On April 5, Ezekiel Lamar Jackson posted a request on Nextdoor asking for someone to clean his Canton, Georgia apartment. Fifteen people responded. Fourteen of them were men or represented cleaning companies. Jackson only replied to one: the single woman responding as an independent cleaner. She showed up the next morning at 10 a.m. He was smiling when he answered the door and showed her around. When she turned to leave the bathroom, he attacked her with a screwdriver — stabbing her in the face and eye — and jammed his fingers down her throat to stop her from screaming.
What followed lasted five hours. Jackson strangled her to the point of near-unconsciousness, restrained her, and sexually assaulted her repeatedly — threatening to kill her each time she tried to resist or leave. She survived by convincing him her eye needed medical treatment. She promised she would tell hospital staff she had simply fallen and hit her face on a counter. He agreed, drove her to Northside Cherokee Hospital, and waited in the lobby while she was treated. When she was transferred to intensive care for an orbital fracture and brain bleeds, Canton police arrested him in the waiting room.
A search warrant executed at his apartment recovered the screwdriver, a bloody towel, and first aid supplies. His phone records confirmed he had scrolled through all 15 responses to his post and singled her out. “Evidence suggests this defendant intentionally targeted this victim because she was a woman working alone,” Assistant DA Kelly Chavis said at sentencing. “He is a dangerous man, and the brutality of his actions is shocking. The victim demonstrated great courage and strength, and ultimately saved her own life in the face of such evil.”
On May 28, Jackson, 23, pleaded guilty to all 10 charges he faced — including two counts of rape, three counts of aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, aggravated battery, and terroristic threats — and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, followed by 40 years of probation. He must register as a sex offender, undergo mental health and psychosexual evaluations, and is banished from the state of Georgia upon release. DA Susan Treadaway said: “For five hours, this victim endured unimaginable violence.”