‘He did not break me,’ victim says after facing NorCal Rapist suspect
SACRAMENTO » Two decades after Maki Anderson broke free from the bindings of the NorCal Rapist, stabbing her attacker in the arm with a pair of scissors, the former Chico resident sat in the second row of a Sacramento courtroom Monday just 10 feet from the shackled man accused of raping her.
“Last time, he got to see my face when I was in fear,” Anderson said. “This time, I got to see his face when he was in fear.”
Roy Charles Waller, a 58-year-old UC Berkeley employee, is accused of raping at least 10 women and attacking an 11th woman between 1991 and 2006 in six counties, including Contra Costa. Waller appeared only briefly Monday afternoon before Judge Jaime Román granted a postponement of the arraignment until next month. The Benicia resident has so far been charged with 12 counts of forced sexual assault against two women in the North Natomas neighborhood of Sacramento in 2006, but more charges could be coming.
Waller was arrested last week on the Berkeley campus after a flurry of investigative leads — mirroring the notorious Golden State Killer genetic genealogy strategy — allegedly cracked the cold case within 10 days.
Investigators uploaded the DNA profile obtained through one of the NorCal Rapist crime scenes to the GEDmatch website and quickly found a familial match that narrowed the suspect list to Waller, authorities have said. GEDmatch allows users to voluntarily upload their DNA profiles to find relatives, but since the pioneering police work in the Golden State Killer case, the site has been used to solve some of the country’s most baffling cases.
After narrowing their search, investigators found a straw in Waller’s garbage that contained his DNA and confirmed the match to NorCal Rapist crime scenes, investigators said.
On Monday, Anderson sat in the second row, holding the hand of her older sister as they watched Waller briefly stand to hear the charges read to him. Wearing an orange jailissued jumpsuit, Waller lightly shook his head as the judge read the charges related to the Sacramento County case. When asked to confirm his name, he replied “Yes” to the judge and briefly consulted with his attorney.
“I want him to know that he did not break me,” Anderson said outside of court in front of a large group of reporters and television cameras. “He did not break me and I know what he has coming to him.”
Anderson said she hopes Waller gets multiple life sentences for his alleged crimes.
“He needs to be locked up until he learns what it is to be human,” she said.
Anderson was a 21-yearold Chico State University student in July 1997 when she was attacked in her apartment located on the 1100 block of West Sacramento Avenue.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey has said Waller attempted to clean the Chico crime scene by taking the victim’s bedding, but he left behind a pillowcase with his blood on it.
“Our victim was a very brave victim,” Ramsey said at a news conference shortly after Waller’s arrest last week.
Investigators have allegedly linked Waller to a Martinez rape the year before the Chico assault. On Halloween night 1996, investigators say he posed as a trick-or-treater in a skeleton mask and raped a woman multiple times in her Martinez home.
Sacramento Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi said Monday that prosecutors from different counties have been discussing how they will charge Waller in his other suspected attacks. Many Golden State Killer rape cases were not able to be charged due to statute of limitations issues, but Grippi said the timing of the NorCal Rapist crimes should prevent such obstacles.
“The law has evolved to where we believe virtually all, or all of them could be charged,” he said.
Criminal defense attorney Joseph Farina was assigned to represent Waller shortly before the hearing Monday and said the amount of discovery was already the largest case he’s handled in his 31 years practicing law.
“Obviously, this is a very serious case and it comes on the heels of the Golden State Killer case,” he said. “They are both two large cases and come with a lot of publicity.”
After the former TV show “America’s Most Wanted” ran a segment on the NorCal Rapist crimes and the case stalled, Anderson’s older sister Maria Nauman said she had lost hope.
“Honestly, we thought maybe he had died. Or maybe he went into hiding,” Nauman said. “But it was just surreal when I got a notification on my phone.”
She said she plans to support her younger sister by attending every hearing.
“It’s the beginning of another journey,” Anderson said. “This has played a major role in my life and my family. It wasn’t just me affected. … It’s just overwhelming, I never thought this day would come.”