Thursday, February 1, 2024

State v. Michael Tish Mingo Richard

Decatur, Ga.- DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against a Stone Mountain man accused of raping a woman and then kidnapping her and her mother. 

Jurors returned guilty verdicts on Friday, January 12 against Michael Tish Mingo Richard, 45, on charges of Rape, two counts of Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Kidnapping with Bodily Injury and Aggravated Assault stemming from an incident on March 6, 2020. 

On Wednesday, January 31, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Parker-Smith, who presided over the trial, sentenced Defendant Richard to Life Without Parole plus 40 years to serve in confinement. 

According to the investigation, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department responded to a call about a sexual assault on Abberly Way in Stone Mountain around 1:00 p.m.  Investigators interviewed the victim who said she came home to her apartment that morning to find Defendant Richard outside.  The victim knew Defendant Richard because he used to date one of her friends.

He told her he was having car trouble and she agreed to help him, but said she needed to go inside to change first.  Defendant Richard went with the woman into her apartment.  She changed clothes and then she walked into the kitchen where Defendant Richard came up behind her and held a knife to her throat.

Defendant Richard zip tied the victim’s hands, forced her into a bedroom and raped her.  The victim told investigators that during the assault, she heard her mother open the front door.  The victim yelled for her mother to run away, but Defendant Richard ran out of the bedroom, grabbed the victim’s mother and tied her up. 

Defendant Richard ordered the victim to shower and change her clothes.  He then forced both women into the victim’s car and told them to drive to an ATM where they withdrew cash from her mother’s bank account. 

Defendant Richard took them back to their apartment where he tied up the victim’s mother and left her.  He then made the victim take him to a convenience store where he could buy drugs.  When they returned, Defendant Richard tied up the victim as well.  He left the apartment multiple times, but then repeatedly came back to check if the women had left to get help.  Finally, the victims waited about half an hour and when he did not return, they went to the leasing office to call 911.  Defendant Richard had fled in the victim’s car. 

Law enforcement arrested Defendant Richard in Savannah the next day after a license plate reader alerted investigators that the victim’s stolen car was in the area.  Officers found Defendant Richard with a knife.  When he did not drop the weapon, officers tased Richard.  He was transported to the hospital and then to the Chatham County Jail.  Investigators found a pad of paper in Defendant Richard’s pocket with a note about how sorry he was for “the evil he brought” on the victim. 

The case, assigned to the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Paige Boorman with assistance from Senior Assistant District Attorney Allison Layton, District Attorney Investigator Andre Johnson, and Victim Advocate Kiesha Rudolph. Retired DeKalb County Police Department Detective John Dargon led the initial investigation.