Serial Sex Offender Admits To Rape In Cleveland County

A man convicted of multiple rapes is behind bars again in Cleveland County.

Law officers said Mark Anthony Tullis, 52, admitted to forcing a woman to have sex with him last week.

Tullis was just released from prison in September after serving 12 years for lewd behavior with a child. Law officers said he has returned to his old ways.

“We definitely wanted to make sure that we got this person off the streets,” said Cleveland County sheriff's office spokeswoman Meghan Jackson.

Cleveland County launched its investigation after a 27-year-old woman reported a man picked her up in an Oklahoma City parking lot and drove her to a shack outside of Norman on the evening of Dec. 13.

When she refused to have sex with him, she said the man tried to strangle her with a cell phone charging cord and then threatened her with a knife.

The victim told deputies she spent the night at the shack, and was forced to have sex multiple times. The suspect then took her to an Oklahoma City hospital the next morning.

The victim reported the rape to Oklahoma City police initially, but the case was passed on to the Cleveland County sheriff’s office after she showed officers where it happened. The first thing detectives did was look up known offenders nearby.

"The area that it happened is very rural. This person, the suspect, possibly … knew the area very well,” Jackson said.

Tullis is a level three sex offender, convicted of rape in both 1986 and 1990, but he did not go to prison until 2004 when he was convicted of child molestation.

After his release, Tullis kept his information current in the sex offender registry, helping detectives quickly identify him as their suspect. The shack is listed as his latest address.

The woman was able to identify Tullis as the man who raped her when she looked at a photo line-up.

Once investigators made contact, they said Tullis confirmed the victim's story and admitted to the crime.

Neighbors told News 9 Tullis just moved in about two weeks ago and lied about his history, saying he had recently lost his house in a divorce.

They only knew him as Mark, but say he brought multiple women to his home in the days before the reported rape.

The sheriff's office advises you to be cautious when meeting up with someone you don't know.

“Always notify a friend, a loved one, somebody, and let them know where your location is and who you’re meeting at that location,” said Jackson.

Tullis was formally charged Monday afternoon with first-degree rape.