Man Charged in St. Timothy Sexual Assault

John Russell Carver, 50, was charged with the Feb. 26  rape, armed robbery and assault of a woman at St. Timothy United Methodist Church, DeKalb police said.

Carver is in the Fulton County Jail, police said. He was identified as a suspect after "a positive DNA hit by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations," the police department said in an e-mailed statement.  Carver was arrested in other charges on March 7, the statement said.

The victim is a staff member at St. Timothy, on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain, and was working there alone on Saturday, Feb. 26. She opened the door to a man asking for help, according to a fellow staff member, and was then raped, beaten and robbed by the man. She was hospitalized and in the intensive care unit following the attack. She is recovering day by day, church members said late last week. 

“We are very thankful that he is caught and we'd like to see justice be served," said Jan Dunaway, a board member of PRISM, about the charges. "The police have done an outstanding job."

PRISM, which stands for Pride Rings in Stone Mountain, is a civic group, co-founded by Rep. Michele Henson. It was formed in the 1990s in reaction to crime on Memorial Drive and meets at St. Timothy United Methodist Church, at 5365 Memorial Drive, on the second Thursday of every month. The next meeting will be April 14, 7 p.m.

With reporting by Leslie Johnson. 

Editor's note: This is an update to an earlier version to include a comment from PRISM.