Athlete Rearrested in Compton College Student’s ’88 Slaying

Nearly two years after authorities declined to charge him in the death of a popular Compton College honor student, a former campus basketball star has been rearrested in the slaying, authorities said Tuesday.

Adding a new dimension to an already perplexing case, police also booked Roy Zachary Williams, 25, in the June, 1988, stabbing death of a young Long Beach woman. The arrest came after Williams failed to appear in an Ohio court on charges of raping a Cleveland State University student.

“All indications are that he’s a dangerous individual,” said Long Beach Police Detective Logan Wren. “We’re not talking about a one-time thing.”

Williams was first arrested in July, 1989, by San Diego police, and held for a day, in the killing of Lina Aldridge, 19, whose semi-nude body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car in the downtown area. The case shook the Compton College campus and the tightly knit circles of the city’s middle class.

Williams, a 6-foot, 8-inch center, was taken into custody again Monday evening at his mother’s Compton home by members of the Long Beach Police Department’s Career Criminals Unit.

Police said they linked Williams to the death of Trina Denise Young, 19, who was found stabbed, strangled and raped in her mother’s Long Beach home. The back yard of the residence faces the Compton College campus, just across the city boundary.

Wren said a DNA test of body fluids discovered at Young’s home pointed investigators to Williams. The DNA test matched a blood sample taken from Williams during the investigation of the Aldridge case.

New evidence has also surfaced in the Aldridge investigation, leading to his rearrest, Wren said. He declined to elaborate.

Williams was being held Tuesday at Long Beach Municipal Jail pending arraignment today on two counts of murder, Wren said.

Williams has been linked to three murders. Law enforcement sources, who asked not to be identified, said Tuesday that he was convicted of murder as a juvenile and served time in the California Youth Authority.

At the Aldridge family home Tuesday, relatives said little about the arrest.

“We’re happy,” said Julia Aldridge, Lina’s aunt. “That’s all we want to say right now.”

For months, members of the Aldridge family had quietly insisted that Williams was responsible for the slaying. They have filed suit against the Compton Community College District and Williams, charging that school officials knew of Williams’ criminal past and should have warned Aldridge, who worked with him as a youth counselor.

Richard A. Caplan, an attorney for Aldridge’s grandparents, said an independent medical examiner who studied the San Diego County coroner’s autopsy report concluded that Aldridge was either smothered or strangled.

“From the very beginning, their desire was that there be a full airing of all the facts surrounding the death of their daughter,” Caplan said of the Aldridge family. “(They) are quite happy that the authorities are finally bringing (this) prosecution.”

After the discovery of Aldridge’s body in the trunk of her gray Toyota Corolla near a downtown bus station, Williams told San Diego police that he and the victim had visited a local crack house, where she overdosed on cocaine. No traces of drugs were found in her body.

After police concluded there was insufficient evidence against him and when the San Diego County coroner’s office could not determine the cause of death, Williams was released.

But Tuesday, San Diego County Deputy Dist. Atty. Rupert Linley said that, upon reexamining the evidence, he believed Aldridge was the victim of foul play.

“People don’t feel faint, take their pants off and crawl into the trunk--it generally doesn’t make them feel better,” Linley said, referring to the state in which Aldridge’s body was found.

It remains unclear how Aldridge died, Linley said. But, he added, “in my view, it was an attempted rape and she was putting up a good fight and her assailant held on (to her neck) too long and killed her.”

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Carbaugh, who is assigned to the case, said witnesses saw Williams and Aldridge together in her car and then saw Williams alone in the car about four hours later. There were also signs of a struggle inside the vehicle, including a broken rear-view mirror.

Williams, a standout on the Compton College basketball team, and Aldridge, the student body vice president and youth counselor, were popular on campus and well known in the community. As allegations in the case circulated in the summer of 1989, students and area residents, angry because they felt their community was being maligned in the media, began to close ranks around the victim, Williams and their families.

Williams, meanwhile, continued his basketball career. He was recruited by Cleveland State University. His play there was mediocre and he was suspended from the team for academic violations last December and eventually suspended from classes. In a matter of days, Williams was arrested and charged with raping an 18-year-old woman at a fraternity pajama party.

Cleveland State sports information director Merle Levin said Tuesday he was disappointed, but not surprised, to learn of Williams’ latest arrest.

“When you’re aware of inner-city kids and what they’ve come through you come to understand some of their personalities and actions,” he said. “What you hope to do is move them upwards and onwards. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

After his arrest on the rape charges, Williams posted bail and left Cleveland before an April 11 court date, Long Beach police said, apparently fleeing to the same gang-toughened Compton neighborhood where he first honed his basketball skills on local playgrounds.

Neighbors said he had been living in the family home on Saunders Street for several weeks. Williams told one resident of the working-class neighborhood that he had been working at a Long Beach aerospace plant. He told another neighbor that he had received a college degree, although he had left school.

When officers in five patrol cars arrived about 7 p.m. Monday to arrest Williams, said neighbor Carlton Shigg, the young fugitive instantly dropped to the ground.

“It was like he expected a drive-by shooting,” Shigg said.

A youth director at a South Los Angeles church, Shigg said he was surprised to learn that Williams had been linked to three killings.

“That’s not the Roy Williams I know,” said Shigg, who has known the suspect since he was a youngster.

From behind a black, steel security door, members of Williams’ family declined comment.

“We don’t want this in the media any more than it already is,” said a young man who declined to be identified.

Times staff writers Ron Russell in Los Angeles and Alan Abrahamson in San Diego contributed to this story.