A Decatur man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a rape that went unsolved for more than three decades.

Moses Robinson, 67, entered a non-negotiated guilty plea to a rape charge on Tuesday, Sept. 22, in DeKalb County Superior Court. Judge Asha F. Jackson sentenced him to life in prison. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, whose office also prosecutes cases in Dunwoody and Brookhaven, announced the conviction.

The case dates to Jan. 13, 1990. A 26-year-old woman was in bed at the Misty Waters Apartment complex in unincorporated Decatur when someone kicked in her back door around 3:45 a.m., the DA's office said. Robinson entered her bedroom, pulled her into the living room, told her he had a knife, forced her to the ground and raped her.

After the assault, Robinson stayed for two more hours, talking to the victim in the dark. She asked him questions but was unable to gather information that could identify him.

DeKalb County police responded after Robinson left. The victim underwent a sexual assault exam at Grady Memorial Hospital, and the evidence was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Without a suspect, the kit could not be tested at the time. The GBI preserved the biological evidence.

The break came in 2019. The GBI sent the kit to a private lab as part of the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (GASAKI), a statewide effort established in 2018 to test previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits. The lab processing returned a match to Robinson through the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

The DA's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative team and DeKalb County police located the original 1990 case file. Investigators connected with the victim in 2024, and she confirmed she wanted to move forward with prosecution.

A DeKalb County grand jury indicted Robinson on Aug. 8, 2025. He was taken into custody on Aug. 25, 2025, and remained in the DeKalb County Jail without bond until sentencing.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Agatha Romanowski prosecuted the case. Retired DeKalb County police investigator H. Brown handled the original 1990 investigation.

Because the crime occurred in 1990, Robinson's life sentence will follow the parole guidelines that were on the books at that time, the DA's office said. The specific parole eligibility timeline under those guidelines was not stated in the announcement.

Boston has championed the GASAKI program. In a March statement about a separate cold-case rape prosecution, she said, "It is critical that these survivors get their day in court and that the offenders are held responsible, no matter how much time has passed."

No appeal or further proceedings have been announced.