By Vicki Gonzalez, KCRA TV3, 6:30 PM PST Jan 29, 2020
Former Benicia resident Roy Charles Waller, suspected NorCal Rapist
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —A man accused of being the so-called NorCal Rapist was ordered Wednesday to face trial on charges that he assaulted at least nine women in their homes, sometimes for hours.
Roy Charles Waller is facing dozens of felony charges — including rape and kidnapping — over a 15-year period between 1991 and 2006.
The judge ruled there was enough evidence presented during the preliminary hearings to try Waller. If convicted, Waller faces up to life in prison.
The 60-year-old, a former UC Berkeley employee living in Benicia, is facing 46 charges. The charges involve at least nine women across six counties — Sonoma, Contra Costa, Solano, Butte, Yolo and Sacramento.
Waller was arrested in September 2018, more than a decade after the NorCal Rapist’s most recent crime because of advancements in DNA technology. Those advancements also led to the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo in the East Area Rapist case.
Prosecutors said DNA from a drinking straw connected Waller to eight of the women — and a connection to the ninth came from a surveillance photo allegedly showing Waller using the woman’s ATM card.
Prosecutors argue the assaults had a similar M.O. The women were mostly of Asian descent, tied to the bed with their eyes taped shut. The assaults would take place over the course of hours, and the rapist often would caress, kiss and cuddle the bound women.
He would also steal valuables, like jewelry or an ATM card, before leaving, prosecutors said.
The focus in court Wednesday was granular. The defense and prosecutors argued over nuances of lesser charges or special circumstances, such as kidnapping and extortion, because laws surrounding the charges were amended over the time period of these crimes.
“He is innocent unless the DA can prove to 12 citizens of our community that in fact he committed his crimes,” Waller’s attorney Joseph Farina said. “There’s still lots to do in this case. We’re really at the beginning. There is so much discovery, so many police reports, so much evidence.”
“There is still a lot of work to do,” Farina added. “We’re not prepared to go to trial at this point.”
Waller pleaded not guilty and is being held on no bail.
So today 20 innocent people were gunned down by a white supremacist in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Another 26 were seriously injured, some critically. Earlier this week, two store workers were killed in a Walmart in Mississippi. And on Sunday this week, another white supremacist gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival near San Jose, California, killing three of us and injuring 15 .
In just this last week, according to MassShootingTracker.com, 43 were killed and 75 injured in mass shootings. In 2019, 291 mass shootings have taken place so far – that’s 291 mass shootings in 215 days! In those 291 horrific events, 335 individuals have been murdered and 1,111 others were injured.
In May, a gunman killed 13 people at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. The month before, on the last day of Passover in April, a vocal anti-Semite attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring three.
The most recent shooting in El Paso(below) caught my attention today, and deserves your careful consideration. What will our leaders DO to stop this!?
Mass Shooting at El Paso Walmart Leaves 20 Dead
The gunman “started shooting everyone, aisle by aisle,” an eyewitness says.
The Daily Beast, by Jordyn Rozensky, Justin Hamel, Anna Kaplan,
Justin Hamel/The Daily Beast
EL PASO—A lone gunman killed at least 20 people inside a crowded Walmart on Saturday morning, according to eyewitnesses and officials.
“A day that would’ve been a normal day for someone to leisurely go shopping, turned into one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas. Lives were taken who should still be with us today. Twenty innocent people from El Paso have lost their lives, and more than two dozen more are injured,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at an evening press conference.
At least 22 people were transported to area hospitals, including a 4-month-old girl. At least nine people were in critical condition at Del Sol Medical Center, where three of them were said to be in “life-threatening” condition. The victims there ranged in age from 35 to 82, but no further details were immediately available.
Police have not yet identified those killed, though Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Twitter late Saturday that three Mexican nationals were among the 20 people killed.
Police said one person is in custody and they have ruled out multiple shooters. The suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Texas, according to a senior law-enforcement source. Authorities are investigating a purported manifesto posted online shortly before the attack.
Justin Hamel/The Daily Beast
“Right now we have a manifesto from this individual, that indicates to some degree, it has a nexus to potential hate crime,” El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a press conference. Allen, who stopped short of naming the suspect, said authorities were still working to “validate” that the manifesto was penned by the alleged gunman.
More than a thousand people were inside the Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall when the shooting started around 11 a.m. A woman named Karina, who declined to give her last name, said she was driving in the parking lot with her 7-year-old daughter when she saw a white man in his twenties in front of the store’s main entrance, dressed in all black and carrying a long rifle. Karina said she heard what sounded like “balloons popping” and saw the gunman shoot another man at “point-blank” range.
Then the gunman entered the store, as captured by surveillance footage.
Miguel Rodriguez said he was shopping for a toy for his 7-year-old son when he heard gunshots and ducked to the ground. He said a person “started shooting everyone, aisle by aisle, with rage.”
Justin Hamel/The Daily Beast
Britney, a 19-year-old who declined to give her last name, said she was with her 16-year-old brother and her mother in the store’s underwear aisle when she heard shooting. The family dropped to the ground. Then Britney said she grabbed her mother and brother’s hands and they ran out of the store.
⚠️Video from inside JCPENNY in Cielo Vista Mall as it was being evacuated, due to an active shooter in the area.
Video: Victoria Balderrama pic.twitter.com/7v67DL4mPG
Dozens of people from inside the mall who were evacuated lined a nearby street. A man carrying a Bible went from group to group, asking people to pray with him.
Justin Hamel/The Daily Beast
The El Paso shooting is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on public places. On Monday, a disgruntled employee killed two people in a Walmart store in Mississippi. Last Sunday, a gunman killed three people and injured 15 at the Gilroy Garlic Festival near San Jose, California. In May, a gunman killed 12 people at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. The month before, on the last day of Passover in April, a vocal anti-Semite allegedly attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person.
PRESS RELEASE – CALIFORNIA SENATOR LOIS WOLK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2014, Contact: Melissa Jones
Senator responds to delayed release of report on crude-by-rail shipment
Wolk urges timely disclosure to state, communities to aid planning and response
SACRAMENTO—State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) pressed for timely disclosure of crude oil shipments by railroad shipping companies, following today’s release by the State Office of Emergency Services of a report disclosing a shipment of 1 million gallons or more crude oil through Northern California by BNSF Railway, the largest crude-by-rail transporter, earlier this month.
BNSF’s June 13th disclosure of an earlier shipment followed an order last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation that railroads must begin sharing information about large shipments of crude oil with state and local officials. The federal order denied longstanding claims by railroads that this information should remain confidential, claiming the information includes “proprietary and confidential trade” secrets and poses security concerns.
“While I applaud the Office of Emergency Services’ release of BNSF Railway’s after-the-fact disclosure of a crude-by-rail shipment through nine Northern California counties earlier this month, what the public wants and what local responders need is information regarding future shipments of crude oil by rail, in order to better prepare any necessary response in the event of any potential accident or mishap with this hazardous cargo,” said Wolk. “I call on the federal and state government to require railroads to provide advance notice regarding hazardous material shipments through our communities.”
To aid planning and response by local governments to increasing shipments of these dangerous materials, Senator Wolk is authoring legislation (SB 506) with Senator Jerry Hill to provide funding to help communities like Benicia provide adequate emergency response to accidents and spills involving rail transports of crude oil and other hazardous materials.
Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald [Editor: Note near the end of this story, “Patterson, who joined Henke on a four-person panel addressing on-the-ground risks, did not address the merits of Valero’s proposed crude-by-rail project in Benicia.” Patterson read a prepared statement by her personal attorney affirming her right to offer testimony, and was commended later in the hearing by Senator Wolk. Mayor Patterson’s testimony can be viewed here – scroll ahead to minute 1:22:20 and 1:43:45. – RS]
Benicia Mayor Patterson testifies at hearing about oil-by-rail risks
Lawmakers looking to address safety concern
By Tony Burchyns, 06/19/2014
As state lawmakers look to address the risks from a surge in oil train traffic, Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson joined others Thursday in testifying at a legislative oversight hearing in Sacramento about the need for more actions to prevent and respond to accidents that could threaten public safety.
In her remarks, Patterson asked whether state and local agencies are prepared to deal with deadly tanker rail accidents like last year’s explosive derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people.
“If you are in an industrial area or a cultural center or a school the actual first-responders are those people who are affected,” Patterson said. “And that’s (the) ultimate primary concern that I have that we don’t put people at risk and that we don’t have the children or the people going to a concert or workers or residents exposed to that kind of threat.”
Driven by increased North American oil production, California and the nation are experiencing a surge in oil-by-rail traffic.
In California, imports grew from only 70 tanker carloads in 2009 to nearly 9,5000 carloads last year, and could increase up to 230,000 carloads – a quarter of all the crude oil refined in the state – in 2016, according to the California Energy Commission.
About 3.8 million Californians who live along train routes face increased safety risks posed by new unloading facilities planned or under construction, according to a study by the Natural Resource Defense Council.
Thursday’s hearing provided an opportunity for regulators, community members and first-responders to look at what the risks and needs are in terms of safety and response.
Issues raised included uncertainty over the timing and comprehensiveness of new federal rail tank car standards and operational rules, a need to more fully assess the risks from increased oil train traffic in California and a lack of timely and complete information about hazardous cargo before it passes through local communities.
The need for more training and resources for first-responders was also identified.
“Your immediate concern is the incident that takes place today, tomorrow and next week,” said Kurt Henke, chief of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
Patterson, who joined Henke on a four-person panel addressing on-the-ground risks, did not address the merits of Valero’s proposed crude-by-rail project in Benicia. If approved, the project would allow Valero to bring in up to 100 tanker carloads of crude per day to its Benicia refinery.
The project’s draft environmental impact report was released Tuesday.
The proposed rail route would pass through rural and urban areas, including parts of Sacramento and Davis.
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