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

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

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

In 2023, another woman came forward and revealed sexual crime allegations 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 sexual acts with the second victim, Andrews said.

“Your Honor, he is a predator,” Andrews said. and added that he “sexually and physically abused them.” Andrews said the victims “have lasting trauma” “that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.”

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

He said he lives in fear of other people and can’t trust other people.

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

The judge said hearing 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 be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Figueroa did not comment before being sentenced.

The judge said he can normally “retain his composure” while carrying out a sentence, but the case “is going to test him.”

One thing that bothers him, the judge said, is that at least one of the victims is “so terrified that he cannot even be in the same room (with Figueroa) to pass sentence with the agents, so he would not be in any danger. “That’s how scared he is.”

He said he agrees with one of the victims’ comments 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’s a lot more I want to do than in 20 years,” he said.

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

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