CDCR Photo Mark Randall Fawcett (DOB 12/02/1985) Guilty
CDCR Photo Mark Randall Fawcett (DOB 12/02/1985) Guilty

Jury Convicts California Men’s Colony Inmate of Threatening to Come to a Correctional Officer’s Home and Shoot Him

Author: District Attorney
Date: 11/13/2026 1:58 PM

District Attorney Dan Dow announces that California Men's Colony inmate Mark Randall Fawcett was found guilty by a jury of making felony criminal threats against a correctional officer in November 2025.

District Attorney Dan Dow announced today that a San Luis Obispo County jury has found Mark Randall Fawcett (40), an inmate at the California Men’s Colony state prison, guilty of making criminal threats against a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) correctional officer. Criminal threats is a serious felony under California’s Three Strikes law, and because Fawcett has a prior strike conviction, his sentence on this new conviction can be doubled.

The jury returned its verdict on November 12, 2026, in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court after a six-day jury trial. Fawcett (DOB 12/02/1985) was found guilty of criminal threats (Penal Code section 422(a)), a serious felony under Penal Code section 1192.7(c)⁠(38). In a separate phase of the trial, the jury also found true that Fawcett has a prior conviction for criminal threats from Merced County in 2018, which qualifies as both a strike and a prior serious felony conviction, and found true factors in aggravation.

The evidence showed that on November 25, 2025, while the officer was performing his duties at the California Men’s Colony, Fawcett looked at him and said, “I’m going to get a gun, come to your house, [Officer], shoot you in the gut, and bleed you like a pig.” The officer testified during the trial consistent with his testimony at the preliminary hearing, that Fawcett “went from calm to enraged” after making the threat. He explained that, compared with other threats he had received from inmates, this one “escalated that whole situation to a whole new level” because it reached beyond the prison walls to his home and his family.

Shortly after the threat, the officer reviewed Fawcett’s prison records to assess whether the threat could be carried out. He learned that Fawcett was in prison for crimes that included stalking and threatening to kill a public official, that Fawcett had family living in San Luis Obispo County, and that he was scheduled to be released on parole by the end of 2026. The officer took the threat seriously and was in fear for his own safety and the safety of his family.

Fawcett is currently serving a 12-year state prison sentence. His criminal history and prior prison commitments include:

  • 2014 felony stalking and vandalism;
  • 2018 criminal threats in Merced County and threatening the life of a public official;
  • 2021 felony stalking (with a prior conviction for stalking) and vandalism.

“Our correctional officers do some of the hardest and most dangerous work in public service, and they deserve to go home to their families safe at the end of every shift,” said District Attorney Dan Dow. “This defendant threatened to come to an officer’s home with a gun. No officer, and no officer’s family, should have to live in fear. I am grateful to this officer for reporting the threat and testifying, and to the jurors who carefully considered the evidence and delivered a just verdict. Those who serve inside our prisons are an essential part of our criminal and victim justice system, and our office will hold accountable anyone who uses threats or violence to intimidate them.”

Sentencing is scheduled for December 10, 2026, at 8:30 a.m., in Department 6 of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, the Honorable Michael S. Frye presiding. Fawcett faces a maximum sentence of 11 years in state prison: the three-year upper term for criminal threats, doubled to six years under the Three Strikes law, plus a five-year enhancement for his prior serious felony conviction. That sentence will be served in addition to his current prison term.

The case was investigated by the California Men’s Colony Investigative Services Unit. The victim was supported by Rebecca Stolper, Victim Advocate of the District Attorney’s Christopher G. Money Victim Witness Assistance Center. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Gregory J. Devitt, who is assigned to the Felony Prosecution Unit.

Here is a copy of the charging document. Here is a copy of the defendant’s CDCR photo.

Please contact Assistant District Attorney Eric J. Dobroth at 805.781.5819 with any questions.

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