Graphic testimony of last attacks given in NorCal Rapist suspect’s preliminary hearing
Graphic testimony about the October 2006 double rape of two Natomas roommates was presented Monday in a Sacramento courtroom as the preliminary hearing began for NorCal Rapist suspect Roy Charles Waller nearly 15 months after his arrest.
Waller, dressed in an orange Sacramento county Jail jumpsuit and wearing orange jail Crocs, sat quietly as a former Sacramento police officer who investigated the rapes described a night of terror and sexual assaults the victims endured.
Alisa Buckley, now the chief sergeant at arms for the California State Assembly, recounted how one of the two victims described being confronted near her garage when she returned home at 1:40 a.m. after working two jobs.
“She said that he produced a dark-colored handgun from his sweatshirt area and made a command along the lines of, ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’” Buckley testified under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore.
“She said she was very scared,” Buckley added. “I think she was afraid of being shot.”
Waller, 59, faces 40 counts alleging he is the man who authorities say targeted at least 11 victims in various northern California communities from 1991 through 2006, sexually assaulting women in Sacramento and five other counties – Butte, Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo.
Authorities arrested Waller in September 2018 at his job on the University of California, Berkeley, campus after linking him to the attacks through DNA evidence and the use of online genealogical websites.
The Natomas rapes are believed to have been the last in the series of attacks. Buckley said the victims, who were both of Asian descent, indicated they had their hands and feet bound and their eyes and mouths covered with duct tape before the assailant attacked them through the night.
At different points, he made exceptionally crude comments, asking whether they had ever been with a Caucasian man, Buckley testified.
“He kept asking if they wanted more and kept telling them it wasn’t that bad,” Buckley testified as Waller watched.
The testimony before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Trena Burger-Plavin marked the start of the preliminary hearing at which prosecutors are seeking to prove there is adequate evidence to have Waller held over for trial in a case that could lead to him spending the rest of his life in prison.
Monday’s testimony lasted only about 45 minutes because of procedural and scheduling issues, and Buckley is scheduled to resume her testimony at the next hearing Jan. 2. The full preliminary hearing could last several days.
Waller’s attorney, Joseph Farina, told Judge Sharon Lueras at an earlier court session Monday that he wanted to postpone the start of the preliminary hearing because of the volume of evidence involved.
“This is not a run-of-the-mill case,” Farina said, likening the task to trying “six cases back-to-back-to-back. There’s no reason to rush this. Some of this (evidence) is decades old.”
But Ore told Lueras he and Waller’s alleged victims are ready to proceed and she agreed to assign the case to Burger-Plavin to get it started.
“We believe the victims are entitled to have the case move forward,” Ore said.