After nearly four decades, a man has been convicted for his role in a series of violent sexual assaults that took place in DeKalb County in 1986. Jeffrey Briney, now 61, faced a jury that linked him to the crimes through DNA evidence. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) ran previously untested rape kits through a private lab, resulting in a match between Briney and samples collected from the victims.
In the first of the assaults, which occurred on March 28, 1986, four men, including Jeffrey and his brother David Briney, reportedly forced themselves into an apartment on Briarwood Road, holding five college students at gunpoint, and proceeding to rape two of the women. "The apartment was ransacked," as stated by the DeKalb County prosecutors. The second set of convictions Jeffery Briney faces are connected to an October 27 incident, less than a mile away from the first, where two armed men entered an apartment and sexually assaulted two more women.
David Briney, Jeffrey's brother, has also been implicated through DNA evidence in the second assault on Briarwood Road and has been connected to seven additional sexual assault cases across Cobb and Fulton counties, as FOX 5 Atlanta detailed. His trial is pending, and he remains incarcerated without bond.
Driven to see justice served, the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force spearheaded the investigation that led to these convictions. This effort is part of a larger statewide push to test approximately 2,500 backlogged sexual assault kits. DeKalb County's contribution to this initiative included 74 kits. The work of the task force and the eventual DNA match has allowed to close the chapter on these horrific events.
While a sentencing date for Jeffrey Briney is yet to be scheduled, it will be determined by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie. For the victims, this long-delayed adjudication may provide a semblance of closure. 11Alive reports that Briney was found guilty on a slew of charges, including multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and the possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. As the judicial system grapples with the weight of these crimes, the community awaits to hear the judge's final decision on sentencing.
