Acquittal in alleged bunker rapes

DARLINGTON, S.C. —  A jury acquitted a convicted sex offender Monday of raping two teenage girls who authorities said were kidnapped and left to die in his underground bunker.

Kenneth Glenn Hinson, 48, appeared to cry after the jury read its verdict, which followed about four hours of deliberations over two days.

“I think the verdict says it all,” he said as he was escorted from the courtroom.

Authorities accused Hinson of taking the 17-year-olds from their bedroom last year, raping them and binding them with duct tape. The girls said they wriggled free and ran home.

Prosecutors said Hinson expected the girls to die because the room had no air supply.

He was charged with kidnapping, sex crimes, and assault with intent to kill.

“We are shocked and stunned,” said state Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster, who helped prosecute the case. “We believed Mr. Hinson was guilty as charged. We still believe he is guilty as charged.”

Hinson testified that the girls had consensual sex with him. He said that he kept marijuana in the bunker and that they made up the story so they could take his drugs.

Hinson said he panicked and hid in nearby woods when he saw police cars arrive at his property. He assumed they were after 4 pounds of marijuana stashed in the bunker, he said. He was caught days later.

Hinson had faced a mandatory life sentence without parole under the state’s two-strikes law because of a conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl in 1991.

Hinson remains in custody on a federal firearms charge because he is accused of having had a gun when he was arrested. Convicted felons are not permitted to carry weapons.