Life sentence for repeat sex offender who targeted UW women

Just last year a group of young women were assaulted in their own home by a convicted rapist. Now, we know the fate of the man found guilty of the attack.

On March 11, 2012 at about 3:30 a.m., Robert Hitt broke a window and snuck into the home of a group of University of Washington students as they were sound asleep in their beds.

While Hitt held six of the women at knife point, one young lady was able to hide and call police.

“There’s somebody in my house,” she whispered to a 911 operator.

She told the dispatcher she could hear the man threatening her roommates and she could hear her friends screaming.

A few minutes later, a second 911 call came from an upstairs bedroom. Another roommate hid in a back bedroom to call for help.

While Hitt forced one his captives to undress, he made the others lie on the ground and bound their hands behind them with duct tape.

“They’re screaming. Should I go?” asked a roommate. But, the dispatcher told her to stay hidden.

Officers were able to get to the women before anything more happened.

According to the probable cause statement, Hitt was already a registered sex offender. He had been released from prison just two months earlier after serving ten years in prison for first degree rape.

In that attack in 2001, he also targeted a UW student. A 19-year-old woman said she had ordered a sandwich from a local shop. Hitt came to make the delivery, and he raped her at knifepoint in her home.

Now, convicted of nine additional charges including kidnapping and burglary, the Seattle Times reports Hitt has been sentenced to life in prison under Washington’s “two strikes” law for repeat sex offenders.