CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — The Cherokee County District Attorney’s Office says a man will serve nearly 40 years in prison after his conviction for attempted rape and sexual battery.
According to the DA’s office, Sedric Charles Williams Jr., was convicted on Oct. 1 for attacking a woman on an overpass at Highway 92 in August 2024.
The victim told Cherokee deputies that she was assaulted by a stranger but he left the scene before deputies arrived.
The DA’s office said Williams’ victim told them she’d been walking from the McDonald’s on Highway 92 to a RaceTrac gas station when a man, later identified as Williams, approached her asking to have sex with her.
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She refused and he followed her onto the overpass and assaulted her, the DA’s office said.
The next day, a Cherokee deputy found Williams in the Acworth area of Bartow County.
While talking to law enforcement, Williams asked them “Is this about the girl?” and “I just touched her back.”
Williams was arrested.
“Those admissions, made before the defendant was even told that he was being charged with a crime, became key pieces of evidence supporting the victim’s account,” Assistant District Attorney Rebecca N. Visockis said in a statement. “In addition, a witness saw the defendant chasing the woman, video surveillance helped identify him at the scene, and DNA evidence further corroborated the victim’s report.”
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Further investigation before trial led to prosecutors learning of an earlier sexual battery case involving Williams from September 2023, also in Acworth but the portion in Cobb County.
The DA’s office said the older incident was less than a mile from the one in 2024.
At trial, Williams told the court that when he saw the victim from 2024, “he got butterflies.”
Despite her rejection, prosecutors said Williams “responded by chasing her down and assaulting her. Women should be able to walk alone safely in Cherokee County and, with this verdict and sentence, that message is clear.”
He was convicted by a Cherokee County jury on Oct. 1 on charges of attempt to commit rape and two counts of sexual battery.
On Tuesday, a Cherokee County judge sentenced Williams to 40 years, with the first 35 to be served in confinement. The judge also ordered Williams be barred from Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb and Paulding counties, all of which have portions of Acworth in them.
“This defendant demonstrated a disturbing pattern of escalating violence, assaulting two victims within a year. We are grateful both women came forward and that our community is safer now that this defendant has been removed from the streets,” District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said.
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