Yesterday, the man suspected of raping and torturing a 23-year-old woman in her apartment pleaded not guilty to the attack. However, police say that they have DNA evidence linking ex-con Robert Williams to the scene. The victim, a graduate student at Columbia's Journalism School, remembered that the attacker wore one of her T-shirts, which was thrown into a wastebasket, and the police have DNA from Williams' spit (he spat into a station house wastebasket).
Williams was indicted on 71 counts yesterday, and was escorted into the Manhattan Supreme Court by "six armed court officers in riot gear, " according to the Daily News. Williams had apparently "wrapped two razor blades in tissue paper, put them in a balloon and stuffed them into his rectum."
Williams not only allegedly slit the victim's eyelids in an attempt to blind her and allegedly tried to set her bed (with her tied to it) on fire, he also allegedly tried to get rid of DNA evidence by throwing bleach and boiling water on her. Here is How Stuff Works' explanation of DNA evidence.
