Man attacks ex in Texas on same day he pleaded guilty to Georgia manslaughter, prosecutor says

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Only on 13, Eyewitness News spoke with the Montgomery County prosecutor who helped put a man behind bars after he broke into his ex-wife's apartment and sexually assaulted her.

The victim closed the chapter on a nightmare that lasted more than 20 years.

The victim and attacker met in Georgia in the early 2000s. They then briefly married before she left him and came to Texas.

Between then and 2021, Antiwan Lane had nearly 30 encounters with police and five felony charges, including statutory rape and a murder where Lane allegedly hired a man to kill another.

The case was overturned, and in 2021, Lane pleaded guilty to intentional manslaughter. On the same day of his plea, investigators said he flew to Texas to attack his ex-wife.

Lane was accused of abusing his ex as long as he knew her. A jailhouse phone call given only to ABC13 detailed one harrowing night that he strangled her in the early 2000s.

"When I choked her, she passed out, and I panicked, you know what I'm saying? Because I thought she was dead," Lane said.

But Tiana Sanford with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office told ABC13 that the final attack in 2021 pushed Lane's ex to the limit. The same day he pleaded guilty to intentional manslaughter in Georgia, he hopped on a plane, went into his ex's home, and raped her.

"He did so while threatening - threatening her life, threatening injury to her," Sanford said.

During the violent struggle, she was thrown into her bathroom wall so hard she went through it, prosecutors alleged. She was able to go to work the next day, where she decided this was the last straw. She confided in her co-worker, and Lane was arrested at her house.

"She shared with the jury. She thought, 'What if the next time I don't get out of the house? What if I don't make it out of the house the next time?'" Sanford said.

During the court proceedings, Lane went through five attorneys, the last of whom he attempted to physically attack.

The jury reviewed Lane's previous record and current case and found him guilty. He will now serve life in prison, eligible for parole in 35 years.

"This defendant has a pattern. A pattern of rules not applying to him, a pattern of not taking no for an answer and demonstrating that he does not care who he harms in the process," Sanford said.

Sanford added that before Lane made that final trip, he had a consensual visit with his ex earlier that year. Investigators found out during that trip that he had installed hidden cameras in her smoke detectors and had been watching the victim. That video was used to help convict him.

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