NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A man Norfolk police have labeled a “serial rapist” will get a mental health evaluation, a judge decided on Monday.
The results of that evaluation will determine if William Phelps IV, 33, is competent to stand trial. In April, a grand jury indicted Phelps on 27 felonies connected to sexual assaults that happened in Norfolk between December 2007 and October 2008.
Prosecutors allege Phelps assaulted six people and abducted three others. All of the victims were girls and women between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.
Phelps was arrested in August 2022 after Virginia Beach police say he lied about being previously institutionalized when he bought a gun. His DNA was taken when he was arrested, then linked to the sexual assaults in Norfolk.
Norfolk police charged Phelps in October in connection to the sexual assaults of two teenage girls on Verdun Avenue. The girls were abducted at gunpoint while walking to their bus stop on Jan. 9, 2008. Police believe Phelps raped them behind a shed.
Phelps wasn’t the first suspect in that case. On the day of the attack, police arrested 16-year-old Shaka Harrell. The teenager was exonerated by DNA evidence, but not before he spent two months in jail.
Phelps’ defense team has requested a competency evaluation and a review hearing is now set for August 14.
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