1991 Sonoma incident suspected in ‘NorCal Rapist' cases

One December night in 1991, a 42-year-old woman living on the east side of Sonoma awoke to find a man inside her house, wearing a mask.

She was sexually assaulted, then forced to drive the man to a local bank where she was made to withdraw money that she gave to him.

They then returned to her home, where he raped her a second time and fled.

Now 27 years later, a Benicia man has been named as the prime suspect in at least 10 sexual assaults across northern California – possibly including this Sonoma rape, the second in the string of sex crimes that began six months earlier in Rohnert Park.

Roy Charles Waller, 58, is suspected of committing a series of home-invasion sexual assaults in six counties including two crimes in Sonoma County. Waller was taken into custody last week near the University of California, Berkeley campus, where he has worked for more than 26 years.

The assaults here in Sonoma County were among those linked to the suspect, then dubbed the “NorCal Rapist.” The other incidents were reported in Yolo, Sacramento, Butte, Solano, and Contra Costa counties.

In the Rohnert Park case the then 21-year-old victim, identified as Nicole Earnest-Payte in press reports, described the suspect as a soft-spoken and apologetic man who may have stalked her for some time prior to breaking into her home, she told the Press Democrat in 2006.

The woman said Rohnert Park police officers initially doubted her story when she reported the incident, and a story published in 1992 quoted a police lieutenant as saying they had concerns about her credibility.

According to Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, her office used the genealogy database GEDMatch to help them find the suspect. Waller was charged with 12 felony forcible sexual assaults, including allegations he had used a gun in some of the incidents.

The same database website was used recently to find a suspect in the so-called “Golden State Killer” murders and rapes in California from 1974 to 1986. In that case, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by Sacramento police in April.

But Waller has not yet been charged in the December 1991 Sonoma rape case. “We have resubmitted DNA evidence in the case as the MO (modus operandi) in this case is similar to those in the NorCal Rapist cases,” said Sgt. Spencer Crum of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. “We don’t have charges pending yet. Will wait for results of new DNA analysis.”

Waller is facing 12 counts of forcible sexual assault, including rape, forced oral copulation and forcible penetration with a foreign object, records show. He is being held in the Sacramento County jail without bail, and was arraigned Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Waller worked in the environment, health and safety office of UC Berkeley since 1992 as a safety specialist. His duties included managing programs to ensure safety and training for equipment and machinery including forklifts, aerial lifts and respirators, said Roqua Montez, a university spokesman. He lives in Benicia and is married, Sacramento officials said.

The Press Democrat contributed to this report.