Staff photo / Ed Runyan Christopher Figueroa, 44, left stands with his attorney, Nick Brevetta, during Figueroa’s sentencing hearing Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Figueroa got 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to two rapes involving two victims.

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Anthony D’Apolito sentenced Christopher Figueroa, 40, of Campbell to 20 years in prison Thursday for raping two women between 2006 and 2021.

Caitlyn Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, said the investigation into the rapes began in 2021 when one of the victims disclosed that Figueroa had sexually abused her. Thirteen charges were filed against Figuoroa related to that victim.

In 2023, another woman came forward and disclosed allegations of sexual offenses against her, Andrews said. Figueroa had an address in Campbell at the time of his indictment.

Figueroa videotaped himself and his co-defendant, Susan Molleken, 41, who also goes by Susan Figueroa, engaging in sex acts with the second victim, Andrews said.

“Your honor, he’s a predator,” Andrews said. adding that he “sexually and physically abused them.” Andrews said the victims “have lasting trauma” “that they are going to have to deal with for the rest of their lives.”

A letter from one of the victims stated that because of the abuse she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, bipolar 1 disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

She said she lives in fear of other people, and can’t trust other people.

“My PTSD haunts me every day,” she wrote.

The judge said hearing that part of the letter and other parts helped him understand why the victim did not want to go to trial and instead accepted that the prosecution and defense were recommending that Figueroa get 20 years in prison.

Figueroa did not make any comment before being sentenced.

The judge said he can normally “contain my composure” while carrying out a sentencing, but the case “is going to test that.”

One thing that bothers him, the judge said, is that at least one of the victims is “so terrified that she cannot even be in the same courtroom (with Figueroa) for sentencing with deputies, so she would be in no danger. That’s how fearful she is.”

He said he agrees with a remark from one of the victims that Figueroa deserves to spend the rest of his life or “a hundred years or more” in prison. But to get there, that victim would have been subjected to the trauma of testifying, he said. “There is so much more that I want to do than 20 years,” he said.

Figueroa is also now a Tier 3 sex offender and will have to register with the sheriff’s office wherever he lives after he leaves prison for the rest of his life. He gets credit for 658 days in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.

Molleken pleaded guilty to one count of rape against one of the victims in Figeroa’s case July 17. On July 31, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison with credit for 559 days served in Mahoning County jail.