Rape Victim Testifies, "I Thought I Was Going to Die"

A 24-year-old woman took the stand and began to relive a terrifying ordeal as she described how she was raped, tortured, and held captive in her own Hamilton Heights apartment in April 2007.

The victim, now 24, was a month away from graduating from Columbia Journalism School and had stayed late at campus to work on her resume (a job fair was the next day). At 9:30 p.m. on April 13, a Friday, she took the 1 train from campus to 137th Street and walked to her building. In the elevator, there was a man with a "small rolling suitcase"; she asked, "‘Are you going up or down?’ He didn’t answer, so I got in.” (Last year, residents mentioned how the building's front door was not secure and very easy to open.)

She pressed the button for the fifth floor, then he pressed for the sixth. But when she got out at the fifth floor, she said, "I heard him a few steps behind me"--the man's suitcase's wheels squeaked--"I stepped in [my apartment], turned around, I started to close the door. He was right at the door facing me."

Robert Williams, 31, who is charged with 71 counts, including rape, attempted murder, and arson, was not present in court yesterday, though he was present on Thursday. He refused to leave his cell at Rikers, and the judge decided the trial could go on without him. The police say his DNA matches the DNA found in the victim's apartment; the victim also gave very detailed description of her attacker, "right down to his gold canine tooth and distinctive body scars."

The victim described her attacker pushing her into her apartment, choking her as he dragged her inside and, per the Times, "slammed her head into the floor near the foot of her bed." As he raped her, the victim said, “I thought he was going to kill me...I thought I was going to die. I just wanted to survive, so I did what he told me....I was crying, screaming, begging him not to hurt me.”

Still to come on Monday is her testimony about the ordeal itself. The Post points out she must "must suffer through testifying publicly to each individual act of penetration, each time he choked, struck, scalded and slashed her, and each petty theft down to the iPod earbuds that cops later found among Williams' belongings."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 7, 2008 10:03 AM

Comments [rss]

berniegoetz

I'm some anonymous guy on the internets, DG. Try to remember that when directing the empowerment you gained from your ethnic studies courses at CUNY. Must. Focus. Harder.

DarkGemini

Dammit...

That was supposed to read "Lets try not to go off on tangents, Bernie.

DarkGemini

About me? Nothing, really. I'm really not an imposing guy, to be honest.

However, we're talking about your fear of anything not like yourself, or close enough to it that you remain in your comfort zone, and not about what makes me different.

Let's try to go off on tangents, Bernie.

berniegoetz

What is so "different" about you that anyone should be afraid of DG?

DarkGemini

That [b]I[/b] was supposed to be an I. Yeah, I know... UBB!=HTML

DarkGemini

[13]&[17], 6'1" and 178 lbs. does not make a big guy. Hell, I'm 5'10 and 170 lbs, and I'm not not a big guy. On the benefits of using stereotypes to my advantage... I have zero qualms with playing upon someones chosen ignorance.

[14], clearly your fear of anything "different" is clouding your judgement. While it's been said on occasion that I have a brass pair, I'm not that guy who [b]I[/b] invariably end up telling to close his legs so I can sit in some sort of comfort and not encroach upon the person sitting next to me. And it's not just a "black" thing, either. If you'd try walking around for a little while without the colored glasses on, you'd notice that the legs wide open offenders cross both racial and gender boundaries (let me just say, female mooseknuckle is an awful, awful thing). I manage to keep myself and my belongings within the confines of my "shade-of-orange" square on the lucky number 7.

All the same, you go ahead and keep that fear... just means more leg room for me and my peoples, knamean?

Now, getting back on topic... if this guy is guilty and did in fact commit the acts that he is charged with, then in my opinion no punishment that man could ever give him would suffice for what he did to that woman. I'm sure that even Al and "the community" would agree.

asian_rut

Tribeca and Park Slope...well, that says it all, doesn't it?

matty

I dunno maybe you have a little dick or something. In anycase something is very wrong with you.

sonyactivision

Little old ladies always bother me on the train...because I sell nickel bags of Vioxx.

babyhitler

#15 - wrong. I'm 6'1 178 lbs. - and I live in Tribeca and park slope.

matty

bh: I don't think that's a race problem so much as you are probably a tiny little man who gets pushed around a lot - hence your racism and fear of others save old white ladies.

I bet you live in your mom's basement.

berniegoetz

Dark Gemini: that guy who takes up three seats by spreading his legs as wide as they'll go then decides that his trip to the asshole of Queens is so long he might as well get some fitness out of the ordeal so he aimlessly struts from car to car to car the entire length of the train making sure to slam as many doors as possible while giving anyone who looks like they might vaguely object the "whatchu gonna' do 'bout it, crackah?" look. Yes, please don't sit near me or Obama's grandmother, either.

babyhitler

#10- so you know the benefits of being stereotyped as well, Huh? they always say that stereotyping is bad, but on the subway I always wish I were black. You know how much legroom and space you get? Everybody doesn't want to sit next to you. It's heaven. Meanwhile, I get old people asking me to help them across the street and tourists annoying me by asking for directions, hoodlums trying to rob me and bums asking me for money. If I were black I'd get none of that shit. I need to get some blackface makeup when I walk the streets.

tsol

where's Al Sharpton? And "the community"?

What, no "stop the violence" marches?

DarkGemini

I meant to type wrinkled. Typos get me again...

DarkGemini

Whoa there BH, I say let the old racist white ladies continue in their ways. This means that (1) I will continue to have 3 seats available to me, (2) I don't have to look at their wrinkles vericose veined hands, (3) won't have to sit that close to a racist, and (4) it leaves room for her much younger, much more attractive, and a lot less racist counterpart plenty of room to sit next to me.

Personally, I see the whole situation as being fortified with win.

Except maybe for you. Sorry about that.

babyhitler

this is why old white ladies always sit next to me on the subway car cuase i'm white. I'll have a small space next to me and there will be a black guy with 2-3 huge spaces next to him and the white lady ALWAYS sits next to me and provide me with a beautiful view of their old veiny hands and a great ben-gay smell. Fucking racist old white ladies! You are old, who gives a shit! the black dude ain't that desperate.

GOP

The essence of Harlem. I can't wait for Columbia to kill this essence.

Jen Chung

I just added a link and sentence to the post that mentions how right after the rape, the building's residents said the front door was very easy to pop open and therefore not very secure.

jchez

This is a perfect example of "death by shame or politeness".

Many times a white woman will get into an elevator with a suspicious black man, when she wouldn't with a suspicious white man because she doesn't want to be thought of as racist. The thought that the black man would be offended makes the woman go against her better judgment and instinct.

While the odds may be that nothing will happen, the consequences of being wrong in her judgment, as in this case, can be devastating.

matty

I feel like I'm being punched in the gut just reading this story. I can't imagine what that poor girl went through or is going through.

Thoughts and prayers.

Spirit of 76

I still say burn him at the stake. That's the traditional method of dealing with demonic creatures, isn't it?

ed_Extinct

I can only hope for a prolonged painful death for Robert Williams. He will burn!

palestine

Poor girl. The attacker should get an eye for an eye treatment like they did back in the old days, then dump his body in a large tub of salt.