Trial Begins for Alleged Rapist of Journalism School Student

The trial of Robert Williams, the 31-year-old man accused of raping and torturing a student of the Graduate School of Journalism last year, began Thursday with an opening statement by the prosecution.

Williams is accused of following the 23-year-old woman into her apartment at W. 141st Street on the night of April 13, 2007, and brutally raping and beating her before setting fire to her apartment and fleeing the scene. He faces trial for the 71 individual charges against him that include assault, rape, robbery, attempted murder, arson, and kidnapping.

In an attack that shocked the Columbia campus, Williams allegedly tortured the victim for 19 hours, slitting her eyelids and forcing her to ingest an overdose of painkillers that later caused liver failure. He then allegedly tied her up with computer cables and set fire to her apartment, but she escaped the flames and ran to neighbors for help.

Police arrested Williams a week later when he was caught burglarizing two apartments in Queens. Arresting officers recognized him from widely circulated photos, police sketches, descriptions, and neighbors of the victim—who said they had seen Williams lurking outside her apartment the night of the assault—picked him out of a lineup, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time.

Assistant District Attorney Ann Prunty graphically described the scene of the assault at the victim’s apartment, causing some to leave the courtroom in tears, several media sources reported. Williams allegedly poured boiling water and bleach on the victim, causing severe burns, Prunty told the jury. When he ordered her to stab her own eyes with a pair of scissors, she attempted to kill herself.

Police have DNA evidence linking Williams to the victim, Prunty said. In the days following the attack, police also found video surveillance of Williams using the victim’s stolen ATM card at a local bodega.

Defense attorney Arnold Levine is expected to argue that Williams is mentally ill, though Levine did not make an opening statement Thursday. Three psychological evaluations preceding the trial, requested by Levine, found Williams mentally fit.

Williams was arrested for assault in 1994 and again in 1996, and served eight years in state prison in 1997 for attempted murder, convicted of shooting a man in the back four times. The trial, presided over by Judge Carol Berkman, is scheduled to continue Friday morning and next week.

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In this entry, we bring you up-to-the-minute news on the case straight from the courtroom.

UPDATE: 5:00 p.m.
A throng of reporters and television cameras awaited the exit of the attorneys from the courthouse. "Today's testimony I don't think damaging against him [Williams], was damning, in so far that the victim hasn't identified him," Levine said. "What she describes is horrific and no doubt that she suffered a great deal." Levine said that he maintains Williams did not perpetrate the assault.

UPDATE: 4:45 p.m.
Court is adjourned until Monday morning. The victim of the attack testified, though the prosecution will finish examination of her on Monday. The victim described in detail the events of her attack on April 13, 2007. She said she entered her building's elevator with Williams inside, and he followed out to her apartment door.

Williams allegedly forced himself inside the door and put the victim in a choke-hold, throwing her against the ground. She described the details of Williams' forcing her clothes off and raping her several times in different rooms of the apartment. "I thought he was going to kill me, and I wanted to survive," she said.

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m.
Celeste DeCamps testified, a coworker of a woman named Jaimie Roth who lives in the building where the attack took place. The two were unloading boxes from a car into Roth's apartment. They entered the building through an unlocked door, DeCamps testified, and proceeded up a set of stairs to a locked door. DeCamps said as Roth opened the door with her key, a man stepped inside the building and "pushed his way past us" through the door and waited inside by an elevator. The two went up the stairs and dropped the boxes in Roth's apartment, heading back downstairs for a second load. In the lobby, DeCamps said she noticed the man was gone, but saw a pair of boxer shorts on the stairs, which she identified in court. She then drove away in her car, she testified.

DeCamps said she received a call in following days and aided police in their investigation. She testified that she identified Williams, the defendant, in a lineup, and identified him again for the court in a photograph.

The victim is said to be testifying next.

UPDATE: 2:00 p.m.
Spectator has received an unconfirmed report from Levine that the victim of the assault may testify this afternoon. "That was the original plan, but we'll have to see," he said during the recess. The victim's relatives declined to comment to reporters.

UPDATE: 1:15 p.m.
Court recessed for lunch. Detective Anzali, witness for the prosecution, was questioned as to the scene of the victim's apartment and evidence he collected. Firefighters overturned furniture and threw some out of the apartment windows, into heavy rain, "in order to ensure they would not rekindle," he said.

Prunty presented physical evidence found in the apartment, as well as photos of them at the scene. Clumps of hair, a tube of Vaseline, two empty beer bottles, and an empty bottle of cold and flu relief medicine were found in a garbage can in the victim's living room. Four other empty beer bottles were found on the scene, and a fingerprint was found on one of them, Anzali said. Several articles of clothing and bedsheets--many stained with blood and bleach--were found in a plastic bag in the victim's kitchen. Anzali also described his collection of DNA evidence from various locations in the apartment.

In cross examination, Levine noted that the garbage pail in the living room had been turned upright from its original position. He questioned Anzali as to the order of processing, asserting that it was done incorrectly. Levine also noted much evidence was found together in a plastic bag in the kitchen, raising the possibility of cross-contamination.

UPDATE: 11:16 a.m.
Short recess. In testimony, the prosecutor presented evidence to Detective Bilella, including wires that were frayed and melted and a bleach-stained sweatshirt. These items were found in a shopping bag in the basement of the victim's apartment building. Detective Bilella said he was at the crime scene for 5.5 to 6 hours.

Also, Detective Bilella said he lifted one fingerprint from elevator but did not say it was the defendant's. He said prints in those public areas are common. Detective Bilella said he could not recover prints from the apartment because of fire.

Levine contested packaging and handling of evidence and the pattern that was used to search the apartment. Levine showed that on several exhibits, the detective did not write on the evidence label what kind of testing would be done or at which lab it would be tested.

The next witness to present evidence will be Detective Gregory Anzali.

UPDATE: 10:20 a.m.
The jury enters. The judge has informed the court with approximately 30 onlookers, including family of the victim, that Williams has refused to come to court today. Levine argues that he cannot know whether the absence is due to medical or mental health reasons.

First witness and detective enter.

news@columbiaspectator.com

Hayley Negrin and Joy Resmovits contributed to this article.