A 48-year-old Richmond man is being held without bond at the Richmond City Justice Center after investigators say they found more than 300 images and videos of child sexual abuse on a flash drive seized during a search on Fairmount Avenue. Donald Lee faces nine counts of distributing child sexual abuse material following an arrest this week that capped a monthslong undercover investigation.
The Franklin City Police Department announced the arrest on Thursday, October 29, 2026, saying Lee was taken into custody a day earlier, according to WRIC ABC 8News. Investigators said an undercover officer received child sexual abuse material from a suspect later identified as Lee over a peer-to-peer file-sharing network between September 2025 and July of this year, a timeline spanning roughly ten months before the case led police to his door.
Search Warrant Leads to Seized Devices
That digital trail culminated on October 16, when Franklin and Richmond officers, along with Homeland Security Investigations agents, executed a search warrant in the 2000 block of Fairmount Avenue in Richmond. During the search, officers and agents seized multiple computers and external storage devices. Among them was a flash drive that the station's report says contained more than 300 images and videos of child sexual abuse.
Lee was arrested on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and now faces the nine counts tied to distribution of the material. He remains jailed at the Richmond City Justice Center without bond, per the same account, as the case moves forward.
How Virginia Law Treats These Charges
Virginia law treats child pornography offenses as serious felonies. Under Virginia Code § 18.2-374.1:1, knowing possession of child pornography is classified as a Class 6 felony, with a second or subsequent violation of that possession provision elevated to a Class 5 felony. The statute does not by itself establish which specific charges apply in Lee's case.
Other Virginia Cases Involving CSAM Distribution
Lee's arrest follows a string of similar cases prosecuted in Virginia over the past year. In September, the FBI's Richmond Field Office announced that Randon Alexander Sprinkle, 31, of Richmond, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing child sexual abuse material. Sprinkle had earlier been indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which alleged he used a dating app to contact someone he believed was the father of a nine-year-old boy, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
In a separate case out of Southwest Virginia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia reported that Alageon Jaytwon Gravely, 22, of Vinton, pleaded guilty to nine counts of receipt, distribution, or distribution and receipt of child sexual abuse material earlier this year before being sentenced. No further details on the Lee case's court status or outcome have been made available.
