Investigators traced a photographed license plate to an airport rental company after LaQuita Baker was killed outside a DeKalb County motel.
DECATUR, Ga. — By the time detectives traced the vehicle used in the killing of LaQuita Baker, the rental car had already been returned. Prosecutors said Talisha Moore-Real handed it back to a company at Atlanta’s airport after the fatal motel encounter, but a witness’s license-plate photograph and surveillance video gave police a trail that ultimately became central to her prosecution.
That trail ended in a DeKalb County courtroom, where a jury convicted Moore-Real, 35, on Aug. 7 of malice murder, felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault and first-degree cruelty to children. Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie sentenced her Sept. 1 to life in prison with the possibility of parole plus 10 years. The district attorney’s office said Moore-Real deliberately drove the rental vehicle toward Baker, 53, during a confrontation on Sept. 29, 2025, then left the scene.
The evidence did not begin with the rental company. It began at the motel, where witnesses and cameras provided investigators with information about the vehicle. Prosecutors said surveillance systems at the property and a nearby gas station recorded the collision. A witness also photographed the license plate of the vehicle. Detectives used the plate to determine that the car came from a rental business at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, giving investigators a documented route from the parking lot to a commercial rental record.
When police contacted the rental business, they learned the car had already been returned, authorities said. The company provided the vehicle to detectives. Public accounts do not describe the results of any forensic examination of the car, and the available record does not support claims about what investigators might have recovered from its exterior or interior. Prosecutors instead highlighted the car’s identification and recovery as one piece of a larger case that also included video, witness information and Moore-Real’s own statement to investigators.
That statement became important because Moore-Real disputed the idea that she deliberately struck anyone. According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, she told investigators that she had not seen anyone in front of the car and had not intended to hit anyone. Prosecutors said the surveillance recordings contradicted her. The recordings therefore served a purpose beyond placing a rental car at the motel: they were used by the state to challenge Moore-Real’s explanation of what happened in the seconds before Baker was struck.
The fatal encounter followed a longer dispute involving Baker’s daughter and a man Moore-Real had previously dated. Authorities said Baker’s daughter was dating the former boyfriend when Moore-Real encountered the family at a motel in the 3700 block of Flat Shoals Road. Moore-Real and Baker’s daughter argued, according to prosecutors. Public accounts do not identify the man or provide a complete transcript of the argument, so the exact words exchanged and the full history of the relationship dispute have not been established in the material released publicly.
Prosecutors said Moore-Real then rammed a vehicle belonging to one of Baker’s relatives and left the property. She later returned and argued with the former boyfriend. When Moore-Real departed again, the man fired shots toward the rental car, according to the district attorney’s office. Moore-Real called 911 to report the gunfire. Authorities have not said in the reviewed material that she was injured by the shots, and the public reports do not establish whether the man who fired was arrested or charged.
About six minutes later, according to prosecutors, Moore-Real returned to the motel for another time. Baker was in the parking lot with her daughter and a 17-year-old relative. The district attorney’s office said Moore-Real drove toward the group and then directed the vehicle at Baker as Baker tried to move away. Baker was struck and run over. Moore-Real left the property, prosecutors said. The circumstances involving the other two people in the vehicle’s path formed part of the broader case, which included three aggravated-assault counts and the child-cruelty charge.
A call reporting that someone had been hit and run over brought DeKalb County officers to the motel at about 10:40 p.m. Paramedics were treating Baker when officers arrived. Authorities said she was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead. Investigators then began assembling evidence from several sources at once: interviews with witnesses, surveillance footage, the license-plate image, rental records and the vehicle itself after it was recovered from the company.
The combination gave prosecutors more than a single eyewitness version of an emotionally charged dispute. The state could point to video from fixed cameras, a photographed plate that identified the car, records tying the car to a rental transaction and Moore-Real’s later statement. Prosecutors argued that those pieces supported one another. The reviewed public material does not provide a complete trial transcript, so it would be improper to reconstruct every evidentiary argument or defense objection. The outcome, however, is documented: jurors found Moore-Real guilty on every count announced by prosecutors.
Official DeKalb County Superior Court calendars separately show the criminal case and list the six charges, providing a court record that aligns with the district attorney’s description of the prosecution. That is particularly relevant because one piece of secondary reporting later characterized Moore-Real as having entered a guilty plea. The available official material instead shows that the case went before a jury and that the jury returned guilty verdicts on Aug. 7. Barrie then handled sentencing on Sept. 1.
The judge imposed life with the possibility of parole plus 10 years. The district attorney’s public announcement does not include a full transcript of the sentencing hearing or a count-by-count explanation of how the additional 10 years were assigned. The available sources also do not provide verified sentencing statements from Baker’s family or Moore-Real. Reporting beyond those limits would require details not contained in the reviewed public record. The confirmed legal result is the life sentence with parole eligibility and an additional 10-year term.
The rental car’s return stands out because it could have separated the vehicle from the motel scene before detectives located it. Instead, the witness’s license-plate photograph gave investigators a direct means of tracing the car. The rental business then supplied the vehicle after Moore-Real had returned it. That sequence did not by itself establish criminal intent, but it helped police locate an important object in the investigation while the surveillance footage and other evidence addressed what prosecutors said happened in the parking lot.
Questions remain outside the evidence used to convict Moore-Real. The public reports reviewed do not say whether the former boyfriend faced charges after firing at the car. They do not identify him by name. They also do not establish a later appellate ruling overturning or modifying Moore-Real’s convictions. Those uncertainties are separate from the verdict already reached by the jury, which found her guilty of murder, assault and child-cruelty offenses arising from the motel confrontation.
The investigation that began with surveillance footage and a photographed license plate ultimately led detectives to a rental car that had already been returned and prosecutors to a six-count conviction. Moore-Real is now serving the sentence imposed after that evidence was presented at trial: life with the possibility of parole plus an additional 10 years.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.