D.C. trio pleads guilty to kidnapping women lured with fake babysitting job

Two District of Columbia residents pleaded guilty in federal court to kidnapping and armed robbery charges stemming from an October 2025 attack on two women who were lured to a Southeast Washington home under the pretense of a babysitting job, prosecutors said.

Cierra Charity Lee, 20, and Kayvon Edwards, 21, entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. A third defendant, Robynn Danielle Bynum, 18, of Fort Washington, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges on April 16, 2026. Judge Cooper scheduled Lee’s sentencing for Aug. 4 and Edwards’ for Sept. 10, with a date for Bynum’s sentencing still pending.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the attack was a calculated effort to intimidate and silence a witness connected to a rape case pending against Edwards in Prince George’s County. “They lured these women with the promise of a babysitting job, but instead subjected them to a kidnapping and armed robbery involving a knife and duct tape,” Pirro said in a statement.

According to court documents, a U.S. Park Police officer responded at about 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2025, to the 3200 block of Minnesota Avenue SE after a report of a stabbing. Officers found two women — one who had been stabbed multiple times in the back and another with knife wounds on her right wrist.

Investigators determined the attack occurred earlier that evening at a residence near Suitland Parkway and Stanton Road SE. After being escorted into a basement, Bynum stabbed the first victim multiple times and injured the second. Lee and Bynum then forced both women into a bathroom, where they bound them with duct tape. While the victims were restrained, Lee questioned one of them about a rape case involving Edwards before the assailants searched their pockets and stole their phones and car keys, prosecutors said.

The assailants then led the victims to a car and told them they were being driven to Pennsylvania, but a flat tire forced them to abandon the vehicle and flee. The victims escaped and sought help. Officers later located the victims’ vehicle on M Street SE, where they observed blood stains, duct tape and a flat front passenger tire, according to prosecutors.

Investigators said Edwards, who was being held in Prince George’s County awaiting trial on the rape charge, orchestrated the assault through a series of monitored phone calls from jail. During those calls, he directed Lee and Bynum and instructed that the victim be restrained and prevented from fleeing. Lee told Edwards the victim would drop the charges and not appear in court, prosecutors said.