Georgia v. Faust

On the evening of January 18, 2001, Tara Baker called a friend from the University of Georgia law library. Not to talk about class. Not to complain about exams. She called to make sure her friend got home safe.

That's who Tara was.

She was 23 years old. A first-year law student. A cum laude graduate. The kind of person who checked on other people. She told her friend she planned to leave the library around 10 p.m. Tomorrow was her birthday. She would turn 24.

She never made it.

The next morning, Athens-Clarke County firefighters responded to a fire at Tara's apartment on Fawn Drive in the Deer Park neighborhood, just off Lexington Road in east Athens. Inside that burning apartment, they found Tara's body. She had been beaten. Stabbed. Strangled. Investigators believe she was sexually assaulted. And someone had set the fire to try to destroy the evidence of what they'd done.

One day before her 24th birthday.

What followed was not a swift investigation. Not a quick arrest. Not a trial within a year. What followed was 23 years of silence. Twenty-three years of a family begging for answers. Twenty-three years of a case so cold that Tara's family didn't receive her death certificate until 2010, nearly a decade after she was killed. They didn't receive her autopsy report until 2020.

Think about that. A mother burying her daughter and waiting nine years just to get the paperwork that officially says she's gone.

Then, in 2024, something changed. New DNA science. A cold case law that Tara's own name helped create. And finally, an arrest. Edrick Lamont Faust, a man who had lived barely a block away from Tara in that same Deer Park neighborhood, was charged with her murder based on biological evidence collected from her body 23 years earlier.

Today, February 2, 2026, the trial begins. Twenty-five years and two weeks after Tara Baker was found dead inside her apartment, a jury will hear the State of Georgia's case against Edrick Faust. They'll hear about DNA. They'll hear about a fire. They'll hear about a young woman whose life was taken from her.

And they'll decide whether the State can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this man is responsible.

That's the standard. Beyond a reasonable doubt. Not "probably." Not "likely." Not "we think so." The State has to prove it. The defendant doesn't have to prove a thing.

That's what we're here to watch. Not to convict. Not to acquit. To watch whether the system does what it's supposed to do.

This is Justice Is A Process. This is the story of Georgia v. Faust.

What Edrick Faust Is Accused Of

The Last Night

Tara Baker spent the evening of January 18, 2001, at the UGA Law School Library. A friend saw her there around 7:30 p.m. At 9:46 p.m., Tara called that same friend, checking in, making sure she had gotten home safely. Tara said she was still at the library. She planned to leave around 10 p.m.

That phone call at 9:46 p.m. is the last time anyone is known to have heard from Tara Baker alive.

According to the arrest warrants, prosecutors allege that Tara was killed between 9:45 p.m. on January 18 and 11:30 a.m. on January 19, 2001. Sometime after she left the law library that night and returned to her apartment at 160 Fawn Drive, the State alleges someone was waiting for her, or followed her, or came to her door.

The Morning After

At approximately 11:20 a.m. on January 19, 2001, Athens-Clarke County firefighters responded to a fire at Tara's apartment. What they found inside was not a normal house fire. Tara's body was inside. She was dead.

Investigators quickly determined that this fire was intentional. It was arson. According to court filings, the attacker allegedly heated a blanket on the stove until it caught fire, then placed it on Tara's bed. The apartment was also wiped down, suggesting a deliberate effort to eliminate forensic evidence.

The only item taken from the home, according to investigators, was Tara's laptop computer and documents from a filing cabinet. Everything else appeared untouched. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong. Prosecutors believe whoever killed Tara took the laptop because it may have contained something that could identify them, or simply to misdirect the investigation.

What Prosecutors Allege Happened Inside That Apartment

The details of what allegedly happened to Tara Baker are difficult to read, but they matter. They are what the State must prove. They are what the jury will hear.

According to arrest warrants and court filings, prosecutors allege that Tara was strangled with a printer cord. She was stabbed in the neck with a butcher knife, a blade longer than three inches. She was struck in the head with a blunt object, beaten until her face was swollen and her eyes were blackened. She was allegedly raped and sodomized.

Defense filings, which described the killing in graphic terms while arguing their client was not the perpetrator, characterized the attacker as "extremely enraged."

After the alleged assault, the attacker wiped down the apartment, set the fire, took the laptop, and left Tara inside.

She was found the next morning by firefighters. One day before her 24th birthday.

The Investigation Goes Cold

Athens-Clarke County police confirmed the day after the fire that arson was used to conceal a homicide. But from there, the investigation stalled. No suspect was publicly identified. No arrest was made.

The case went cold. For years, then decades.

The Baker family pushed for answers. Lindsay and Virginia Baker, Tara's parents, spent years trying to get basic information from law enforcement. They didn't receive Tara's death certificate until 2010. It took a call from the governor's office and a hand-delivered letter from Tara's father directly to the coroner to get it. The family didn't receive Tara's autopsy report until 2020, nearly two full decades after their daughter was killed.

During those years, the family never stopped fighting. They never stopped asking questions. And they never stopped believing that someone, somewhere, knew what happened to Tara.

The People at the Center

Tara Louise Baker

Tara Baker was born on January 20, 1977, in East Point, Georgia. She grew up in Lovejoy, a small town south of Atlanta, with her parents Lindsay and Virginia and her siblings Meredith, Adam, and Kevin.

She graduated from Lovejoy High School in 1995 and headed to Georgia College in Milledgeville, where she earned two bachelor's degrees, in political science and paralegal studies, graduating cum laude in 1998. She did it in three years.

Her sister Meredith described Tara as someone who always had a resolute sense of justice and fairness. She had a kind heart. She was a natural mediator, the person who stepped in when friends were arguing and made sure everyone felt heard. She was the person in the study group who made sure nobody got left out.

After college, Tara worked at the law firm of Hancock & Echols in Forest Park. She then moved to Athens and took a position as a paralegal at Fortson, Bentley & Griffin, a real estate law firm. She'd initially dreamed of becoming a prosecutor, but after spending time in the legal field, she shifted toward the "happier" career of real estate law, as her sister put it.

In 1999, Tara was accepted to the University of Georgia School of Law. She was weeks into her first semester when she was killed.

In May 2003, the UGA School of Law awarded Tara Baker her law degree posthumously. A memorial scholarship was established in her name. Her family, friends, and classmates remember her not for how she died, but for who she was: smart, loyal, kind, and committed to making things better for the people around her.

Her brother said it best at the 2024 press conference announcing the arrest: Don't focus on what happened to Tara. Focus on who she was.

The Defendant: Edrick Lamont Faust

Edrick Faust is 50 years old. He was born in Elbert County, Georgia. At the time of Tara's death, he was 25 and lived on Cooper Road in the Deer Park neighborhood, the same area off Lexington Road where Tara lived on Fawn Drive. Barely a block separated their homes.

Investigators have said they do not believe Faust and Baker knew each other.

Faust has an extensive criminal history. According to court records and prosecution statements at bond hearings, he has a 49-cycle criminal history stretching back to 1993, with convictions including attempted robbery, simple battery, criminal trespassing, carrying a concealed weapon, shoplifting, aggravated assault, cocaine distribution, DUI, and domestic battery charges. The prosecution described more than 20 probation violations over the course of his record.

Of particular interest to this case: In February 2001, roughly three weeks after Tara's killing, Faust was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly stabbing a man named Christian Foster in the neck on Baxter Street in Athens. That attack required hospitalization and numerous stitches. Faust pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to six years with the first year confined. Whether the jury will hear about this incident is a contested issue. The defense filed a motion to exclude it, arguing the two incidents were fundamentally different.

At the time of his 2024 arrest, Faust was working for a pressure washing and auto detailing business. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney has stated publicly that he believes Faust will be acquitted.

Faust is presumed innocent. He has not been convicted of anything related to this case. It is the State's burden to prove every element of every charge beyond a reasonable doubt. That's not a technicality. It's the law.

The Key Players

For the State: Western Circuit District Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili leads the prosecution team, assisted by Assistant District Attorney Kris Bolden. Yalamanchili took office in January 2025 after winning election in November 2024. He inherited this case from former DA Deborah Gonzalez, who was in office when Faust was arrested and indicted. Yalamanchili has described the case file as the largest he has ever worked with.

For the Defense: Ahmad R. Crews, a criminal defense attorney from Atlanta, represents Faust. Crews took over the case from the Western Circuit Public Defender's Office in June 2024. He has been aggressive in pretrial motions, challenging the DNA evidence, filing motions to disqualify the judge, seeking to exclude prior bad acts evidence, and fighting for additional defense resources.

The Judge: Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott presides over the case. The defense sought her removal, alleging judicial bias, but a second judge denied the recusal motion in January 2026. Judge Lott was also the judge who denied Faust's bond at two separate hearings.

The Charges

A Clarke County grand jury returned a 12-count indictment against Faust on August 2, 2024. The charges cover the full scope of what prosecutors allege happened inside Tara Baker's apartment that night. Each charge carries serious consequences, and the State must prove each one independently, beyond a reasonable doubt.

The burden on every single one of these charges is on the State. The defendant does not have to testify. He does not have to present a defense. He does not have to prove his innocence. The presumption of innocence is not a formality. It is the foundation of this entire process.

The Legal Battle

The State's Case: DNA and a 25-Year-Old Crime Scene

The centerpiece of the prosecution's case is DNA evidence. Here's how the State says they got there.

When Tara Baker was killed in 2001, investigators collected biological evidence from her body during the autopsy. At the time, DNA technology was in its relative infancy, at least in terms of what crime labs could do with complex or degraded samples. That evidence sat for more than two decades.

In September 2023, the GBI Cold Case Unit, newly created under the Coleman-Baker Act, partnered with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to take a fresh look at the evidence. Using a computer program called TrueAllele, which is designed to analyze complex mixtures of DNA where more than one person's genetic material is present, GBI scientists re-examined the biological evidence collected at the time of the crime.

According to unsealed search warrants, Faust's DNA had been entered into the FBI's national DNA database (CODIS) when he entered the Georgia prison system in May 2001 after being convicted of crimes unrelated to Baker's murder. The GBI matched the biological evidence from Baker's autopsy to Faust's DNA profile in the database.

By late April 2024, just nine days before his arrest, Faust was formally identified as a suspect. Investigators initially attempted covert surveillance to obtain a confirmatory DNA sample, but according to a GBI agent's affidavit, Faust's "erratic driving, counter-surveillance methods, and maintaining multiple vehicles and residences" made traditional surveillance unsuccessful. A search warrant was obtained to surreptitiously collect Faust's DNA, and the database match was confirmed.

On May 9, 2024, the GBI arrested Faust.

The prosecution will lean heavily on this DNA connection at trial. District Attorney Yalamanchili and ADA Bolden presented testimony from three GBI State Crime Lab scientists during pretrial hearings to establish the validity of TrueAllele. The program has been used by the GBI since 2018 and by other agencies across the country for nearly 20 years.

Judge Lott ruled the DNA testimony admissible, finding the State had met its burden of proving the scientific method was validated and peer-reviewed.

The Defense: Challenging Everything

Defense attorney Ahmad Crews has mounted an aggressive pretrial campaign, and his central message has been clear: the DNA doesn't prove what the State says it proves, and this process has been tilted against his client from the start.

Crews challenged the reliability of the DNA evidence, questioning whether genetic material collected 23 years ago and analyzed through a computer program could be trusted. He filed a motion to have the DNA testimony excluded entirely. Judge Lott denied that motion after hours of expert testimony but did grant the defense funding to retain their own DNA expert.

The defense also filed a motion to disqualify Judge Lott from the case, alleging a pattern of judicial bias. Crews cited specific rulings he believed favored the prosecution, including the court's refusal to enforce a defense subpoena for a woman named Brenda Swinney. According to the defense filing, Swinney had previously stated she did not recall any incidents of Faust being sexually violent toward her, testimony that would have contradicted the State's narrative. A second judge heard the recusal motion in January 2026 and denied it. Judge Lott stays on the case.

Crews also filed a motion to exclude evidence of the February 2001 stabbing of Christian Foster, which occurred about three weeks after Tara's death. In that incident, Faust allegedly cut Foster in the neck. The defense argues the two incidents are fundamentally different. Baker's attacker, they wrote, took "extraordinary efforts to conceal the crime," while the Foster incident was a public confrontation between acquaintances. The defense position is that linking the two would be prejudicial and misleading.

Additionally, Crews sought to subpoena seven people during pretrial proceedings, including the judge who issued the original search and arrest warrants (Superior Court Judge Eric Norris) and Cameron Jay Harrelson, the host of the Classic City Crime podcast that helped renew public attention to the case. Both subpoenas were quashed. Judge Norris was protected because the defense cannot compel a judge to testify about judicial decisions, and Harrelson was protected by Georgia's Shield Law for journalists.

Crews also attempted to close the pretrial hearings to the public. Judge Lott denied that request, noting that open courtrooms are a constitutional standard.

Pay attention to this: in the defense filings describing the brutal nature of Baker's killing, Crews's team explicitly wrote that the person who killed Baker "was not Faust." That's not just a presumption of innocence argument. That's the defense telling the court they intend to argue that someone else committed this crime.

The Evidence Battle

This case has been described as one of the largest in terms of sheer volume that attorneys on either side have ever handled. The defense noted 25,752 files across 1,614 folders. DA Yalamanchili called it the largest case file he has ever worked with.

Crews requested a trial continuance, telling the court his team was "wildly unprepared, not for lack of effort, for lack of resources." The trial was originally set for October 2025, then pushed to January 2026, and finally began with jury selection on January 28, 2026.

Crews also sought to have the State provide paper copies of the digital files for Faust to review in jail, estimating the cost at $15,000 for one set and $30,000 for two. Judge Lott denied that request, calling it "extraordinary" and "unprecedented," but she did arrange for Faust to have access to a computer at the Athens-Clarke County Jail to review the files electronically.

The access question matters. A defendant's right to participate in their own defense is fundamental. Whether Faust has had adequate access to the evidence against him is a question the defense has raised, and it's one worth watching as the trial proceeds.

How a Law Named for Tara Baker Helped Solve Her Own Murder

This is one of the most remarkable pieces of this story, and it deserves its own space.

For two decades, Tara Baker's murder sat in a file somewhere in Athens-Clarke County, unsolved. Leads dried up. Names were never publicly attached to the investigation. The family asked questions and got silence. They asked for documents and got stonewalled. There was no mechanism for the Baker family, or any family in their position, to force law enforcement to take another look.

Then came a podcast.

In June 2020, Cameron Jay Harrelson launched the Classic City Crime podcast, covering Tara Baker's case in depth across multiple episodes during the podcast's first season. Harrelson connected with the Baker family through a mutual friend of Tara's sister Meredith. The podcast did what the system had failed to do for 19 years: it put Tara's name back in front of the public. It asked the questions the family had been asking. It shook the trees.

That podcast, combined with the Baker family's relentless advocacy, helped build momentum for something bigger.

In 2023, Georgia House Bill 88, the Coleman-Baker Act, was introduced. The bill was named after Tara Baker and Rhonda Sue Coleman, another Georgia murder victim killed in Jeff Davis County in 1990 whose case remains unsolved. The idea originated from another true crime podcast, Fox Hunter, hosted by Sean Kipe. The Coleman and Baker families joined forces with legislators and advocates to push for the bill.

On April 28, 2023, Governor Brian Kemp signed the Coleman-Baker Act into law at the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse. The bill passed unanimously in both the Georgia House and Senate. It allocated $5.4 million to establish a Cold Case Unit within the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, staffed with 10 dedicated agents and expanded crime scene technology, including advanced DNA capabilities.

The law requires Georgia law enforcement agencies to develop procedures for reviewing cold case murders dating back to January 1, 1970. It gives families the right to request case reviews and access to case files. If families are unsatisfied with the outcome of a review, they can seek review by an administrative law judge. At the time it was signed, the GBI estimated there were roughly 600 open cases in Georgia that qualified for review under the new law.

It was the first law of its kind at the state level in the nation.

And it changed everything for Tara's case.

In September 2023, just months after the law took effect, the GBI Cold Case Unit partnered with Athens-Clarke County police to re-examine the Baker case. By February 2024, using the new DNA technology funded by the very law that bears her name, investigators identified Faust by matching his DNA to evidence from Tara's autopsy. By April 30, he was officially a suspect. By May 9, he was in handcuffs.

Twenty-three years. And it was a law with Tara's name on it that finally broke the case open.

Virginia Baker, Tara's mother, spoke through tears at the 2024 press conference: "I am Tara's mother. I always will be Tara's mother." She thanked everyone for their prayers and told other families whose loved ones have been killed to hold onto hope.

Meredith Baker Schroeder, Tara's sister, has been vocal throughout. At the time the Coleman-Baker Act was signed, she noted that when Tara was killed in 2001, "DNA evidence was the new hot technology and nobody knew how to process DNA properly or even apply it to a database to make it useful."

Twenty-two years later, the science caught up.

The Baker family released a statement ahead of the trial, asking for privacy while also inviting the public to observe: "Tara was more than a case. She was a person. She deserves to be remembered for the life she lived and the love she gave."

What We'll Be Watching

This case touches some of the most important questions in criminal law. Cold case prosecutions carry unique challenges, and the constitutional issues here deserve careful attention.

My father, Steven M. Askin, spent his career fighting for the principle that constitutional protections exist for everyone, especially the people the system would prefer to forget. He was disbarred for protecting attorney-client privilege. He was criminally convicted for helping people understand their rights from a coffee shop. He believed that due process isn't a formality. It's the whole point.

That's the lens we bring to every trial we cover. And this case has no shortage of questions worth asking.

The DNA question. The prosecution's case rises and falls on DNA evidence analyzed through a computer program called TrueAllele, applied to biological material collected 23 years ago. The defense has already challenged this evidence and lost that pretrial battle, but the jury will ultimately decide how much weight to give it. How was the evidence stored for 23 years? Was the chain of custody maintained? Can a computer program reliably analyze degraded, decades-old genetic material? These are legitimate scientific questions, and the defense has the right to challenge every one of them in front of the jury.

The access to defense question. Ahmad Crews has repeatedly raised concerns about his client's ability to prepare for trial. Twenty-five thousand files. Sixteen hundred folders. The largest case file the DA has ever worked with. And the defendant is sitting in jail, reviewing it on a computer provided by the court after his request for printed copies was denied. Is that adequate? The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to effective assistance of counsel, and that right means nothing if the defense can't effectively prepare. Whether the defense had sufficient time and resources is something we'll be watching throughout.

The prior bad acts question. The prosecution wants the jury to hear about the February 2001 stabbing of Christian Foster. The defense wants it excluded. Georgia's evidence rules generally prohibit evidence of prior bad acts to prove character, but they allow it for other purposes, such as showing motive, intent, or a common plan. How Judge Lott rules on this, and how the jury reacts if it comes in, could shape the entire trial.

The cold case prosecution question. Twenty-five years is a long time. Witnesses' memories have faded. Some potential witnesses may have died. Physical evidence has degraded. The crime scene no longer exists as it was. Can the State meet its burden of proof with 25-year-old evidence, even with DNA? Cold case prosecutions serve a vital purpose, and the Coleman-Baker Act exists precisely because families deserve answers. But the passage of time can create due process concerns for defendants too. Both things can be true at the same time.

The judicial fairness question. The defense moved to disqualify Judge Lott for bias. That motion was denied, but the concerns Crews raised don't disappear just because a second judge disagreed. We'll be watching every ruling, every evidentiary decision, every instruction to the jury. Fairness isn't just about outcomes. It's about process.

None of this means Faust is innocent. None of it means he's guilty. It means the system has a job to do, and we're going to watch whether it does it right.

The Road to Trial