ATLANTA, GA — A man has been convicted of a 2007 rape after his victim spotted him six years later while waiting on a MARTA train. Antonio White, 54, was convicted in Fulton County Superior Court and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Fulton DA Paul Howard.

On Oct. 13, 2013, the victim was waiting for a train at the Five Points MARTA station when she spotted White. It had been six years since the attack, which had, until then, yielded no arrests. The victim then began yelling out that he was the man who had raped her . Hearing her cries for help, MARTA police detained White and turned him over to Atlanta police.

The victim claimed she was walking to the Hamilton E. Holmes MARTA station on the night of Aug. 12, 2007, when White drove up in his grey Chevrolet Lumina and asked if she wanted a ride. The victim knew White from the former Carver Homes neighborhood in southeast Atlanta where they both formerly lived, so she said okay.

Instead of driving her home, the defendant took the victim to an abandoned house on Bowen Avenue. She was trapped inside the car because the door handle and button to control the window were missing. As White opened his door, the victim opened her door and ran, but he chased her with a gun. The defendant grabbed the victim’s hair from behind and pulled her back inside the car at gunpoint. White then raped the victim inside his vehicle.

During the incident, White said to the victim, “Shut up that screaming (expletive) or I’ll kill you.”

For years, the woman assured family, friends, and neighbors that she had been raped, but she never officially reported the crime to police. However, after MARTA police arrested White and Atlanta police began their investigation, detectives quickly learned White had sexually assaulted several other women in the Carver Homes/Lakewood area between 1983 and 2008.

During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence of four previous sexual assaults committed by the defendant. White would typically approach the women on foot and assault the victims in wooded areas. The defendant has one prior rape conviction, a robbery conviction, and he previously pleaded guilty to sexual battery.

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