Contributed Photo/Courtesy GCSO: Remington Lewis Baldwin, 29, of Safford, plead guilty Tuesday to four counts of attempted sexual conduct with a minor and an unrelated two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and will be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Will be sentenced to 30 years
SAFFORD – Remington Lewis Baldwin, 29, of Safford, plead guilty to multiple child sex charges on Tuesday, and is expected to be sentenced to 30 years in prison later this month.
Baldwin appeared in front of Graham County Superior Court Judge Michael D. Peterson and plead guilty to an amended four counts of attempted sexual conduct with a minor. The plea agreement has a stipulated prison sentence of 20 years followed by lifetime sexual offender probation.
Additionally, the investigation located 15 child pornographic images unrelated to the molestation charges in Baldwin’s possession. He also plead guilty in that case to two amended charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. That plea agreement carries a stipulated term of 10 years and sexual offender probation. In total, Baldwin is expected to be sentenced to 30 years in prison later this month, in accordance with his stipulated plea agreements.
Baldwin was initially charged with nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor. Upon his initial arrest, Baldwin’s bond was set at $1 million.
He was arrested on Aug. 7, 2021, after a Thatcher Police investigation revealed what prosecutors believe to be the systematic sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15. The abuse allegedly lasted for years.
The victim’s father informed the police of the alleged abuse in late July after the victim confided in him. A forensic interview was later scheduled, and the victim described the abuse and how Baldwin would bribe him with gifts afterward.
After the interview, detectives used the victim’s cell phone to converse with Baldwin under the guise of being the victim. During those text messages, Baldwin never denied allegations of sexual assault from the victim’s phone but would rather urge the detectives posing as the victim to call him. Baldwin also texted to remind the victim to erase his text messages.
At that point, the victim agreed to make a call to Baldwin and the conversation was recorded.
During the course of the conversation, Baldwin apologized for the “inappropriate” behavior and said he “should have never done that,” according to a detective’s report.
The call ended with the victim convincing Baldwin to go to the victim’s residence and bring a soda with him. Baldwin said he would meet the victim at an old wooden stump away from the residence’s doorbell camera, but when Baldwin pulled up in a white, 2015 GMC Sierra pickup truck, he was greeted by the Thatcher Police and the truck was towed from the scene.
When detectives took Baldwin out of his truck and into custody, inside the vehicle’s center console was an unopened soda, just as requested by the victim.
During interrogation, Baldwin allegedly admitted to the contact but insisted it was the victim who instigated it.
Thatcher detectives also learned Baldwin had been a suspect in two other cases involving children, including one instance when he was accused of showering with a toddler and a Joseph City report out of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office regarding Baldwin as the suspect in a sex abuse case involving a 15-year-old boy that had occurred three years ago. That case only began to be investigated in November 2020 and the victim ultimately declined to cooperate with criminal charges.
The thing with sexual things is you can’t prove you didn’t do it and they can’t really prove that you did,” Baldwin allegedly told detectives. “But they’re going to believe the person that’s saying you did it.”
Baldwin was originally arrested and booked into the Graham County Jail on six counts of molestation of a child, three counts of sexual conduct with a minor, and continuous sexual abuse of a child. In the charging document, however, there are just nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor. He is set to be sentenced later this month.
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