Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS -- Travis Rabon will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced Thursday to life without parole for the murder of one woman and the rape of another in 2008.

Rockdale County Superior Court Judge David Irwin gave Rabon life without parole for the murder Keria Rachell Avant at his apartment on Dec. 29, 2008. He also received a life sentence to run consecutively for kidnapping of another woman in the apartment at the time of Avant's death.

Sentences for rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault and aggravated battery involving the second woman will run concurrently with Rabon's murder sentence, according to Rockdale County District Attorney Richard Read.

Avant's father read a brief statement during the sentencing hearing before Irwin handed down the sentences.

A jury found Rabon, 24, guilty on Jan. 31 following four hours of deliberations and a week-long trial.

Rabon contended during the trial that Avant and the other woman came to his apartment in the Lake St. James apartment complex off McDaniel Mill Road that day to pick up some money. Three women Avant traveled with stayed in the car while Avant met with Rabon. The other victim walked into the apartment after waiting in the car.

The conversation turned to a sex for money transaction with the two women, Rabon said. He claimed that he acted in self defense because the women intended to rob him. However, it was unclear from Rabon what was being sought in the robbery. First, he said it was for money, but later he said it was for nearly a pound of marijuana he had in his bedroom closet.

The state's case presented by Read stated Rabon asked for sex and when Avant refused, Rabon beat and raped her. The other victim came to the door to check in on Avant and she was pulled into the apartment by Rabon where she was beaten and raped.Avant died from strangulation and her body was found on the bedroom floor. A cord was found on Avant's body and identified as the murder weapon by investigators and prosecutors. Rabon said in his testimony he did not know how the cord got on Avant's neck nor could he explain how she died.