Five years after being pulled into the woods and raped, a 24-year-old woman came face to face with the man she believes attacked her.
“I can?t be 100 percent sure, but this person looks like him,” the victim said, pointing to Kelroy Williamson, 39, of Baltimore, who is on trial in Anne Arundel Circuit Court this week.
Then asking Williamson to stand and taking a better look at him, she amended her testimony.
“After a while, I?m sure it?s him,” she said.
Recounting the details of the September 2002 rape, the victim struggled through her testimony then rushed from the courtroom. The family and friends of Williamson followed in tears. Several jury members wiped their eyes.
Defense attorneys questioned the victim?s recollection of the attacker, despite an exact match between Williamson?s DNA and that taken from the victim?s body after the rape.
She initially gave a sketch artist a description that did not resemble Williamson as he looked five years ago or as he looks today, said his attorney, William Davis. The attorney believes that the DNA evidence is flawed and that police did not fully investigate all suspects.
But the victimsaid she was exhausted after several hours working with the sketch artist, who showed her multiple pictures of noses, lips and eyes.
The jury also heard testimony from a man who stopped to help the victim, who was a 19-year-old Russian exchange student at the time.
“I found a young lady on the side of the road, and she was reaching up for help,” said Terry Wisniewski, who was driving a newspaper route that morning. “From the looks of things, she didn?t look like she had anything on … she said she?d been raped.”
According to court documents, Williamson allegedly attacked the student about 5 a.m., as she walked from her home in Pioneer City to her job at McDonald?s on Reece Road. Police said Williamson pulled her into a wooded area, bound her arms and raped her.
The trial is expected to continue today with testimony from DNA experts.
