Stranger kidnaps and rapes 21-year-old mom after he says she ignored him, feds say

A 21-year-old mom was raped and robbed after a man said she ignored him while she was on her way home from a bus stop, federal officials said. Now he’s been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The woman, who was wearing earbuds and listening to music, was on her way home from her shift at the front desk of a Maryland hotel, according to court documents.

That’s when Mark A. Blue, 34, of Washington, D.C, yelled to her, “looking for attention,” from his car, but she didn’t reply, documents said. McClatchy News reached out to Blue’s lawyer for a statement Nov. 8 and did not receive an immediate response.

Then, Blue forced her into the car, stripped her naked and threatened to kill her, according to a Nov. 7 news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Blue covered her eyes with a shirt so she couldn’t see anything and sexually assaulted her, officials said.

Blue and his co-conspirator drove the woman to an ATM in Washington, D.C., and forced her to give them with her banking information, prosecutors said.

The co-conspirator drained the woman’s money from her account while Blue assaulted her again, officials said.

Blue told the woman “If you weren’t my target tonight, I’d make you wifey,” documents stated.

Then, the two drove her to an alley where they both sexually assaulted her before leaving her naked with her shirt over her head, prosecutors said.

Blue was under supervised release at the time connected to a 2013 armed robbery conviction, officials said.

Two days later, Blue quit his job and left for North Carolina, officials said in the release.

Blue told a woman he’d been talking to over Facebook that he wanted to visit her in North Carolina, officials said.

He didn’t disclose his active arrest warrant, but then the woman learned about it from her mother, documents said.

Blue was arrested the next day, court documents said.

In March, after a five-day trial, he was convicted of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping while armed, robbery while armed and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse while armed, prosecutors said.

This story was originally published November 8, 2024 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Stranger kidnaps and rapes 21-year-old mom after he says she ignored him, feds say."