DAD WHO RAPED DAUGHTER IN GRAVEYARD GETS LIFE

Cedric Favors Blasted by the Judge, the Victim and Her Mother in Court

Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. announces the conviction and sentencing today of Cedric Favors of Atlanta on charges that he raped his biological daughter in a cemetery on Forest Park Road in southeast Atlanta on March 10, 2006. The 33-year-old Favors forced her to walk through a cemetery claiming it was a shortcut to the apartment of a niece whom he referred to as his sister. He accosted the victim, telling her, “You’re old enough to start going out with boys, so I’m going to break you in.” The Fulton County jury deliberated 4 hours over yesterday and today before finding Favors guilty of rape and incest.

In her victim impact statement, the girl told her father “you made me feel loneliness, shame, guilt, fear, confused, depression, betrayal and embarrassed…I got so depressed that I wanted to kill myself. How could someone I trust to protect me and I knew all my life do something as evil and dirty as this?” She ended by saying, “I love myself enough to stand up for my rights and I love other people enough to respect their rights.”

Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced Favors to life in prison without parole, plus 20 years to be served consecutively. Judge Baxter told Favors, “You did this to your daughter twice… once in the graveyard and then again in the courtroom. I have no sympathy for you.”

Prosecutors assigned to the DA’s Crimes against Women and Children Unit, Senior ADA Kimberly Esmond Adams and Sally Butler handled the case. They were assisted by Atlanta Police Department Investigator Joseph Siwemuke and ID technician Thea Martin, Fulton DA Investigators Antoinette Beyah, Nick Degennaro and Cindy Williamson and DA Victim-Witness Advocate Shantae Wilson.

CONTACT: Lyn Vaughn, 404.730.6860 (office); 770.597.6963 (cell); lyn.vaughn@co.fulton.ga.us