ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke man, who was a registered sex offender and on federal supervised release for a previous conviction on charges of soliciting minors, pled guilty yesterday to witness tampering after he sent a 16-year-old boy inappropriate text messages he knew violated the terms of his supervised release.
Lenny Baldwin Jr., 30, pled guilty yesterday to one count of witness tampering. At sentencing, Baldwin faces up to 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
According to court documents, on May 10, 2023, Baldwin was released from federal prison and began a term of supervised release. In the summer of 2023 while working at Dollar Tree, Baldwin met and befriended a 16-year-old boy (MV1). Baldwin eventually spent time with the boy and his mother at their Roanoke home.
In October 2023, Baldwin began exchanging sexually charged text messages with MV1 while using an iPhone. During the conversation, Baldwin used the iPhone’s “unsend” feature to unsend three of the messages to conceal these messages from being discovered, knowing that these communications violated the terms of his supervised release. The following day, Baldwin, using a different phone number, texted MV1 and asked him to delete the messages between the two of them, telling MV1 that he did not want “the wrong eyes” to see the messages.
On November 30, 2023, Baldwin began texting MV1 using a different phone connected to a different phone number. Baldwin did not notify his probation officer of this new phone or phone number. Again, the messages sent to MV1 were sexually charged, and Baldwin knew they violated the terms of his supervised release. Baldwin again asked MV1 to delete the messages.
Finally, on December 24, 2023, Baldwin sent MV1 additional messages of a sexual nature and in violation of his supervised release.
Throughout the totality of the text message conversations between Baldwin and MV1, Baldwin unsent multiple messages to conceal them from his probation officer, knowing they constituted a violation of the terms of his supervised release. In addition, Baldwin asked MV1 to delete their text messages to conceal from his probation officer the fact that he was sending sexual text messages to a minor.
Robert N. Tracci, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia made the announcement.
The case is being investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement- Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the City of Roanoke Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Scheff is prosecuting the case.
