An Atlanta man has been convicted by a jury for a series of sexual assaults that occurred nearly four decades ago. On September 19, 2025, Jeffrey Briney, aged 61, was found guilty on multiple charges related to two separate incidents from 1986.
Briney was convicted of two counts of rape, five counts of kidnapping, five counts of criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, five counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony for an incident on March 28, 1986. He was also found guilty on additional charges stemming from another attack on October 27, 1986.
According to investigators, the first crime took place at an apartment on Briarwood Road in what is now Brookhaven. Four men entered the residence at night, held five college students at gunpoint, tied them up, raped two women, and then ransacked the apartment. The second incident involved two men with a handgun forcing their way into an apartment on Buford Highway. Both women living there were raped before being tied up; valuables were taken as the assailants left.
The cases remained unsolved until advances in DNA testing provided new leads in 2023. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) sent old rape kits to private laboratories for analysis after securing federal funding through the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). In June 2023, DNA evidence from one victim matched Jeffrey Briney through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which helped link him to both crime scenes—located less than a mile apart.
Further DNA analysis in August 2023 identified David Briney—Jeffrey’s brother—as another suspect connected not only to these attacks but also to seven other cases across Cobb and Fulton counties. A trial date for David Briney has not yet been set.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie presided over Jeffrey Briney's trial and will schedule sentencing in the coming weeks.
The prosecution was led by Senior Assistant District Attorney Agatha Romanowski from the District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit. She received support from Senior Assistant District Attorney Ashley Warmack and members of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office investigative team.
David and Jeffrey Briney were identified as suspects through efforts by the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (GASAKI) Task Force—a collaborative group established in partnership with CJCC under a federal grant program designed to address cold case sexual assaults. This task force includes personnel from several district attorney offices and law enforcement agencies working together statewide.
The GBI Crime Lab played a key role by processing previously untested sexual assault kits made possible through federal grants obtained by CJCC. In total, about 2,500 kits were processed in Georgia in 2023—including 74 from DeKalb County alone.
"The FBI launched the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in 1998. Prior to that, investigators could only test DNA evidence if they had a suspect to whom they could compare the samples," according to information released about CODIS's impact on solving cold cases.
A sentencing hearing for Jeffrey Briney will be scheduled soon as authorities continue efforts related to other linked cases.