed to death by her husband. On Tuesday, the unit won a conviction in Thomas’ murder.
“This is really, a sad case,” Willis said.
Fabiola Thomas was attacked and killed in her Roswell apartment in 2019. Myrto Charles remembers the last time she saw her sister.
“We hugged and kissed each other. Then I walked her to her car, and that was the last time we said I love you to each other,” Charles said.
A week later, Thomas’ family received the heartbreaking news of her death, just one month before her 40th birthday.
“My sister was attacked and murdered in her home,” Charles said. “My sister enjoyed and loved life. She had dreams and goals she wanted to accomplish, yet that all died with her, when she was gasping for her last breath.”
TRENDING STORIES
- Hundreds of Clayton County classrooms don’t have teachers days before school starts back
- Delta apologizes, promises 10,000 SkyMiles to customers impacted by outages
- Trump assassination attempt: Body camera video of sniper moments after shots were fired
A Fulton County judge sentenced Antonio Wilson to serve life without the possibility of parole for malice murder.
“She unfriended Antonio Wilson the day before she died,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Nalda Charles said.
The prosecution says text messages show Wilson couldn’t handle Thomas’ rejection towards him before he strangled her inside her Roswell apartment.
“Keep your ring, I’m not your woman, never was, stop claiming me because I never claimed u,” Thomas wrote in a text.
Investigators discovered that Thomas and Wilson had only dated briefly after they met on a dating app.
“Ms. Thomas did everything that you would think you should do. She told her friends where she was going. She would only meet him in public places,” Assistant District Attorney Abigail Potter told Lincoln.
ADA Nalda Charles said after Thomas rejected Wilson’s advances, he found where she lived and attacked her in her home.
“And that is the most chilling part because she’s getting ready for work, she’s in her pajamas,” she said.
Jurors saw the crime scene photos, heard from witnesses who put Wilson at the scene and heard from Thomas’ roommate who found her body lying in a tub. It took the jury only 30 minutes to find him guilty.
“It was just so egregious. It was unnecessary, it didn’t have to happen. She was unarmed, defenseless, and in her home, all because she said no.”
IN OTHER NEWS
©2024 Cox Media Group
