By Joe Johnson
When 25-year-old Edrick Lamont Faust stabbed a man in the neck on Baxter Street, it was less than a month after he allegedly murdered Tara Baker on the other side of town on January 19, 2001.
Like the earlier victim, Baker had been stabbed in the neck, but was also beaten and sexually assaulted. Sources said that Baker additionally was strangled with a cord from her laptop computer, which was the only item known to have been stolen from her apartment.
Faust would serve a year in prison for the stabbing while investigators began a decades-long investigation trying to find the person who killed the 23-year-old University of Georgia law student.
Authorities have yet to disclose how the Baker case was finally cracked.
Nevertheless, in the ensuing years, Faust went on to compile an extensive criminal record that includes crimes involving drugs, weapons and violence. According to the George Department of Corrections, he served four different prison terms beginning in 2001.
Now 48, Faust stands accused of Baker’s killing, charged with murder, arson, aggravated assault, and aggravated sodomy, among other crimes.
When arrested, he reportedly was living on Meadow Lane, just a few blocks from Baker’s apartment on Fawn Drive in the Deer Park subdivision of east Athens.
He was arrested as the result of a reinvigorated investigation launched last year by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Unit in partnership with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
The GBI said a press conference concerning the Baker case wil be held the coming days, with additional information to be released.
Extensive to say the least. He has 43 separate entries in the Clarke Clerk of Court page.
It is too bad Old Sparky cant be part of the solution.