LEWISTON, Maine — A man from Lewiston faces up to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sending racially-motivated death threats to a Black family living in his apartment complex in August 2022.
Charles Barnes, 46, of Lewiston was arrested in September last year for sending a threatening, "racial-slur-laden" voicemail to a neighbor by using Facebook Messenger saying he was "waiting in his car outside the neighbor’s apartment and would kill the next person who emerged from it," according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Barnes sent a recording of the voicemail to an acquaintance who was known as a close friend of the neighbor, the release stated. The acquaintance sent the recording to the neighbor and warned of possible danger.
He now faces up to five years in prison for one count of threatening communications in interstate commerce. Sentence enhancement may be possible if a judge determines Barnes "intentionally selected the victim" because of their race.
The FBI Boston Field Office, Lewiston Police Department, and the Maine attorney general's office investigated the case.
