Suspect Indicted in Rape-Torture of Columbia Grad Student
NEW YORK (AP) -- An ex-convict who is accused of trying to burn a Columbia University graduate student alive after a sadistic 19 hours of raping and torturing her in her apartment has been indicted on attempted murder, rape and other charges.
The charges against Robert Williams, 30, are in a 71-count indictment made public Wednesday and also include kidnapping, arson, burglary and predatory sexual assault. He was to be arraigned Thursday.
The attack began about 9:30 p.m. on April 13 after Williams stole into the 23-year-old journalism student's building and forced his way into her apartment, police said when his arrest was announced several days later.
For hours into the next day, Williams raped the young woman on her futon bed, tied her up with computer cables and used a knife to slit her eyelids, police said during the arrest announcement.
They said he forced her to swallow large doses of over-the-counter pain medicine as a sedative, which damaged her liver, and inflicted burns by dousing her with bleach and scalding water in an apparent attempt to destroy DNA evidence.
The indictment, explaining the first-degree attempted murder charge, says Williams "acted in an especially cruel and wanton manner'' in a manner intended to inflict "torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death.''
Before fleeing the woman's apartment shortly before 5 p.m. on April 14, Williams set fire to the futon she lay on, police said. They said the victim used the flames to loosen the cables and free herself, and then she ran for help.
Williams was captured April 19 after he tried to commit a burglary in Hollis, Queens, police said. They said a resident of the building caught him and held him for police.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said the defendant once served eight years for attempted murder.
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