GLENDALE : Arrest of Suspect Ends 2-Year Manhunt

Concluding a two-year manhunt, police announced Tuesday that a Los Angeles man has been charged as the intruder who invaded as many as 50 homes in La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale and surrounding areas, robbing and terrorizing elderly women.

The suspect had been arrested for littering, but was linked to the attacks by a fingerprint lifted from a water glass in the home of one of his victims.

Gary Darnell Williams, 30, of Los Angeles pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine charges of residential burglary and sexual battery, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence McGrail said.

Williams, who was convicted of a burglary in Santa Monica in May, 1991, pleaded not guilty Tuesday before Glendale Municipal Court Commissioner Daniel Calabro, who set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 7, police said.

Because of his criminal record and the allegation that he targeted victims older than age 65, Williams could receive up to 35 years and four months in state prison if convicted, McGrail said. He remains in custody in lieu of $230,000 bail.

Police believe that Williams is the same man who, over the past two years, robbed at least 50 homes--30 in downtown Glendale. The other reported burglaries occurred in Montrose, La Crescenta, Burbank, Pasadena and South Pasadena.

“We’ve been on a manhunt, a dragnet, ever since,” Glendale Police Sgt. Lief Nicolaisen said.

In most cases, authorities said, the man told women in their 70s and 80s that he was a window washer sent by the county or the social services department. He then walked into their homes without permission, wandering through various rooms before leaving. Sometimes he took cash from the homes--the most being $800, prosecutors and police said.

The two sexual battery cases were reported on June 23 in La Crescenta and Aug. 15 in Glendale, McGrail said.

Police said they were unable to get enough information from the victims to produce a composite sketch of the suspect. But they said a key break in the case came when a victim called Glendale investigators and told them that the intruder drank a glass of water during an alleged burglary. A partial fingerprint was recovered from the glass, and police identified the suspect as Williams on July 30, Nicolaisen said. An arrest warrant was issued Aug. 4.

Williams was arrested Monday night by Los Angeles police officers in the 1300 block of Newton Street on suspicion of littering before he was identified as the suspect in the home invasion cases. Police said he threw away a citation after he was pulled over for a vehicle violation.