MERCER COUNTY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – After a one-day trial that ended late yesterday, a federal jury convicted Terry Leon Blankenship, 56, and his wife Laurel Blankenship, 51, both of Bluefield, of conspiracy to commit witness tampering. The jury also convicted Terry Leon Blankenship of attempted witness tampering and interfering with the enforcement of the federal sex trafficking of a minor statute.
Evidence at trial proved that from on or about April 4, 2023 through at least July 25, 2023, Terry Leon Blankenship and Laurel Blankenship conspired to influence the testimony of a witness in a federal sex trafficking case against Terry Leon Blankenship. The witness was a 12-year-old girl who had alleged the sex trafficking against Terry Leon Blankenship and later recanted. In multiple recorded audio and video jail calls while Terry Leon Blankenship was incarcerated in the sex trafficking case, he and his wife had multiple conversations about ensuring that the minor witness stuck with her recantation. The recorded conversations included discussions about influencing who had custody of the minor and bribing the minor witness with an iPhone to ensure she stood by her recantation.
“This case was not about whether the initial allegations or the recantation were true. The defendants corruptly attempted to influence which way this 12-year-old girl testified,” said United States Attorney Will Thompson. “I commend the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department for their investigation of this case and Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Rada Herrald and Andrew D. Isabell and our trial team for securing guilty verdicts on all counts in the superseding indictment.”
Terry Leon Blankenship is scheduled to be sentenced on May 13, 2024, and faces up to 25 years in prison for interfering with the enforcement of the federal sex trafficking statute, up to 20 years in prison for the witness tampering and conspiracy convictions, at least 5 years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $750,000 fine. Laurel Blankenship is scheduled to be sentenced on May 16, 2024, and faces up to 20 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
At the time of this offense conduct, Terry Leon Blankenship was a registered sex offender and was serving a term of federal supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on December 5, 2008. He faces up to two years in prison for committing a crime while on supervised release.
Chief United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston presided over the jury trial.