Jury convicts Tacoma serial rapist who assaulted teen, 3 women at knifepoint
A 40-year-old Lacey man has been convicted of picking up and raping multiple women at knifepoint in Tacoma.
On Thursday, a jury found Mark Raney guilty on four counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree kidnapping and four counts of first-degree robbery.
He is scheduled to be sentenced April 17.
Raney was arrested in September 2018 and during a three-hour interview with detectives admitted to picking up prostitutes over the last 18 months.
He claimed he carried a folding knife with him because the first prostitute he tried to patronize robbed him.
“The defendant eventually admitted he did intentionally use to knife to avoid payment with the prostitutes ...,” according to charging papers.
During a search of Raney’s home, police found ID cards of two of his victims as well as a folding knife.
One of Raney’s first victims was an underage girl who accepted a ride from him as she was walking down Pacific Avenue.
He held a knife to her throat while sexually assaulting her and ordered her out of his vehicle without her clothing, records say.
In another case, Raney picked up a woman on Pacific Avenue and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint.
Neither of the first two victims immediately reported the attacks to police because they were frightened.
Another victim told police she was waiting for a ride at a gas station when Raney drove up and offered to give her a lift to Parkland.
After assaulting her at knifepoint, Raney stole her purse and cell phone.
It didn’t take long for detectives to notice the women’s description of their attacker and his vehicle matched other reported sexual assaults in the South End and Eastside.
One of the women assaulted by Raney wrote a victim impact statement for the court, describing how she and her mother both cry daily due to the attack.
“This is hard to write because I have to remember the horror I felt and still do. The feeling of I’m going to die a horrible death because of a maniac. My uncontrollable crying was not going to save me. I will never be the same,” she wrote.
Raney faces a minimum of 39 to 49 years in prison when sentenced, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 1:14 PM.
