Macon man receives life sentence on multiple charges including rape

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A judge sentenced a Macon man to life, plus 50 years in prison, after jurors found him guilty of the 2018 raping of one woman hours after he attempted to rape another.

According to the Macon District Attorney’s Office, a jury found 30-year-old Jamal Chris Rowe guilty in Bibb County Superior Court of the following charges:

• rape
• criminal attempt to commit rape
• (3) counts of aggravated assault
• (2) counts of burglary

Trial testimony

During the trial, a woman testified that on February 5, 2018, she was asleep at her Clinton Road apartment in Macon when she heard a knock at the door.

She cracked her door to talk with the man and he forced his way into the apartment. She said the man, now identified as Rowe, dragged her into the bedroom and held her down as he tried to open a condom wrapper.

The woman testified she screamed for help, but Rowe choked and threatened her. She said a neighbor interrupted the assault by knocking on the door.

According to reports, the second incident happened about two hours later nearly two miles away. Another woman testified that she was in her Graham Road apartment putting her daughter to bed.

She said she heard a knock at the door and cracked it to talk with the man. The woman testified that Rowe forced his way into the apartment, threatened her with a knife, choked her with his hands and raped her multiple times over several hours.

While there, the women stated Rowe told her his age and hadn’t had sex in a while because of his imprisonment. She said Rowe took a handful of condoms when he left.

Both women and the neighbor from the Clinton Road apartments gave police a similar description of Rowe.

Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies apprehended Rowe after an investigator saw a man matching that of the witnesses’ physical description. Deputies found a knife near Rowe.

Authorities also found a condom with the same expiration date and number as those still at the Graham Road victim’s apartment.

The neighbor from the Clinton Road assault and the victim from the Graham Road rape picked Rowe’s photo from a photo line-up, identifying him as the assailant.