Man sentenced to 28 years for pressuring woman to take drugs and sexually assaulting her

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A jury in New Hanover County found 66-year-old Richard Donald Mills, Jr. guilty of multiple charges for pressuring a woman to take drugs and raping her.

Mills was found guilty of second degree rape and three counts of second degree sexual offense and sentenced to 27.66 to 53 years in prison. He will be required to register as a sex offender upon release.

“On July 22, 2021 at approximately 10:00 a.m., Mills targeted a 24 year old young lady living with autism and other disabilities and convinced her to walk with him to his apartment. There he pressured her to smoke marijuana and take multiple pills of his prescription medication, rendering her impaired to facilitate his sexual assaults. He held her there at his apartment sexually assaulting her for approximately four hours,” District Attorney Ben David’s office said in a release.

The woman was able to start recording on her tablet for the last hour and 36 minutes, and police later retrieved this audio. According to the DA, Mills forced her to record herself with his phone but later deleted the video when he found out about the investigation.

She left after convincing him that she would come back and keep quiet, returned home and called 911. Mills’ DNA was found in the sexual assault evidence collection kit along with THC and four prescription medications.

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