Suspect in Tara Baker slaying has long arrest record in Athens area

The suspect in the 2001 slaying of University of Georgia law school student Tara Louise Baker has a long history of criminal complaints and convictions.

Edrick Lamont Faust, 48, of Athens was arrested Thursday on numerous charges stemming from the slaying including murder, aggravated sodomy and arson.

The nine-count warrant was obtained in Athens by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Elizabeth Bigham of the Decatur office.

While outlining the violence of the crime, the warrants also note that Faust apparently did not become a suspect until April 30, just nine days before authorities arrested him. The GBI has not released the critical evidence that investigators say led to the suspect’s identification.

The location of his arrest was not released, but the warrants list him as currently residing on Meadow Lane, in the same neighborhood as Cooper Road where he once resided years ago around the time of Baker’s slaying.

Baker was killed sometime between 9:45 p.m. Jan. 18 and 11:30 a.m. Jan. 19 in her home at 160 Fawn Dr., according to the GBI. The residence is along a street of mostly duplex homes off Lexington Road.

Warrants show she was killed by “ligature strangulation” with stab wounds to her neck and blunt force to her head. In addition, the GBI reported she was sodomized in a sexual assault. Investigators also allege that Faust set fire to the home in an effort to conceal the evidence and prevent his apprehension.

Baker was a first-year law school student and was a graduate of Love Joy High School in Clayton County.

Faust had an initial hearing early Friday in the Athens-Clarke County Magistrate’s Office, but a magistrate’s judge cannot set bond in a murder case so the case was sent to Superior Court, where it was assigned to Chief Judge Lisa Lott. He was denied bond.

Faust, who was born in Elbert County, was booked into the Athens-Clarke County Jail at 10:34 p.m. Thursday. The warrant also shows him connected to a vehicle detailing and pressure washing business, which he apparently advertised on Facebook.

Faust’s past criminal records on file at the Clarke County Courthouse show that he was charged in 2001 with an aggravated assault that occurred almost three weeks after Baker's death. The records are brief, but the warrant reports that on Feb. 4, 2001, Faust cut a man in the neck that required the victim’s hospitalization and numerous stitches. The attack occurred along the 1000 block of Baxter Street.

Faust, who was 25, pleaded guilty to the felony charge and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Court records show that in March 2013 Faust was 38 and living on Summerplace Drive near Winterville. During this time, he was arrested by Athens-Clarke police on charges of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and obstruction.

When he went before the judge to plead guilty to the charges, Faust told the judge he was a self-employed landscaper and had three children of his own and three step-children, all ranging in age from 20 to 9 years old.

Faust was sentenced to eight years with the first year in prison, but the assistant district attorney outlined the defendant’s previous convictions at the request of the judge.

The prosecutor said that in 1997 Faust was convicted of robbery, simple battery, trespassing, attempting to flee and having a concealed weapon. Then in 2000, there was a shoplifting conviction, followed by the aggravated assault case in 2001.

This was followed, according to the attorney, with attempting to elude in 2004, driving with a suspended license in 2005, public indecency in 2007, battery and drunk driving in 2011 and driving with a suspended license in 2012.

In 2021, Faust went before the court again for a probation violation that stemmed from a DUI and attempting to elude charge in Oglethorpe County, and a possession of a controlled substance charge. He was sentenced to eight years on probation.

During the years after Baker's death, investigators have not disclosed if Faust’s name ever surfaced as a potential suspect.

Baker’s slaying has been a lingering mystery in Athens, becoming the subject over the years for numerous newspaper stories, and more recently a true crime podcast.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Suspect in 2001 Tara Baker slaying has long rap sheet in Athens area