An April 17 trial date was set Wednesday for Jeremiah Ira Williams, who is accused of raping a young woman whom he followed to her University City apartment and another woman elsewhere in 2016.
Williams, now 26, appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth to plead not guilty and get a trial date set after being ordered Dec. 14 to stand trial on 14 felony charges.
In a 2-day preliminary hearing, Judge Kathleen Lewis ordered him to stand trial for rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration, forcible sodomy, false imprisonment, making a criminal threat, robbery, and burglary in the two incidents on Aug. 13 and 14, 2016.
A woman testified she spotted a man following her in a parking lot in University City and she walked quickly to her apartment, but was knocked down after opening the door. A second woman said Williams assaulted her in a motel room in Grantville the following night.
Williams was found mentally competent to stand trial in October after a judge reviewed a psychiatric evaluation. His lawyer had argued he was not mentally fit to stand trial.
He was arrested in Nov., 2016, in Arizona and extradited here. Williams remains in jail on $5 million bail.
