Handcuffs, zip ties, ski masks: NorCal Rapist suspect explains items police found

The handcuffs were for a particularly “wild” girlfriend. The zip ties were for working on his motorcycles. The condoms were for sex with women he met online.

NorCal Rapist suspect Roy Waller had an explanation Thursday for much of the evidence police found in his storage locker and Benicia home after he was arrested in September 2018 and charged with raping nine women over a 15-year span.

In his second day of testimony in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday, Waller conceded he dated numerous Asian women over the years after meeting them using online dating sites, but said his sexual encounters were all mutual.

But he flatly denied raping any of the victims, despite the fact that authorities say his DNA was found at all but one of the locations where women were attacked.

“All I can say is, I was never at these locations and I never did what I’m accused of,” he said. “As far as the DNA thing, I’m not a DNA expert.”

Waller said he tried not to look at the victims who testified to allow them to be comfortable, and said watching them testify was “like watching it on TV.”

He allowed that he had many items that police seized as evidence, but said he had explanations for all of them.

“I am a collector of odd things,” Waller said Thursday as he tried to explain why his storage lockers held numerous rolls of duct tape — some pink, others camouflage color — zip ties, a box of condoms, ski masks, two Tasers and other items.

Speaking in a monotone voice, Waller described some of his relationships, his weekend paintball trips with co-workers from UC Berkeley and his habit of buying items in bulk from an Ace hardware shop near campus that offered him discounts for things like duct tape.

The NorCal Rapist’s victims have said they were bound by an attacker who used duct tape, rope or zip ties and wore ski or other types of masks.

But Waller, under questioning from defense attorney Joseph Farina, said the items seized by police following his arrest — including pre-cut lengths of nylon rope — were normal household possessions he obtained over the years.

The handcuffs were for an old girlfriend — Amy — he said, adding that she and “a few of her friends” were the only women he engaged in bondage activities with.

“I don’t want to drag her name into this ...” he said. “She was into different things.

“She was kind of on the wild side.”

He maintained he is not the man who was stabbed in the forearm by one rape victim, or the assailant stabbed in the forehead by another. He went as far as to roll up his sleeve to show his only injury is a round scar from what he said was a paintball injury, and flatly denied he was the man who raped two roommates in Natomas in October 2006.

“Absolutely not,” Waller replied when Farina, his lawyer, asked if he had driven his then-girlfriend’s 2000 Toyota 4Runner to Natomas to attack the pair.

But Waller had difficulty answering Farina directly, and instead frequently rambled into meandering answers that prompted prosecutors to complain that he was being “non-responsive.”

He also denied prosecutors’ contention that following his arrest he tried to hang himself inside an interview room at Sacramento police headquarters using the drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt.

“I just wanted out of that room,” Waller said. “I didn’t care if it was in a hospital...

“I knew it wasn’t going to be successful and I wanted to get out of that room to a hospital.”

Farina questioned Waller for about two hours in testimony Tuesday and Thursday, and Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore wasted no time in tearing into the suspect when his turn came, questioning him about his collection of pornography that included an ice chest full and photos of bound Asian women.

“I kept a lot of images,” Waller said as Ore asked about one. “This image has nothing to do with these people connected to this case.”

With fellow prosecutor Keith Hill holding up a bag of ropes, handcuffs, panties and other items police seized from Waller’s property, Ore asked Waller about his bondage routines with Amy, and whether they were similar to how some NoCal Rapist victims described having their hands bound to a bed headboard.

“Tell us how you bound Amy with these ropes,” Ore said.

“That is none of your business, that is me and Amy’s business,” Waller replied before conceding he would tie her to a headboard but not tie her feet.

“No, because there were acts that would take place where you would not bind feet,” Waller said, adding that he never actually used the handcuffs on Amy.

“They were ideas that we had talked about on using them, but we never used any zip ties, we never used any handcuffs, we never used any chains like you were referring to,” Waller said.

“It was more than Amy that you bound?” Ore asked.

“You’re trying to twist this,” Waller complained.

The questioning became contentious at times, with Waller trying to ask Ore questions and Judge James Arguelles ordering the jury to leave the room at times to hash out arguments between the lawyers.

Ore also asked why Waller posted Craigslist ads over the years seeking female Asian roommates.

Waller contends the ads were posted as favors for various girlfriends who needed help finding new apartments for themselves or for their college-bound daughters.

“I had a seminar down in (Las) Vegas to go to and I actually met a person down there who met me at the hotel where the seminar was going on, the Bellagio, I think,” Waller said. “We went to dinner.

“She told me about her situation. She was married, but her husband had only about two months to live. He was dying. She had a daughter that was enrolled to attend Chapman University and she asked me if I could help her find a place for her daughter to stay near Chapman.

“Then a little bit after that she asked me to help her find a place in Henderson or near Vegas, and that sounded a little strange to me because she had a house.”

Ore repeatedly demanded Waller identify the women he was placing the ads for, asking for their names, descriptions or dates of birth, information Waller largely said he could not remember.

“I have met so many people online dating and apps,” he said. “With Asian women, some use their Asian name and some use an American and Asian name. I do not know, it’s been years.”

Ore questioned why women who knew how to post ads on singles sites would need his help posting ads for apartments.

“So you went on singles sites looking for women and out of the blue they would ask you, ‘Can you help me find a place?’” Ore asked

Yes, Waller said, but added that he could not explain why.

“It’s hard, huh?” Ore replied.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Waller said.

Ore also produced a database printout that Waller compiled listing descriptions of women, their addresses, car descriptions and notations of whether they were in ground-floor apartments or not.

Waller said they simply may have been notes from years ago of people he would like to meet.

“Some of these may have been people that I would like to introduce myself to,” Waller said.

“So you kept a list of women — not their names, just their descriptions, where they worked, what time they would get off work, those sorts of things?” Ore asked.

“This was decades ago, decades ago when I was much younger,” Waller said.

Finally, Ore demanded Waller answer how his sperm ended up on the bedsheets, pillowcase, comforters and evidence swabs of various victims of the NorCal Rapist.

“You have no explanation of how your sperm ended up on the abdominal swab of this woman?” Ore asked. “You did not break into the hospital and ejaculate on the specimen?”

“No, maybe you did,” Waller replied. “I’m not sure that my sperm is related to any of this.

“This is for the experts to figure out.”