Roy Charles Waller, the accused NorCal Rapist, appeared before a judge for the first time on Monday in Sacramento, according to KTLA sister station KTXL in Sacramento.
The arraignment was short, but Waller could be seen shaking his head as the judge read aloud the charges against him.
The 58-year-old, accused of attacking at least 11 women across Northern California in the ’90s and early 2000s, is facing 12 felony counts that could land him in prison for life, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Some of Waller’s alleged victims were also in the room. They said they’re glad their alleged attacker has been captured, but it wasn’t easy to see him face to face.
“That was the first time since Friday (when Waller was arrested) that I felt angry,” victim Nicole Earnest-Payte said. “It was the first time that I finally thought, ‘Yeah, there you are. And you look rather pathetic.’”
Earnest-Payte said she was the first victim of the NorCal Rapist. She was attacked in her Rohnert Park home back in 1991, when she was 21.
“I went to bed at night fell asleep on my couch,” she said. “I woke up with a gun to my head by a masked man.”
She said she came to Sacramento all the way from Sonoma County in order to see Waller’s face as the judge read aloud the charges against him.
“I’ve been waiting every day of my life for 27 years for this moment, and I wasn’t going to miss it,” Payte said.
Waller’s court-appointed attorney, Joseph Farina, said he still hasn’t spoken to Waller. In fact, he wasn’t given much warning that Waller was going to be his client.
“I turned my car around and got down here in 15 minutes, which had to be a new land-speed record, but found out about 30-45 minutes ago,” he told KTXL.
Farina says he has handled several sex crime cases before. He adds that DNA evidence is not always enough to convict.
“The thing with DNA is it doesn’t tell you that’s the person,” Farina said.
Roslyn Anderson was attacked by the NorCal Rapist suspect in Chico back in 1997. She says seeing Waller was tough but it also came with a sense of relief.
“He looked at me and he looked at me with probably more fear than I ever had,” Anderson said. “Relief that he’s been caught. My entire thing for a long time was I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else.”