An 897-year sentence
‘NorCal Rapist’ punished for 9 sex assaults in Calif.
Notorious “NorCal Rapist” Roy Waller was sentenced to nearly a millennium in prison Friday for raping nine women during a reign of terror from at least 1991 to 2006 in California.
Waller, 60, showed no emotion as a judge in Sacramento handed down two sentences to be served consecutively — 459 years followed by 438 years to life, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Superior Court Judge James Arguelles called Waller a “serious danger to society” before handing down the maximum sentence requested by prosecutors.
Waller pleaded not guilty to 46 crimes but was convicted on all counts by a jury last month. He declined to address the court or his victims Friday.
Prosecutors said Waller, who worked at the University of California-Berkeley for 25 years and lived with a wife in Benecia before his arrest, studied his potential victims before tying them up and attacking them.
Authorities finally uncovered his identity after uploading his DNA to the genetic genealogy website GEDmatch, the same website used to catch “Golden State Killer” Joseph DeAngelo.
The investigators found an apparent link to a relative on the public site and then painstakingly built a family tree and narrowed their search to Waller based on the physical description of the suspect and proximity to victims.
They surreptitiously collected more DNA from Waller’s trash and confirmed they had a match.
Authorities later found a sickening stash of duct tape, zip ties, handcuffs and other items used in the attacks inside Waller’s storage lockers.
His month-long trial included testimony from all nine victims.
“There is something that will
never go away, but he’s going away,” victim Theresa Lane told KPIX-TV after the sentencing.
Lane was blindfolded and attacked inside her Vallejo home in 1992 and fought Waller off
by stabbing him in the forehead, leaving a scar she said she noticed while testifying.