A former Alabama corrections officer accused in the sexual assaults of women in three states pleaded guilty Thursday during the middle of his ongoing trial.

The trial for Matthew Moore, a 50-year-old Springville man and former prison guard at St. Clair Correctional Facility, began this week in Fulton County Superior Court. He was arrested in 2018 and implicated by DNA in sexual assaults in George, Alabama and Florida.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced Thursday announced Moore’s conviction by a non-negotiated guilty plea. He now stands convicted of rape, aggravated sodomy, false imprisonment, impersonating an officer, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated assault in the attacks on two Georgia women.

Moore was sentenced to life in prison with 30 years to serve. He will be on probation for life.

Moore, a former military police officer in the U.S. Army, was arrested by police in Georgia in late March 2018 on multiple charges related to an alleged sexual assault that happened more than two years earlier in Fulton County. Following that arrest, Moore was charged with two additional sexual assaults for a total of three in Sandy Springs and Cobb County.

Matthew Moore (Contributed)

In June 2010, Moore met an Atlanta woman online for the purpose of erotic massage, according to the district attorney. The two agreed to meet in person on June 17, 2010, at the Homestead Suites along Hammond Drive in Sandy Springs. When she arrived, Moore identified himself as a police officer, and he flashed a badge, a firearm, and pepper spray.

Moore proceeded to force the victim to perform oral sex upon him, and then raped her while his gun sat upon the bed. Moore then wiped himself with a napkin, got dressed, and left the hotel room. The victim called 911, and she was transported to a hospital where she underwent a sexual assault examination. The napkin was collected as evidence.

On November 17, 2015, Moore contacted a woman who had placed an advertisement on the website “Backpage.com” to solicit clients who were interested in receiving an erotic massage.

The woman agreed to meet Moore at the Hawthorne Suites along Barfield Road in Sandy Springs. Upon his arrival at 5:35p.m., Moore brandished a knife and a firearm, which he pointed at the victim. Moore pressed himself upon the victim, and with the knife in his hand, he said to her, “You’re going to do everything I say tonight, or I’ll be the last person you see.”

Howard said Moore used the knife to remove the victim’s clothing and then placed the knife and a pair of metal handcuffs upon the bed. Moore positioned his cellphone upon the nightstand so he could record the entire incident.

Moore placed pantyhose around the victim’s hands and then zip tied her arms behind her back. He proceeded to orally, vaginally, and anally rape and sodomize the victim with his hands and penis for more than 40 minutes.

The victim was eventually able to escape as Moore attempted to continue to rape her. The victim screamed and ran toward the hotel room door which she quickly opened.

Three men who were outside in the hallway saw the victim who was naked and screaming for help. Additionally, they observed Moore who was also naked. Moore pointed his firearm in their direction, forced the three men to retrieve his cell phone, which was near the bedside, and then he fled the hotel. The victim underwent a sexual assault examination. Investigators gathered several items that Moore left behind including the pair of handcuffs which were inscribed with the name of the jail where Moore worked in Alabama as a corrections officer.

A year and a half later - in 2017 - the sexual assault examination revealed the existence of DNA that matched the DNA collected from the victim of the Homestead Suites rape in Sandy Springs in 2010, as well as a 2008 sexual assault in Homewood, a 2010 sexual assault in Cobb County, and a 2010 sexual assault in Birmingham.

Homewood police said that agency's case happened at the Econo Lodge on Oxmoor Road. The victim, a prostitute, had a male customer come to her room. He started to assault her, but she was able to pull a gun and then shot him.

The suspect fled the scene and it is unclear if he sought medical treatment, but his blood was left behind. The suspect’s identity remained unknown until Moore’s arrest in Georgia.

The Birmingham case happened in 2010 at a hotel on U.S. 280. Details weren't immediately available, but Birmingham authorities said DNA also helped identified Moore as a potential suspect in their case. They have not, however, been able to locate the victim in the nearly 10-year-old case.

No charges have been filed against Moore in Alabama.

The Sandy Springs Police Department conducted a search of cell phone related records which ultimately led investigators to Matthew Moore. Sandy Springs investigators determined that Moore worked at a correctional facility in Alabama, and they began to track his phone. On March 30, 2018, the Sandy Springs Police Department executed search warrants at Moore’s home and place of employment. A DNA buccal swab was collected from Moore, and they also recovered zip ties, pantyhose restraints, computers, cell phones, and sex toys.

The video that Moore recorded of the 2015 rape in Sandy Springs was still on his phone three years later. Investigators proceeded to arrest Moore for the rapes in Sandy Springs. In addition to the Georgia and Alabama cases, Moore was implicated in a sexual assault of a 64-year-old woman in Jupiter, Florida on March 7, 2018.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance Russell presided over the case. Deputy District Attorney Amy Ferguson led the prosecution, and was assisted by Assistant District Attorney Shamma Iqbal, Deputy Chief Investigator Donna Kimbrell, and Victim-Witness Advocate LaVert Forrest of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Det. W. Johnson from the Sandy Springs Police Department was the lead Investigator in the case.