The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. (VR) – On April 3, 2025, in Alleghany County Circuit Court, Kevin Lee Joyce, 40, of Roanoke, was found guilty on five counts of child solicitation to commit sexual acts. After a daylong trial, the Alleghany County jury convicted Joyce on all charges of soliciting a person he believed to be a child under the age of 15. Four of Joyce’s five convictions were for second or subsequent violations of the child solicitation statute.
Alleghany County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Ann Gardner and Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney, Shaun Mabry presented the evidence in court. The
prosecution presented a chat room conversation followed by string of emails Joyce sent over the course of eight days to a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl from Covington. The messages included numerous sexually graphic proposals.
Joyce carried on many of these explicit conversations during the school day while he was working as a math teacher at Forest Park Academy in Roanoke City.
On September 10, 2024, Alleghany County Sheriff’s Investigator, Jeremy Morris, began monitoring Joyce’s activities. After a thorough investigation, Morris, with the assistance of the Virginia State Police and the Roanoke County Police Department, apprehended Joyce at his home in Roanoke County on September 18, 2024. In a recorded interview, Joyce confessed to sending the illicit proposals.
Roanoke City Schools worked in cooperation with law enforcement during this investigation.
“It is gratifying to see multiple law enforcement agencies and the school system work together on these difficult cases in a collective effort to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities,” Gardner said.
Joyce will be sentenced in Alleghany Circuit Court on August 25, 2025. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 190 years.
