For over a week last year, Terique Hall unleashed cruelty on women in DeKalb County.
He liked to bind their limbs with zip ties, silence them with a black bandanna and take pictures as he raped them, authorities have said. One woman, 20-year-old Ashley Mays, who was pregnant, died as he suffocated her in a cheap hotel.
He pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and sexual crimes. Judge Tangela Barrie sentenced Hall, a 25-year-old who used to drive a MARTA Mobility bus, to two life terms plus five years.
Hall had met the women on backpage, a website frequented by women who sell their bodies and men who want to pay for them.
Some men want more.
“This case underscores the dangers associated with sex trafficking,” said District Attorney Sherry Boston. “It is neither a one-dimensional issue nor a victimless crime. Defendant Hall preyed upon these women and attacked when they were most vulnerable.”
Hall killed Mays at Quality Inn and Suites on Snapfinger Park Drive on Nov. 18. Security cameras recorded him entering the room and leaving calmly an hour later, the district attorney’s office said in a statement detailing the case.
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The cleaning staff found her. She was nine weeks pregnant.
Michael Mays, the victim’s father, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution later that his daughter was a promising young woman but adrift. He tried to talk to her, but she believed past blemishes on her record made prospects of legitimate work few.
After her death, the family hurt. The father, a long-haul trucker, had to go back to work to keep himself from crying. It worked sometimes.
Seven days prior to the 20-year-old’s death, Hall attacked another woman in her Lithonia townhome. He stole electronics and money before fleeing the scene.
Three days after that, Hall tried to attack another woman at the America’s Best Value Inn in Tucker. Her pimp pulled a gun, leading to a gunfight.
Hall ran away.
He was connected to the crimes through a phone.
It was a Wi-Fi phone, which had been reloaded with anonymously registered prepaid debit cards.
But the number was connected to an email address.
It began: "teriquehall."
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