A woman told jurors Thursday she felt her life was going to end when a man beat and raped her in her UTC apartment in August of 2016.
She testified that the defendant, Jeremiah Williams, first approached her outside her apartment and beat her, then forced her inside her apartment and dragged her into her bedroom to rape her.
Williams is also accused of attacking another woman the very next day at a hotel in La Mesa.
The victim of the first alleged assault testified she was physically choked outside and inside the apartment. The court ordered the woman be identified as Jane Doe 1.
One person who was not in court Thursday was Williams. He was removed from the court before opening statements started. It was not clear why.
Prosecutors say the day after the first alleged attack, Williams sexually assaulted a woman in a room at a Motel 6 off Alvarado Road. They say the woman was working as a prostitute.
"Their lives forever changed when he brutally beat them, choked them, strangled them and raped them,” prosecutor Trisha Amador said. “He terrorized them with a gun and he threatened them."
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Thomas Bahr, Williams’ defense attorney, told jurors that investigators tried to strengthen their case against Williams in the first assault in UTC by linking him to the second incident in La Mesa.
“In an effort to solve a brutal rape of Jane Doe 1, investigators infused a different case, a less credible case, a case rife with problems,” Bahr said in court.
Bahr didn’t deny that Jane Doe 1 was raped, but argued it was not done by Williams. He also claimed the second victim lied to police and to doctors as to what really happened to her.
The second victim may be called to testify Friday.
San Diego police identified Williams through physical evidence found at a condo complex on Nobel Drive.
The second incident occurred at a motel on Alvarado Canyon Road.
After the victim went to Sharp Memorial Hospital and reported the assault, that investigators linked the victim to the Motel 6 incident. The woman's description of her attacker matched the description of the man accused in the University City assault.
Investigators launched a manhunt for Williams, who has a criminal background in California and Texas.
In November 2016, Williams was arrested in Tolleson, Arizona after officers from the Arizona Wanted Violent Offender Task Force received a tip.
