http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/grad_student_torture;_ylt=AksWaFnsBxFmmuLF2PpN8gcDW7oF
NEW YORK - A Columbia University graduate student who was raped, beaten and burned last year testified Friday she thought she would die after her 19-hour nightmare began.
The 24-year-old woman said she resisted when her attacker forced his way into her Manhattan apartment and grabbed her.
"He threw me against the wall," she testified. "I couldn't breathe very well. I was trying to fight."
"When he put me in a chokehold and I started to black out, I thought I was going to die," the victim said. "I wanted to survive, so I did what he told me."
The attacker raped and sodomized her, slit her eyelids, and threw bleach into her eyes in an attempt to blind her. He also forced her to ingest a massive dose of painkillers that caused liver failure.
Robert Williams is charged with kidnapping, rape, arson and other counts. The 31-year-old ex-convict refused to come to court Friday, and the judge refused to delay the trial because of the defendant's absence.
The woman testified for about an hour Friday and is expected to resume Monday.
The defendant's lawyer, Arnold Levine, tried but failed to have Williams declared mentally unfit for trial. Levine did not make an opening statement.
Williams, who has served eight years in prison for attempted murder, could face life in prison if convicted in this case
NEW YORK - A Columbia University graduate student who was raped, beaten and burned last year testified Friday she thought she would die after her 19-hour nightmare began.
The 24-year-old woman said she resisted when her attacker forced his way into her Manhattan apartment and grabbed her.
"He threw me against the wall," she testified. "I couldn't breathe very well. I was trying to fight."
"When he put me in a chokehold and I started to black out, I thought I was going to die," the victim said. "I wanted to survive, so I did what he told me."
The attacker raped and sodomized her, slit her eyelids, and threw bleach into her eyes in an attempt to blind her. He also forced her to ingest a massive dose of painkillers that caused liver failure.
Robert Williams is charged with kidnapping, rape, arson and other counts. The 31-year-old ex-convict refused to come to court Friday, and the judge refused to delay the trial because of the defendant's absence.
The woman testified for about an hour Friday and is expected to resume Monday.
The defendant's lawyer, Arnold Levine, tried but failed to have Williams declared mentally unfit for trial. Levine did not make an opening statement.
Williams, who has served eight years in prison for attempted murder, could face life in prison if convicted in this case
