A Georgia judge sentenced a man to life in prison for killing a woman who rejected his intense romantic advances after the two met on a dating app.
Antonio Wilson, 43, was convicted and sentenced on Tuesday for the brutal murder of 39-year-old Fabiola Thomas in June 2019. It would take several more years before her family received justice.
Investigators learned Wilson and Thomas connected on the dating app Plenty of Fish and only met face to face a few times before Thomas ultimately decided she didn’t want to move forward with a romantic relationship.
“Ms. Thomas did everything that you would think you should do. She told her friends where she was going. She would only meet him in public places,” Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Abigail Potter told WSB-TV.
Wilson, however, was convinced that he and Thomas were ready to make a giant leap forward and told her he planned to propose.
Thomas was unequivocally against an engagement and communicated those feelings to Wilson through text.
“I don’t give a [redacted] about a ring,” Thomas wrote to Wilson. “keep your ring, I’m not your woman, never was, stop claiming me because I never claimed u.”
She also wrote in another text: “u crazy, I don’t want nothing from a man I barely communicate with, jewelry, money … don’t mean nothing to me if you don’t know who I am.”
Those texts were sent just a day before Wilson murdered Thomas. Wilson would track down where Thomas lived, according to the investigation. He broke into her apartment in Roswell on the morning of June 8, 2019, choked her to death, and then left her body in the bathtub.
“This was a surprise attack. She did not know her attacker was coming that morning,” said Senior ADA Nalda Charles.
Thomas’s roommate told police he heard a scream that morning. After he found her body in the bathtub, he called 911. Authorities said her body showed signs of trauma.
“And that is the most chilling part because she’s getting ready for work, she’s in her pajamas,” Potter said.
Detectives also learned that Thomas’ phone went missing from her apartment but eventually tracked it to Clayton County, where Wilson lived.
Wilson was arrested and charged with malice murder in October 2019.
During his trial, a Fulton Country jury was presented with witness statements and crime scene photographs. Witnesses told police they saw Wilson walking around Thomas’ car in the parking lot of her apartment complex just a half-hour before the home invasion.
It only took 30 minutes for jurors to deliberate before returning the guilty verdict.
Wilson will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wilson said her office’s domestic violence unit prosecuted the case.
“This is really, a sad case,” Willis said. “It’s one of the hardest crimes to make sure that we combat.”
Thomas died just a week before her 40th birthday, according to family members.
“My sister enjoyed and loved life,” Thomas’s brother Myrto Charles said. “She had dreams and goals she wanted to accomplish, yet that all died with her when she was gasping for her last breath.”
