1256
0
A woman walking through downtown Senoia was grabbed from behind and sexually assaulted in a dark stretch of Travis Street. She never saw her attacker’s face.
Less than three days later, police had a suspect in custody.
Senoia Police say surveillance cameras, Flock license plate readers, investigative work, and assistance from federal and Fayette County law enforcement led them to 30-year-old Fayetteville resident Isaiah Jamal Phillips, a Sandy Creek High School graduate, who is charged with battery, false imprisonment, and sexual battery in connection with the August 16 attack.
And as investigators began looking into Phillips, they found a history that Capt. Jason Ercole said concerned them: previous sexual battery cases in Roswell and Peachtree City, another sexual battery warrant from Morrow, and Fayette County records showing a woman had previously obtained a 12-month stalking protective order against him.
Asked whether he believed the alleged behavior was escalating, Ercole said, “Yeah, very much so.”
An attack in the dark
The attack happened almost exactly at 10 p.m. Sunday, August 16.
The victim regularly walked the streets of Senoia and told police she had never felt unsafe there. The area where she was attacked, however, was extremely dark.
She was grabbed from behind.
“All she could see were arms,” Ercole said.
At first, the woman thought someone she knew might be playing a joke on her.
“She said at first that she, ‘I’ve been around here so long. I know so many people. I’ve never felt unsafe. People know me; I know them. I walk through here all the time. I thought someone was playing a joke on me,’” Ercole said. “But when he covered my mouth, I knew it was real.”
The attacker threw her to the ground, Ercole said, leaving substantial bruising on the side of her face.
Once she was down, he kept one hand over her mouth and put his other hand down the front of her pants.
The woman was able to pull his hand away from her mouth and screamed as loudly as she could. She yelled the name of a man she knew who lived a few houses away, hoping he and his wife might be sitting outside.
“That’s when the guy got scared and got up and ran off,” Ercole said.
When the victim looked up, the darkness still kept her from getting a useful description.
“She said, ‘It was so dark that when I looked up and saw the back of him running away, I couldn’t tell if he was wearing a black shirt, no shirt, brown shirt. I just don’t know. I could not see his face,’” Ercole said.
Police decided that releasing a general description of a Black male in dark clothing would do little to identify the attacker and could bring unwarranted scrutiny on other people.
The assault itself lasted approximately two minutes or less.
Half the cameras were down
Police got the victim medical care, interviewed her, and began reviewing cameras around Senoia.
Then investigators hit a problem.
The department has dozens of cameras in and around town, but on Monday, police could access only about half of them because of a technical problem.
An IT specialist could not get to the department until Tuesday morning.
Investigators began working with what they had.
On the available footage, they spotted a man between roughly 9:30 and 10 p.m. near the farmers market. He was wearing dark clothing and was in an area police did not expect someone to be after hours.
“He just looked odd to be in that area after hours,” Ercole said.
Police began asking questions and were able to identify the man and determine that he worked in Senoia.
The department is not identifying the business. Ercole said the employer was not involved in the alleged crime, and naming it could unfairly draw attention to the business. He said the business has since fired Phillips.
Once police had a name, they began checking his history.
Prior sexual battery cases and a stalking order
Ercole said investigators found Phillips had previously been arrested by Roswell Police in 2023 on a sexual battery charge.
According to information reviewed by Senoia investigators, Ercole said that case involved an allegation that Phillips approached a woman from behind inside a TJ Maxx and grabbed her buttocks.
Fayette County court records reviewed by The Citizen show Phillips is also facing seven misdemeanor sexual battery counts in two separate cases stemming from alleged incidents in 2024.
Two counts stem from alleged offenses on April 11, 2024. Five more stem from alleged offenses on June 20, 2024.
Fayette County Solicitor General Jamie Inagawa confirmed that his office is prosecuting both cases.
“The cases have been arraigned and will be scheduled for trial in the coming months,” Inagawa said. “Because these matters are pending, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this time.”
Phillips told Ercole during an interview that he was on probation in connection with the Peachtree City charges. However, the Fayette County records reviewed by The Citizen do not show a final disposition in either sexual battery case, and Inagawa confirmed both cases remain pending.
Fayette County records do show that Phillips previously served probation in a separate 2022 misdemeanor marijuana case, which ended with a successful termination of probation.
Fayette County records also show that in July 2024, a woman sought a protective order alleging that Phillips had stalked her. The court granted a 12-month stalking protective order.
Investigators also discovered an outstanding Morrow warrant for sexual battery stemming from July of this year. All previous charges were misdemeanors, which means that bond has to be granted.
Ercole said Senoia Police had not yet received the Morrow report and did not know the circumstances underlying that allegation.
The collection of cases caught investigators’ attention.
Asked directly whether he saw escalation in Phillips’ alleged behavior, Ercole said, “Yeah, very much so.”
Then the missing cameras came back
By Tuesday morning, Senoia’s IT specialist had restored access to the rest of the department’s cameras.
That changed the investigation.
Police began seeing the same person they had already identified appearing behind the victim on successive cameras as she walked.
“That’s when we find the same person stalking our victim, camera angle, camera angle,” Ercole said. “Her walking and him behind her. Her walking and him behind her. It’s very scary to watch.”
Ercole estimated the man followed the victim for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, although he said detectives working directly with the complete video sequence would be able to establish more precise timestamps.
Investigators also had Flock license plate reader information.
Police said the vehicle Phillips used to travel to and from work entered Senoia around the time he was scheduled to begin his shift. About five minutes after the attack, that same vehicle hit a Flock camera on Bridge Street near the area where the assault occurred.
Police had approached a judge Monday with what they had already developed.
But at that point, the available surveillance did not place the suspect close enough to the attack scene.
The department knew it had cameras closer to the area. It just could not access them yet.
Once those cameras came online Tuesday and investigators saw the man following the victim toward the scene, police returned to court.
Senior Magistrate Judge Stripling signed the warrants, Ercole said.
“We are 100% confident in our police work and the work that we have done on this case,” Ercole said. “I’m not going to say 100% that he’s guilty because that’s the court to decide. He has every right to a presumption of innocence, like anybody else. The court has a process, and we respect it to be followed.”
Federal help for a small department
Because the case included a felony false imprisonment charge and because police were concerned about what Ercole described as escalating conduct, Senoia sought help making the arrest.
The department contacted Detective Josh Mauney with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, who is assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.
“I said, ‘This is what we got,’” Ercole said. “He said, ‘No problem, we’re on it.’”
Mauney also enlisted assistance from the U.S. Secret Service.
Ercole said the Secret Service provided technical assistance to the investigation, but Senoia Police is not permitted to disclose what type of assistance was provided.
Senoia officers met members of the task force in Fayetteville Wednesday morning before traveling to Phillips’ home.
Phillips, 30, lives in Fayetteville and graduated from Sandy Creek High School, according to Ercole.
The officers surrounded the house, and commands were issued over a SWAT vehicle loudspeaker directing Phillips to come outside with his hands up.
He did.
“There was no struggle,” Ercole said. “There was no resistance.”Z
Phillips was taken into custody and brought back to the Senoia Police Department.
Phillips speaks with investigators
Ercole interviewed Phillips after the arrest.
He said Phillips waived his right to counsel and spoke with him but did not confess.
“He did not make any admissions. He did not confess,” Ercole said. “But he did not deny it either.”
According to Ercole, Phillips acknowledged himself on surveillance footage, acknowledged being in the area, and acknowledged driving the vehicle captured by police cameras.
“Yep, that’s me. Yep, that’s me. Yep, that’s me,” Ercole said Phillips told him as they went through the evidence.
“But he never said, ‘I did it. I’m responsible. I’m sorry,’” Ercole said. “But he never denied it either.”
Phillips also acknowledged the existence of his previous cases when Ercole asked about them.
“He said there’s documentation of it,” Ercole said. “That’s all he would tell me.”
More charges could follow
The current Senoia charges are battery, false imprisonment, and sexual battery.
Ercole said the false imprisonment charge is a felony. He said police based it on allegations that the attacker grabbed and restrained the victim against her will and later held her down while covering her mouth.
The battery charge stems from injuries suffered when the woman was thrown to the ground, while the sexual battery charge stems from the alleged sexual touching.
The investigation is not finished.
Ercole said the victim has since learned that her injuries are more extensive than police initially understood.
Police are waiting for medical documentation and could seek an aggravated battery charge, which would add another felony.
Investigators also collected clothing and other samples from the victim on the night of the attack and plan to submit evidence for GBI analysis.
Detective McHugh is the primary investigator on the case. Ercole supervises the department’s support services division, which includes investigations, and spent roughly 15 to 16 years as the agency’s primary investigator before moving into his current supervisory role.
Officers still have reports to complete. Police must download, preserve, and organize surveillance footage from throughout town, add body camera video, compile evidence, and put the case into chronological order before sending the completed file to prosecutors.
“We want to make sure that we turn in a quality product to the prosecution and don’t rush it,” Ercole said.
Keeping the victim informed
Ercole has stayed in contact with the victim throughout the investigation.
He has worked for Senoia Police for 20 years and knows her from the community, though he said they are not personally close.
Using his department phone, he updated her as investigators developed leads.
First, police told her they had something they were following.
Then they had an identification.
Then a judge signed the warrants.
Then came the final message: Phillips was in custody.
Ercole said the woman was “very strong,” “very resilient,” and “very level-headed.” He said she has “a very good support network around her with family and friends” and has received an outpouring of community support.
The case is unusual for Senoia.
“We don’t have these types of crimes here very often at all, if at all,” Ercole said.
But he said the department’s size should not be mistaken for a lack of investigative ability.
“We’re not a hick agency,” Ercole said. “We know what we’re doing. We’ll find you.”
Senoia is a small city, he said, but its officers have technology, experience, and relationships with larger agencies when additional resources are needed.
“We have the tools. We have the personnel who are committed. We have the resources, and if we don’t, we know where to find them to put together a good investigation,” Ercole said.
He also urged residents not to confuse living in a generally safe community with being immune from crime.
“If you go on a walk and it’s after dark, go with a friend,” Ercole said. “Walk in a well-lit area, an area that you know. Tell a friend where you’re going.”
“Just because we’re the safest city in Georgia right now,” he added, “it doesn’t mean that you should put your guard down or not take precautions to keep yourself safe.”
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.