Roy Charles Waller, the man suspected of being the NorCal Rapist, stood inside a locked cage in court Monday, Sept. 24, as a judge read the charges he's facing out loud. The 58 year old was arraigned on 12 counts of aggravated sexual assault.
“I feel relief. That's the biggest thing that I feel after everything that I’ve been through,” said Maki Anderson, one of Waller’s alleged victims.
Anderson is the Chico woman officials say stabbed Waller 21 years ago.
“The DNA in our case comes from her stabbing the defendant in the arm,” Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said at a press conference last week.
Anderson didn't want to talk about the details of her attack, but she told ABC10 his court appearance marks the first day of the journey to justice.
“[I’m] overjoyed. I never thought this day would happen. It was good to see the fear in his eyes,” Anderson said.
Nicole Earnest-Payte, the woman who investigators say was Waller’s first victim in 1991, was also in the courtroom.
“I just grabbed my husband's hand incredibly hard and I started to tear up,” Earnest-Payte said. “I started to shake a little. It's the first time I’ve been that close to him in 27 years; last time was in my home.”
Earnest-Payte says she's still in shock that a day she spent nearly three decades thinking about finally came to fruition.
“When you go 27 years feeling that it’s never going to get resolved, that you're going to go to your grave and you'll never know who he is, it was incredibly important for me to look at him in the eye today,” Earnest-Payte said.
As for Waller, he did not enter a plea. He was assigned a public defender and is scheduled to appear in court again on Oct. 30, 2018.
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