A man convicted in a 2016 Augusta rape has been sentenced to life plus 20 years.
Travis Marekus McNeil, 42, was arrested Feb. 27 “due to a DNA match from another case outside of Augusta, which led to him being brought to justice here,” noted Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams in a news release issued Thursday.
According to the 2016 incident report, McNeil had hitched a ride from a woman whom he then began choking on the 3400 block of Milledgeville Road. When she tried to escape and phone her mother, authorities say McNeil subdued her and forced her back into the vehicle’s back seat, where she was raped. They then walked to a nearby gas station, where the victim managed to contact her mother as McNeil fled.
McNeil was charged with rape and aggravated assault by strangulation.
“McNeil is a predator and a rapist, with zero regard for bodily autonomy, and our state is a safer place with him locked away,” Williams noted.
Attacks: Man wanted for two rape cases arrested
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta man draws life sentence in rape case from 2016
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