By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Lewis County jury heard via videotaped interview a convicted rapist talk about 10 to 12 of his victims as they sit through a trial in which they will decide if 46-year-old Mark T. Robinson will remain locked up even though he has served his prison term.
Robinson, once a truck driver, was convicted in September 2000 after raping at knifepoint a teenage girl he picked up at a Spokane truck stop, an 18-year-old who escaped his big rig at an exit on Interstate 5 near Toledo. She was hitchhiking to visit her child in Toledo.
Mark T. Robinson
The trial which began yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court is expected to run into next week, according to Senior Counsel Malcom Ross, at the Office of the Attorney General of Washington.
Ross filed the petition for Robinson’s civil commitment in May of last year. Such a petition is filed for approximately 1 percent of offenders who are released from prison in Washington, Ross said at the time.
The process comes from the Community Protection Act of 1990, the first of its kind in the country. The state Attorney General’s Office typically handles the cases, in the county where the criminal conviction occurred.
If the 12-person jury finds unanimously beyond a reasonable doubt Robinson is a sexually violent predator, he will be retained in custody for treatment until he’s deemed no longer dangerous, according to Ross.
Robinson, who according to court documents, was raised in a farming area outside Olympia, bullied in special education classes and dropped out of school, confessed he got a thrill out of raping.
His only other conviction is patronizing a prostitute in 1998, according to Ross.
The then-18-year-old rape victim won’t be among those who take the witness stand. She died years later in a homicide in another state, Ross said. He wasn’t certain of the details.
“It would be useful to hear from her, we wish we had her,” Ross said. “But the most important parts will be the experts discussing the mental disorder.”
The legal term is a mental abnormality that would cause one to reoffend in a sexual way, Ross said. The diagnosis is sadism.
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For background, read “Rapist convicted in Lewis County faces indefinite lockup after prison term” from Monday May 21, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Sharon, do please keep us updated on this story. I was a friend of the young woman he attacked, and would like to know if this creep gets put in a mental institution where he belongs.
Agreed Dominoe . . . yet a teenage boy who is involved in a drive-by shooting in which nobody was killed gets what amounts to basically a life sentence? Or Pennypacker and his POS, lowlife buddy get to testify against Lawson and don’t do a minute in jail when they accepted stolen property? It’s all a sick joke.
HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU GET?
Yea he should have…but he only got 12 years. I guess this is the “justice Systems” way of trying to make up for being so effed up and stupid. Adele got more time for ONE delivery charge.
This subhuman piece of shit should have been executed immediately after conviction.
Ha! Here’s the indefinite detention statute at work! As you can see it is for 1% of offenders deemed to dangerous to be released…. Never for those who have committed one crime.