A 67-year-old Decatur man was sentenced to life in prison this week after pleading guilty to a rape committed 36 years ago, one that went unsolved for decades until a long-neglected piece of evidence finally caught up with him. Moses Robinson entered a woman's apartment at the Misty Waters complex in unincorporated Decatur around 3:45 a.m. on Jan. 13, 1990, and raped the 26-year-old victim.
What happened after the attack is almost as unsettling as the crime itself. According to 95.5 WSB, Robinson did not immediately flee after the rape. Instead, per reporting from WSB-TV, he remained inside the apartment for two hours, sitting in the dark and talking to his traumatized victim before finally leaving. That left the woman unable to give responding officers any identifying details about her attacker, a gap that helped the case go cold almost from the start.
A Rape Kit That Sat Untested for Decades
Medical staff at Grady Memorial Hospital collected biological evidence during a sexual assault exam performed on the victim immediately after the attack, but that rape kit sat untested for nearly 30 years, the same WSB-TV report notes. It wasn't until 2019 that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation sent the kit to a private laboratory as part of a statewide initiative to clear a massive backlog of untested rape kits.
Efforts to address Georgia's backlog of untested sexual assault kits included the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, whose work was supported by federal Department of Justice grants, according to the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
From DNA Match to Guilty Plea
DNA evidence from the decades-old kit eventually linked Robinson to the victim, the same WSB-TV report states. SAKI investigators and DeKalb County police then returned to the archived 1990 case file. Officials said police reconnected with the victim in 2024, and she confirmed she wanted to move forward with prosecution.
A grand jury indicted Robinson on Aug. 8, 2025, and he was taken into custody that same month, per the DeKalb County District Attorney. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, closing out a case that began before he was middle-aged.
Legal Path Made Possible by DNA Exception
The prosecution was only possible because Georgia law makes an exception for cases like this one. Under Ga. Code §§ 17-3-1 and 17-3-2.1, Georgia law provides a DNA-based exception to the standard 15-year limitation window for rape, according to RAINN.
The DeKalb County District Attorney's Office established the DeKalb County Cold Case Task Force in 2022, combining resources from her office, the DeKalb Medical Examiner's Office, the DeKalb Police Department, the FBI, and the GBI, according to the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney.
In Robinson's case, DNA technology was only part of the story; investigators also returned to the archived case file and reconnected with the victim before moving forward with prosecution.
