The man police have called the Potomac River Rapist after a string of attacks in the 1990s was in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday.
Giles Warrick is scheduled to go on trial right after Thanksgiving in the rape and killing of Christine Mirzayan, 28, who was abducted off the street and dragged into a wooded area in Georgetown in 1998.
The D.C. police also used DNA evidence to link Warrick to the 1996 rape of another woman before he was arrested.
Warrick is also charged with six rapes in Montgomery County. Police said in November 2019, at the time of his arrest, that DNA evidence matched him a series of attacks up and down the I-270 corridor. He’s also suspected in two other attacks in Montgomery County, but hasn’t been charged with them because there’s no DNA.
When the case goes to trial in D.C., prosecutors say DNA evidence will conclusively prove Warrick committed the attacks.
At a status update Tuesday, Warrick and his attorney declined the opportunity to independently re-test any of the DNA evidence prosecutors plan to use against him.
A judge is set to decide the matter at a motions hearing next month; jury selection is slated to begin Nov. 29. The trial is scheduled to run up to two weeks.
