Roy Charles Waller: NorCal rapist gets 897 years in prison for brutally raping nine women 29 years after crime
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Roy Charles Waller, 60, better known as the NorCal Rapist, has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, the first of 459 years followed by 438 years — for a total of 897 years — after being convicted of raping nine women between 1991 and 2006. He has been sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison for each of the women he was convicted of raping. Waller was also connected to eight other sexual assaults, but the court was unable to provide proof linking him to those crimes.
Superior Court Judge James Arguelles said that Waller would not be eligible for probation, adding that in the off chance that Waller was eligible for probation, Judge Arguelles would not grant it as Waller was "a serious danger to society" and had presented "blatantly false testimony" during the trial. Waller had been found guilty of all 46 counts against him in November 2020, after he was nabbed using DNA and genealogy websites that have aided the police in solving many cold cases. After a relative of Walters had uploaded their DNA onto the website GEDmatch, authorities were able to cross-reference it with DNA found at Waller's crime scenes, which led them straight to Waller himself. Waller was arrested in 2018.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Waller had raped nine women across six counties across Northern California. His first victim, Nicole Earnest-Payte, told the court that she still held feelings of loathing and disgust towards Waller, 29 years after his first instance of assault in 1991. Waller would break into his victims' home at night, and bind them before raping them repeatedly. In a few instances, he also kidnapped the victims, forced them to withdraw money from ATMs, and stole their personal items.
Throughout the trial, Waller claimed that he was innocent, and said that the rape kits and zip ties that were found at his apartment by police were merely part of his collection, calling himself "a collector of odd things." Waller was arrested in 2018 at the University of California, Berkeley. He had been working there for 25 years as a safety specialist in the office of environment, health and safety. According to the Daily Mail, he attempted to kill himself three times while in the police interview room.
K Doe, one of two roommates who Waller raped in 2006, told the court that the day Waller was arrested was the first time she was able to take a shower without fear. "All because I was so afraid of Mr Waller breaking into my home again," she said, adding, "I don’t know what happened to Mr Waller during his childhood that made him the monster he is today. But I know he is incapable of feeling any remorse or shame."
Waller's defense attorney, Joseph Farina, claimed that he was fighting an uphill battle in the case. The jury deliberated for a short two and a half hours before declaring Roy Charles Waller guilty on all counts. "Unfortunately, the DNA was just too much, we couldn’t overcome that," Farina told the Sacramento Bee, adding that Waller was continuing to insist that he wasn't guilty and planned to appeal the court's decision.