Richmond man sentenced to 169 years to life for raping 2 women

A Richmond man convicted of forcibly raping two women in separate 2022 attacks was recently sentenced to 169 years to life in state prison, prosecutors announced on Friday.

Mark Lewis Hinton, 44, was sentenced back on Oct. 2 in Contra Costa County Superior Court, more than a year after a jury convicted him of 11 felony counts on Sept. 5, 2025.  The sentence includes 150 years to life for rape convictions, plus an additional 19-year determinate term, prosecutors said.

At the time of the attacks, Hinton was already on parole for a 2011 Contra Costa County conviction for forcible rape, sodomy and oral copulation. Hinton was released after serving 12 years in prison for that crime.

A timeline of the assaults

In September 2022, Hinton cut off his parole ankle monitor and met a woman he knew at a motel in Concord. Prosecutors said the woman was staying there with acquaintances.

A knives-wielding Hinton struck the woman and forced her into another room, where he violently raped her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, officials said.

Despite initially being too frightened to report the sexual assault, county officials said she later reported it to Concord police and the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office.

For that assault, Hinton was convicted of kidnapping to commit rape, forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, forcible sodomy and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury for the attack, prosecutors said.

Three months later, Hinton was dating a homeless woman and, within weeks, had begun physically assaulting her, prosecutors said.

At one point, Hinton fractured the woman's orbital bone and forced her to report to hospital staff that she had been in a car accident. Prosecutors said the woman was able to briefly escape from Hinton on Dec. 29, 2022, and contact 911.

While she was on the phone with dispatchers, prosecutors said Hinton forced her back inside. The next day, a knife-wielding Hinton threatened the woman and sexually assaulted her.

That same day, prosecutors said the woman was able to escape again. This time, she made it to a nearby store where employees called 911. Law enforcement officials located Hinton in Martinez later that day and took him into custody.

The jury convicted him of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic violence causing great bodily injury, criminal threats with a knife, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and false imprisonment in connection with the attacks, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors praise survivors' courage

At trial, a woman Hinton sexually assaulted in 2008 also testified about the attack that led to his 2011 conviction.

During closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Danielle Brown told jurors the second woman was "lucky to be alive. She realized that he was going to kill her at some point."

On Hinton, Brown said, "He needs his victims to feel scared so that he can feel powerful."

Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton praised the survivors for coming forward.

"These women showed extraordinary courage in facing the person who abused them and telling a jury what he did," Becton said. "Domestic violence cases are difficult to prosecute because abusers often isolate and intimidate their victims and choose people they believe won't be heard. These survivors proved him wrong."