DOJ lab in Eureka did forensics for Willits rapist sentenced to 16 years

Defendant Marcus Levert Caldwell, age 29, of Willits, was sentenced Thursday morning by the Mendocino County Superior Court to 192 months (16 years) in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.



The charges for which the defendant stands convicted are forcible rape, three counts of sexual penetration by force with a foreign object, and residential burglary.

Because the rape charge is characterized in the Penal Code as a violent felony, any credits against his prison sentence that the defendant may attempt to earn at CDCR shall not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

Additionally, as required by the prosecutor, the defendant waived all presentence credits he had earned from the date of his arrest in October 2018 through today's sentencing hearing.

As background, as potential jurors were reporting for jury service at the Ukiah courthouse back on November 12th, the defendant was upstairs for the first calling of his case to make sure the trial would be proceeding that morning. It was then that the defendant's appetite for a jury trial apparently waned. Instead of proceeding to trial, he opted to waive his right to a trial, he plead guilty to all five pending felony charges, and he stipulated to a state prison sentence of 16 years, a number somewhat less than what he could have received had he been convicted by a jury.

However, things did not go as expected thereafter. Apparently suffering from a case of buyer's remorse, the defendant filed his first motion to set aside his trial waiver and guilty pleas.  When that motion was called for hearing on November 27th, the defendant withdrew his request.

Today, the defendant attempted a second motion to set aside his trial waiver and guilty pleas. After hearing the legal arguments of the parties, the Court denied the defendant's request and the stipulated sentence was imposed.

The law enforcement agencies that worked together to gather the necessary evidence to support the defendant's felony convictions and today's sentence were the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the California Department of Justice forensic crime laboratories in Eureka, Redding (DNA), and Santa Rosa, and the District Attorney's Bureau of Investigations.

The prosecutor who has been personally handling the prosecution of this defendant is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder has been presiding over all proceedings in this matter.