By Mark Tanos
A serial rapist sentenced to nearly 900 years in prison in 2020 could walk free in about 14 years thanks to new California laws after his resentencing.
Judge James Arguelles reduced the sentence of Roy Waller, 65, known as the “NorCal Rapist,” from 897 years to life to 858 years to life at a Sacramento County Courthouse hearing Wednesday, KCRA3 reported. One of his charges went from kidnapping to false imprisonment on appeal, triggering the resentencing.
In 2020, a jury convicted Waller of sexually assaulting nine women inside their residences across six Northern California counties from 1991 to 2006, NC Bay Area previously reported. DNA evidence finally connected him to the crimes. He was convicted on 46 counts. (RELATED: Somali Who Got Probation For Rapes Now Facing Federal Charges)
The Berkeley man now also qualifies for California’s elder parole program due to new state laws enacted after he was convicted and sentenced, according to KCRA3. Inmates 50 and older can seek release after serving 20 years of their sentence.
Assistant Chief District Attorney for Sacramento County Chris Orr addressed the matter. “But the legislature has an act on something called elder parole, which makes people eligible for release as young as in their 50s,” he said.
California Penal Code No. 3055 details the requirements, according to the California Legislature’s website. “The Elderly Parole Program is hereby established, to be administered by the Board of Parole Hearings, for the purposes of reviewing the parole suitability of any inmate who is 50 years of age or older and has served a minimum of 20 years of continuous incarceration on the inmate’s current sentence, serving either a determinate or indeterminate sentence,” it reads in part.
“There’s some irony in the fact that if you’re a victim of elder abuse, you have to be age 65,” said Orr. “But if you’re somebody who commits nine different rapes over 15 years, you only have to be age 50 to be considered elderly.”
Nicole Ernest-Payte, thought to be Waller’s first victim, returned to court for the hearing. “I fought for 27 years until he was arrested after he committed his crimes against me, 29 years to make sure that he served the punishment that he deserved for what he had done to all of these people,” she said.
The woman recalled the moment of the attack. “Woke up at night, after it was dark and there was a masked man in my house with his arm around my neck and a gun to my head,” she recounted.
“This man was caught at 58 years old. When he was arrested, he had a backpack full of equipment ready to go to rape someone else at 58. So how elderly was he?” Ernest-Payte asked.
Arguelles, who handled both the original trial and resentencing, criticized state lawmakers while in court. “They seem to be more worried about defendants’ rights than victims’ rights,” he said.
The lawyer defending Waller refused to comment while departing the court, KCRA3 reported.
