By By Tara Conry
He spent four hours repeatedly beating and raping a University student and now he could face a lifetime in jail.
Gregory Williams, 37, pled guilty last month to all charges in the abduction and sexual assault of a University student blocks away from her off-campus residence last summer, Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Joy Watson, said.
Watson, who prosecuted the case, said the victim had been preparing for her senior year by taking summer classes at the University. She spent most of the evening of June 21, 2004 unloading boxes with her boyfriend into their Uniondale apartment. When they were finished, she realized her keys were missing and went outside alone. She was searching the area around her car when Williams approached her, offering a helping hand. His Good Samaritan image quickly faded as he dragged her away from her home.
Watson said a group of men witnessed the two fighting on Bedford Avenue, but assumed they were a couple and did not alert the police. For the next four hours, Williams continued to attack and rape her – first in a nearby residential backyard and then later in a school parking lot — before he fled.
Nassau County police patrolling the area two nights after the attack matched his face to a police sketch. They arrested Williams one week later at his home – a half a mile from where his victim lived.
He was charged with first degree rape, first degree sexual abuse, two counts of second degree assault and six counts of a criminal sex act in the first degree, Watson said.
The jury was selected, and the court was set to begin opening the statements the next day when Williams changed his plea at the last minute.
“We had overwhelming evidence against him and the likelihood of a conviction was great,” she said.
Watson said the most compelling evidence was a DNA sample that matched one Williams had submitted to the state data bank after he was convicted of robbery and manslaughter in the 90s.
He was still on parole when he committed the rape, she added.
Watson was pleased with the guilty plea, which spared the victim from testifying and reliving the trauma.
As chief of the Sexual Offenses and Domestic Violence Bureau, Watson has dealt with many rape cases.
“It was a heinous, random act of violence, which will have a permanent impact on the victim,” she said.
However, she predicts the victim- who now works in marketing – will exercise her right to deliver a victim-impact sentence to her attacker at his sentencing on Sept. 12.
By pleading guilty, Williams will be spared from serving consecutive sentences for the multiple counts, but can spend anywhere from 20 years to life behind bars.