La Mesa Man, 22, Sentenced to Prison for Sex Attacks

A La Mesa man who posed as an undercover policeman to lure girls into his car and sexually attack some of them was sentenced Wednesday to 27 years in prison.

Municipal Court Judge Frederic Link also ordered Mark Timothy Carson, 22, of the 5800 block of Amaya Drive, to pay $1,000 restitution in connection with the incidents, which occurred between March and July of 1987.

Carson’s sentence was the maximum possible under a plea agreement with prosecutors who wanted to spare seven girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17, from having to testify at trial.

Carson, who has been jailed since his arrest in July, 1987, pleaded guilty to forcibly raping a 17-year-old at knifepoint on March 15, 1987, and to kidnaping a 13-year-old for purposes of rape on April 21.

“He was a threat not only to the victims themselves, but to the entire community,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Eichler told Link. “He gave the police a black eye because until he was caught, there was a suspicion that these attacks were actually being committed by a policeman.”

Carson stopped each victim near an East San Diego shopping area. After gaining their confidence and telling them he would drive them home, Carson took them to remote locations where they were threatened with a knife if they didn’t comply with his demands.

Comparing the victims’ terror with that which “most horror films try to portray,” Eichler said Carson would electronically lock the car doors after the girls were in the back seat.

He then would drive to a parking structure where he would pull the car alongside a wall inches away, making it impossible for the doors on one side of the car to be opened.