Note: This story could be triggering for some listeners as it contains details of sexual assault. Identifying details of the victim have been intentionally left out of this story as KRBD’s policy is to not to identify victims of sexual assault without express permission.
Trial proceedings began Tuesday in Ketchikan for a 30-year-old rape case. Michael J. Williams, a 54-year-old Saxman resident, stands accused of two felony counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor.
The charges stem from a rape that occurred in January of 1993. Though samples were collected from the 14-year-old survivor at the time, the case went unsolved for decades.
“There was slushy snow on the ground, and it was raining pretty hard that night,” prosecuting attorney Erin McCarthy told the jury in her opening statement, describing the night of the crime. “As she was walking across the field, she saw a man come out of the darkness. He wore green fishing-style raingear. He had on a scarf that was black with a multicolored pattern – pink or purple. And he had that scarf pulled up over his nose so that she could only see his eyes. “
The assailant grabbed the victim from behind and pulled her into the dugout at Ketchikan High School’s Dudley Field. He told her that he had a knife and would use it on her if she called for help.
McCarthy said charges against Williams come after years of advances in DNA forensics.
“Michael Williams disappeared into the dark that night, and efforts to find the assailant went cold for 30 years,” she said.
She also claimed that the DNA evidence in the case proves Williams’ guilt. The prosecution plans for Cheryl Duda, a forensic DNA analyst at the Alaska Crime Lab, to take the stand this week.
“The rareness of the profile in this case was rarer than one in 330 billion,” the prosecutor told the jury. “(Duda) will testify that you can search the earth multiple times and not find a profile like it. The semen collected from the rape kit in this case belong to Michael Williams. It’s proven by science. He’s not in the dark anymore.”
In his opening statements, defense attorney Leif Thompson cast doubt on the DNA evidence.
“You’re going to hear evidence that there’s no smoking gun in this case,” Thompson said. “There’s no scarf with black and pink on it. I mean, there’s no diary saying, ‘I did it.’ There is no other evidence to consider. It’s a case entirely based on the science. And nobody believes in anything other than a DNA report. If anybody thinks Mr. Williams, did it, it’s for no other reason.”
He raised questions about degradation and how many hands handled the DNA over 30 years. Thompson claimed that the number that McCarthy quoted – “one in 330 billion” – is misleading because it doesn’t account for subsets of the population that he said may be more likely matches.
“There are some indigenous groups that share a lot of DNA with each other,” Thompson said. “There is no testing against the subset of any indigenous population that Mr. Williams might belong to.”
Additionally, Thompson leaned on the fact that there were very few descriptive details of the assailant at the time of the crime.
“In addition to what Miss McCarthy said about the man, the Dudley Field Rapist, that night, he had a hood on,” Thompson said. “He had a hood; he had a black scarf with some kind of stripe that possibly came over his face. And all she saw were his eyes. There is not a lot of description.”
Williams sat at the defense table expressionless during the opening statements and testimony. He could face as many as 30 years in prison if convicted of first-degree sexual assault. The second charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The prosecution will continue to call witnesses through this week and currently plans to rest by Thursday. The defense is expected to begin its case starting Jan. 16.
