ATHENS, Ga. — A verdict is in for the murder trial of University of Georgia law student Tara Baker’s killing in 2001.
Edrick Faust was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, rape, arson and all other charges in her death.
Baker’s family said in a statement that the verdict does not erase the years of grief, but it does represent accountability from the legal system she believed in.
“For more than two decades, we have lived with the absence of the life she was building,” said Baker family spokesperson Cameron Jay. “We have imagined the attorney she would have become, the causes she would have championed, and the people she would have helped. That future was taken from her in an act of violence that forever altered our family.”
Jurors began deliberating at 12:30 p.m. Monday and returned with a verdict after 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Faust was charged with raping and killing Baker.
Baker, a 23-year-old University of Georgia law student, was found dead in her burned East Athens home in January 2001. The case remained unsolved for more than two decades before being reopened by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Faust was arrested and charged in 2024.
Prosecutors said he set the UGA law student’s apartment on fire on the way out.
Prosecutors argued DNA evidence tied Faust to the crime scene, but the defense said the state fell short of proving Faust is the only possible suspect.
Defense attorneys said Faust’s DNA was not the only one found at the scene. They pointed to Baker’s boyfriend, Chris Melton, as another possible suspect.
“This is wrong when I tell you this is wrong. There is no other way to explain it,” said Tijuana Dubose, Faust’s cousin.
A sentencing hearing is set for Thursday. That is when the court will hear from Baker’s family and friends when they give their victim impact statements.
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