A D.C. woman was sentenced to 102 months in federal prison for helping kidnap and rob two women lured to a Southeast home with a fake babysitting job. The scheme was designed to silence a rape victim set to testify against the woman's incarcerated boyfriend.

U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper imposed the sentence on Cierra Charity Lee, 21, on Tuesday, Oct. 6, and ordered five years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Prosecutors had sought 168 months, or 14 years.

Lee pleaded guilty on April 30 to kidnapping and armed robbery.

The attack unfolded on the night of Oct. 20, 2025. Two women arrived at a residence near Suitland Parkway and Stanton Road SE after Lee offered them a babysitting job. When they entered the basement, co-defendant Robynn Danielle Bynum, 19, emerged from a back room and stabbed one victim repeatedly in the back. The second victim was injured trying to intervene.

Lee helped restrain both women, binding their hands with duct tape and taking their phones, car keys and other belongings. While the victims bled and remained bound in a bathroom, Lee questioned one about a pending rape case against her boyfriend, co-defendant Kayvon Edwards, 22. Edwards was incarcerated in Prince George's County at the time.

Monitored jail calls revealed that Edwards orchestrated the attack to stop the victim from testifying, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. On those calls, Edwards directed Lee to restrain the victim and ensure she could not flee. Lee assured Edwards the victim would drop the charges and skip court.

"This was a calculated ambush engineered to silence a rape victim and bury the truth," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement.

Lee and Bynum forced the victims into the victims' car, duct-taped their eyes and told them they would be abandoned in Pennsylvania to keep them from appearing in court. The car struck something and a tire went flat. Lee and Bynum fled, leaving the women bound and injured.

The victims eventually freed themselves.

Metropolitan Police Department officers found the car in the 3200 block of M Street SE with blood stains and duct tape on the back seat. Emergency responders took both victims to GW Hospital. One required trauma-level care for multiple stab wounds. The other was treated for lacerations to her wrist and elbow.

A review of Lee's phone turned up searches that bracketed the crime: "in dc how long can you get for kidnapping" on Oct. 7, 2025, and "how to see if you got a warrant" on Oct. 22, 2025, the day after the attack.

Police arrested all three defendants on Nov. 5, 2025. Bynum and Edwards have also pleaded guilty to kidnapping and armed robbery. The FBI's Washington Field Office and MPD investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Satter.

Bynum is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 21, 2027. A sentencing date for Edwards has not been set.