Richmond man sentenced to 169 years to life for two forcible rapes

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that a Richmond man was sentenced to 169 years to life in state prison for violently assaulting and raping two women in 2022.

Judge John W. Kennedy on Oct. 2 sentenced Mark Lewis Hinton, 44, to 150 years to life on the rape counts plus a 19-year determinate term; a jury had convicted Hinton of 11 felony counts on Sept. 5, 2025, and sentencing was delayed more than a year after he hired new defense counsel, the office said.

The release said Hinton cut off his parole ankle monitor and went to a Concord motel in early Sept. 2022, where he was armed with knives, struck a woman he knew casually, forced her into another room, sexually assaulted her while strangling and beating her, and threatened to kill her; she was too frightened to tell police when they arrived but later reported the assault to Concord police and the District Attorney’s Office.

The office said three months later Hinton began a relationship with a second woman who was experiencing homelessness; he beat her repeatedly, fracturing the bone around her eye, and told her to tell hospital staff she had been in a car accident. On Dec. 29 she escaped to her car and called 911 but Hinton forced her back inside while she was still on the line; the next day he threatened and sexually assaulted her with a knife, and store employees called 911 after she fled to a nearby shop, the office said.

The woman Hinton sexually assaulted in 2008 also testified at trial, the release said. In closing arguments Deputy District Attorney Danielle Brown told jurors the second woman “said she’s lucky to be alive. She realized that he was going to kill her at some point.” Brown added, “He needs his victims to feel scared so that he can feel powerful.”

Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton said, “These women showed extraordinary courage in facing the person who abused them and telling a jury what he did,” the office quoted. The release noted the case was investigated by the Martinez and Concord police departments and gave the case number as 01-23-00045.

The release ran an October reminder that it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and listed local resources for survivors; anyone in Contra Costa County experiencing domestic violence can call the STAND! For Families Free of Violence 24-hour crisis line at 888-215-5555, or the District Attorney’s Victim Witness Assistance Program at 925-957-8650 (Martinez) or 510-374-3272 (Richmond). In an emergency, call 911.

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