"This is what you white b--- need."
Jack
Rapist Gets Life Without Parole
posted March 20, 2002
A man authorities say had a history of raping women especially brutally has
been handed two life prison sentences without the possibility of parole.
Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern on Thursday morning gave Ralph Lamar
Williams, 38, the consecutive life terms.
The sentences came just after a jury convicted Williams of the rape of a
39-year-old St. Elmo woman, who had told the panel of enduring 13 hours of
repeated rapes and beatings.
Williams was convicted of four counts of aggravated rape, one rape and one
aggravated kidnapping in the incident.
He had gotten out of prison after serving an 8-year term in a similar rape.
District Attorney Bill Cox, who helped try the case, said police advised him
Williams committed another such rape in December of 2000, but the victim
disappeared.
Mr. Cox said, "It was a good verdict. This defendant was exceptionally cruel
and violent and was a repeat offender. Our community will be a lot safer
because he will never see the light of day again."
Mr. Cox praised the police work in the case as well as the Rape Crisis
Center. He said a nurse at the center who treated the victim provided
crucial testimony.
He also said the victim "was very courageous in surviving this brutal attack
and in telling her story to the jury."
The jury deliberated two hours on Wednesday afternoon and a short time on
Thursday morning.
The woman identified Williams as the man who carried out the attack that
began on the evening of March 20 of last year and continued until late the
next morning.
The woman said she was in her car at the Krystal on South Broad Street about
to order a Coke when she saw a man at her window. She said he hit her,
bolted into the driver's seat, and whisked her away.
She said she lost consciousness after the man beat and choked her, and when
she woke up she was with him inside a strange house.
The woman said he was standing over her and ordered her to take her clothes
off.
She said, "I was shocked. It was like waking up in a dream. I realized he
was going to rape me."
The woman said she begged him not to, but he made her undress.
She said during the hours that followed her raped her repeatedly in between
smoking cocaine. She said he also beat her until her face was numb.
She told the jury, "He enjoyed the thought of the pain. Every time I would
scream, he would hit me again. But I couldn't keep from screaming."
She said she had a small box cutter in her purse and at one point she got it
open, but it broke when she tried to stab him with it. She said she later
tried to jab his eyes with a car key. She said he beat and stomped her after
both of those incidents.
She said at one point she heard him handling wire, and she feared he was
going to strangle her. She said it turned out he was taking the wire off a
cardboard coat hanger. She said he took the cardboard and repeatedly rammed
it inside her, saying "This is what you white b--- need."
She said at one point he seemed to be asleep, and she got as far as the door
before he grabbed her. She said later she got outside, but he came after
her, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her back inside. Detectives found a
shock of her hair at the scene.
She said he finally passed out, and she got outside and located her car. She
had an extra set of keys.
When she looked in the car's mirror, she said, "I was shocked. I looked like
a monster."
She said she sought a policeman at the Winn-Dixie, but the store was closed
because it was Sunday morning. She said she finally drove to a Golden Gallon
and asked for help. A police officer took her back to where she had been
raped, but the assailant was gone from the apartment at Spencer McCallie
Homes.
She was then taken by ambulance to Erlanger Medical Center and then to the
Rape Crisis Center.
Police showed her a police lineup and she picked out Williams. He was
arrested three days later.
The TBI said semen taken from her matched that of Williams in a DNA test and
that his semen was also found on the cardboard section of the coat hanger.
Assistant District Attorney Lila Statom also tried the case.
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