Man convicted in grad student's rape, torture

NEW YORK (AP) -- An ex-convict was found guilty Tuesday in the rape and torture of a Columbia University graduate student who survived 19 hours of nightmarish sadism in which he scalded her with boiling water and attempted to blind her before trying to burn her to death.Robert Williams was convicted of attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, arson and other charges in the attack, which was so prolonged and agonizing that the victim begged her tormentor to kill her and later tried to kill herself.
The verdict followed a gruesome trial that included dramatic testimony from the victim, who said Williams, 31, made her swallow fistfuls of painkillers, ordered her to gouge out her eyes with scissors, sealed her lips with super glue and gagged her with duct tape before torching her apartment.

Williams, who was found guilty of all but two of 46 counts, was not in court to hear the verdict read. The judge said that when Williams was told a verdict had been reached, he simply turned over in his courthouse cell and went back to sleep.

"He didn't have any more reaction to that than he has had to anything else," said Williams' attorney, Arnold Levine.

The victim and her relatives, in the front row of the courtroom, showed no reaction while the verdicts were read. Her father, on behalf of the family, later declined to comment.

Williams, who previously served eight years in prison for attempted murder, could get a life sentence at a hearing set for July 24.

When the trial began June 5, prosecutor Ann Prunty told jurors that Williams had violated the victim "in every way imaginable -- and in some ways unimaginable," then tried to finish her off by burning her alive.

The evidence against Williams included DNA from the victim found on a shirt he was wearing when he was arrested and DNA from him on one of the woman's T-shirts. The victim also identified him in court.

The woman told teary jurors that Williams repeatedly raped and sodomized her, scalded her with boiling water, threw bleach at her eyes in an attempt to blind her and slit her eyelids during the excruciating torture in her upper Manhattan apartment.

Tied up and left unconscious to die in a fire her attacker set in her apartment, the woman woke up and used the flames to burn through some of her restraints and escape what might have become her crematorium.

Prunty credited the victim's intelligence and mental toughness with helping her survive, despite the emotional and physical pain.

The victim testified that she memorized features and scars of her torturer while trying to connect with him -- even asking about his taste in music -- and trying to convince him she wouldn't identify him to authorities.

The nearly three-week trial was unusual in that the defendant was in court just once for a few hours. He was forced to show up on the day the victim testified and pointed him out to the jury as her rapist and torturer.

Tags: Man, convicted, grad, in, rape, student's, torture

Comment by Corey Johnson on June 25, 2008 at 2:50pm: They Need To Kill That Crazy Ass Nigga

Comment by Ke'Andra Jones on June 25, 2008 at 3:37pm: THAT NEED TO PUT THAT NiGGA UNDER THE MOTHERFUCKiN JAiL CELL MY NiGGA

Comment by miami3o5 on June 25, 2008 at 3:52pm: THis nigga gonna get a 100 years.

Comment by Joshua Mr USDA FAN on June 25, 2008 at 5:33pm: yo real talk he needs his life takin away...thats way to cruel and unusual

Comment by yaya1020 on June 25, 2008 at 6:13pm: he needs serious fucking help, matter of fact put his sick crazy ass to death. we dont need people like him breathing. this story is fucking disgusting! im a college student, that could have been me!

Comment by durty_basturd on June 25, 2008 at 6:44pm: fuck that nigga the niggas in the prison wit em gonna give him some street justice sick ass fuck

Comment by MARK CARTEL on June 25, 2008 at 11:16pm: they gon rape dat nigga in jail everyday til he decide 2 kill himself...fuck him he deserves dat type shit....FILTHY BASTARD!!!!

Comment by young blac on June 25, 2008 at 11:27pm: that would not happen to a real hood bitch that nigga must have been scopeing the bitch and know he could get that off (get a gun)if that nigga dat sick put him in a room by his self and give that nigga a rusty knife or give dat nigga a paper cut on his fohead and hang him upside down till he turn tru blue then shoot him 6ix times in the face find his momma let heer watch cause she fucked up some where,hang that nigga right side up and shoot him 6ix more times in the face,then put bricks on this niggaas legs and put him at the bottom of da ocean any ocean

Comment by DION MURRIL on June 26, 2008 at 9:31am: they need build a jail cell in the middle of iraq fo this nigga and just leave that nigga in the middle of the dessert wit 5 gallons of piss to drink until he die

Comment by SNOWMAN on June 26, 2008 at 3:11pm: dts sik n cruel mi nikka wt human deserves wt she got ppl in da worl taday r sick bt he goin gt wt he deserves dt sum fukd up sht mi heart go out for that gurl