A DeKalb County Superior Court judge sentenced a College Park woman to life in prison plus 10 years Tuesday for running over and killing another woman in a motel parking lot last year, capping a case that began with a dispute over a shared ex-boyfriend and ended with a fatal collision caught on multiple surveillance cameras.
Judge Tangela Barrie handed down the sentence for 35-year-old Talisha Moore-Real, who pleaded guilty in August 2026 to malice murder, felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and first-degree cruelty to children, according to the Atlanta News First report. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, who oversaw the prosecution, said the fatal attack grew out of a personal dispute between Moore-Real and the victim's daughter, who had been dating Moore-Real's ex-boyfriend, per WSB Radio.
DeKalb County Police Department officers responded to the motel at 10:40 p.m. on September 29, 2025, after a 911 caller reported someone had been hit and run over by a car, according to Atlanta News First's report. The location, later identified in arrest warrants, was the parking lot of Gulf American Inns in the 3700 block of Flat Shoals Road in Decatur, a two-star motel in unincorporated DeKalb County, according to 11Alive.
Gunfire, a 911 Call, and a Deadly Return
The chain of events began with an argument at the motel between Moore-Real and her ex-boyfriend, the outlet reports. As she drove away, the ex-boyfriend fired shots at her car, and Moore-Real called 911 to report the shooting — only six minutes before she returned to the motel parking lot, according to Atlanta News First's account corroborated by FOX 5 Atlanta.
When she came back, prosecutors say Moore-Real intentionally rammed one of the Baker family's relatives' cars before driving toward Laquita Baker, Baker's daughter, and another relative who was 17 years old. Baker tried to move out of the way, but Moore-Real struck and ran over her. Motel surveillance cameras and nearby gas station cameras both captured the collision on video, the report states.
Paramedics treated Baker at the scene before she was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. Initial sheriff's office arrest warrants listed her as 47 years old, though District Attorney's office records later stated she was 53 at the time of her death, a discrepancy also noted by Decatur Patch.
Investigators Track the Rental Car to the Airport
A witness at the scene photographed the license plate of the silver SUV rental Moore-Real was driving, allowing police to track the vehicle to a rental car business at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where it had been returned before her arrest. The rental company turned the vehicle over to detectives.
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Unit took Moore-Real into custody without incident at a gas station on Old National Highway in Atlanta three days after the collision, and she was held without bond at the DeKalb County Jail through her trial. Moore-Real told investigators she did not see anyone in her way and did not mean to hit anyone — a claim the DA's office says was contradicted by the video evidence recovered from the motel and gas station cameras.
Life Sentence Plus a Decade Under Georgia Law
Moore-Real's guilty plea came in August 2026, and Judge Barrie's sentencing this week added 10 additional years to her life term. Because her conviction includes malice murder under Official Code of Georgia § 16-5-1 — which requires proof of an unlawful killing with express or implied malice, shown when circumstances reveal an abandoned and malignant heart with no considerable provocation — she was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, according to legal standards outlined by Justia.
Under Georgia Code § 17-10-6.1, a conviction for a serious violent felony resulting in a life sentence carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years before a person becomes eligible to even apply for parole, with no sentence-reducing measures permitted during that window. That means Moore-Real will not have a chance to seek release for decades, on top of the additional 10-year term tied to her other counts.
The case also included a first-degree cruelty to children conviction, stemming from the presence of the 17-year-old relative standing beside Baker and her daughter when Moore-Real drove the SUV directly at the group. Prosecutors said that endangerment of a minor formed part of the legal basis for the additional charge alongside the murder counts.
It remains unclear from available court records whether Moore-Real's ex-boyfriend, who allegedly fired the shots that preceded the fatal return trip, faced any criminal charges of his own; his identity and legal status have not been disclosed in prosecutors' releases.
