Prosecutors said phone records showed Jackson answered only the woman among 15 people who responded to his post.
CANTON, Ga. — A cleaning request posted online became a key piece of evidence in the case against a Canton man sentenced to life in prison for attacking a woman who answered it.
Prosecutors said Ezekiel Lamar Jackson, 23, used a Nextdoor post seeking an apartment cleaner before the April 6 assault at his one-bedroom apartment. A cellphone search later showed 15 people responded to the post. The district attorney’s office said all other respondents were men or larger cleaning businesses, and Jackson responded only to the woman who came to clean. Assistant District Attorney Kelly Chavis said that record suggested the woman was targeted because she was a woman working alone.
The online exchange was one of the first steps in the timeline presented at Jackson’s May 28 plea hearing. The woman responded on April 5 to the request for apartment cleaning and set an appointment for the next morning. She arrived at Jackson’s apartment at about 10 a.m. April 6 and began walking through the unit to determine the scope of the cleaning job. Prosecutors said the appointment appeared to be for ordinary residential work until the woman entered the bathroom area. There, Jackson attacked without warning, beginning a five-hour assault that ended only after she got to a hospital.
Chavis told the court that Jackson stabbed the woman in the face and eye with a small screwdriver. He forced his fingers down her throat to keep her from screaming and applied pressure to her neck until she felt she was losing consciousness, prosecutors said. When he pushed her to the floor, her head hit the bathroom counter. Prosecutors said Jackson then restrained her so she could not leave, threatened to kill her if she tried to escape and sexually assaulted her multiple times. The woman’s face and eye continued bleeding during the attack.
The woman eventually persuaded Jackson to allow her to go to Northside Cherokee Hospital. Prosecutors said she agreed to tell medical workers she had fallen and struck her face on a counter. Jackson went to the hospital with her and waited while she received care. Once she was with medical staff, the woman reported the assault. Hospital staff contacted the Canton Police Department, which responded at about 2:58 p.m. Officers arrested Jackson in the hospital waiting room. Doctors determined the woman had an orbital fracture and brain bleeds, and she was transported to the Kennestone Intensive Care Unit for treatment.
After the arrest, police searched the apartment and Jackson’s phone. The apartment search turned up a bloody towel, the screwdriver used in the assault, first-aid supplies and other items that prosecutors said matched the victim’s account. The phone search showed the path from the Nextdoor post to the cleaning appointment and then to the attack. That digital record helped prosecutors argue that the victim was not randomly chosen after arriving at the apartment. They said Jackson had a group of potential cleaners to choose from and singled out the only woman working alone.
The case also showed how a service appointment inside a private residence can become central to a criminal investigation. Police did not release the victim’s name. Prosecutors described her as a residential cleaner who came to the apartment to provide paid work. The district attorney’s office did not say whether Jackson had any prior relationship with her beyond the cleaning arrangement. The public record does not show that the other people who answered the post went to the apartment. Officials focused instead on the phone evidence showing Jackson’s response pattern and the items recovered after the attack.
Jackson pleaded guilty to all 10 charges he faced: two counts of rape, three counts of aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated battery and terroristic threats. The guilty plea was negotiated, but it covered the full set of charges. Chief Superior Court Judge David L. Cannon Jr. sentenced Jackson to life in prison with the possibility of parole, followed by 40 years on probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution and have no contact with the victim. The district attorney’s office has not announced the restitution amount.
The sentence includes long-term conditions beyond prison. If Jackson is released, he must register as a sex offender and follow sex offender probation rules. He must receive a psychosexual evaluation and treatment, as well as a mental health evaluation and treatment. During probation, he is barred from Georgia except for Effingham County and Clayton County in the area of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Prosecutors said those terms were part of the negotiated sentence imposed by Cannon. No parole hearing date has been announced, and the life sentence remains the controlling punishment.
At the hearing, the victim gave an impact statement describing what happened that day, the physical and emotional harm she continues to face and the effect on her children. Prosecutors did not release the full statement. They said she also thanked the community for its support. Chavis said the woman “demonstrated great courage and strength” and saved her own life. District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said Jackson’s conduct was “torturous and horrific” and said a life sentence was the appropriate outcome. The case was prosecuted by Chavis, who works in the Gang and Organized Crime Unit.
Canton police first became involved when Northside Cherokee Hospital reported the assault on April 6. The police department later said the incident originated from the Alexander Ridge apartment complex and involved a man who contacted the victim through a messaging application for cleaning services. That early hospital report developed into search warrants, digital evidence and a guilty plea within weeks. The court hearing on May 28 marked the first full public account from prosecutors of how the online post, apartment attack, hospital report and phone records fit together.
Court records now move from prosecution to sentence enforcement, with restitution and sex offender conditions attached to any parole decision years from now.
Author note: Last updated 2026-06-29.