BALL GROUND, Ga. - A woman who was raped and beaten by an old
acquaintance fought back, stabbing her attacker to death when he
threatened to rape her 6-year-old daughter.
Deputies arrived at the woman's Cherokee County home Sunday night
to find Gerald A. Lee, 38, lying dead in the backyard. The woman,
whose name is being withheld because she was the victim of a sexual
assault, told police Lee broke into the house wearing a ski mask
and carrying a shotgun.
Capt. Ron Hunton with the Cherokee County Police said Lee beat the
woman with the gun and raped her, then told her that he would move
on to her daughter next. He had locked the daughter in the closet
of the room where he raped the woman.
When Lee began rummaging through the woman's purse, she ran to the
kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife. She fought with Lee, stabbing
him several times, Hunton said.
At one point, the attacker threw a pot of boiling tea from the
stove on her, Hunton said.
During the fight, Lee went out the back door and then re-entered
the house by breaking a window, Hunton said. The woman and Lee
fought again in the living room and the hallway, where she stabbed
him several more times.
Lee crawled through the house into the back yard and died.
The woman was stabbed several times during the struggle. She was
airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta where she underwent
surgery Monday and remained in serious but stable condition
Tuesday, Hunton said.
The daughter was not injured.
Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison said Lee and the woman went
to the same high school about 20 years ago and apparently lost
touch through the years. They bumped into each other a few weeks
ago.
Garrison said investigators are waiting for the results of
toxicology tests that he believes could show Lee was on drugs -
perhaps methamphetamine.
Ball Ground is 40 miles north of Atlanta.
