A Roanoke man has pleaded guilty to witness tampering after sending inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old boy, violating the terms of his federal supervised release. Lenny Baldwin Jr., 30, admitted guilt to one count of witness tampering and now faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
According to court documents, Baldwin was released from federal prison on May 10, 2023, beginning a term of supervised release following a prior conviction for soliciting minors. During the summer of 2023, while working at Dollar Tree, Baldwin met and befriended the teenage victim (referred to as MV1), eventually spending time with him and his mother at their home in Roanoke.
In October 2023, Baldwin began exchanging sexually explicit text messages with MV1 using an iPhone. He used the phone’s “unsend” feature to remove three messages in an effort to hide them, knowing they breached his supervised release conditions. The next day, he contacted MV1 from a different phone number and asked him to delete their conversations so that “the wrong eyes” would not see them.
On November 30, 2023, Baldwin again messaged MV1 from another phone connected to a new number—without informing his probation officer—sending more sexually charged texts that violated his release terms. He again instructed MV1 to delete their communications.
The pattern continued on December 24, 2023, when Baldwin sent additional sexual messages in violation of his supervised release. Throughout these exchanges, he repeatedly unsent messages and directed MV1 to delete them in attempts to prevent detection by authorities.
Robert N. Tracci, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia made the announcement.
The investigation was conducted by 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.
