BOSTON — A Lynn man who repeatedly urged a witness not to testify at his federal gun trial and offered to pay the person to stay away has been convicted of attempted witness tampering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusdtts announced on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.
Charlie Vick, 37, was convicted of one count of attempted witness tampering following a five-day jury trial. A sentencing date has not been scheduled by the court yet. In a superseding indictment in March 2024, a federal grand jury indicted Vick on one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and one count of witness tampering. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the felon in possession charge, resulting in a hung jury on that count.
Federal prosecutors say Vick was previously indicted on the possession of a firearm as a convicted felon charge in April 2023 after police allegedly found a firearm in a car he was driving in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. His trial was scheduled for January 2024 in U.S. District Court in Worcester, and prosecutors planned to call a material witness to testify.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, while awaiting trial at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, Vick repeatedly messaged that witness, urging the person not to testify against him.
On Nov. 12, 2023, Vick wrote the witness the following messages:
- “Let me ask you a question on a more serious note [witness] please?”
- “I just want to know are you going to work with the government when I go to trial like are you going to help them put me away?”
Two days later, Vick told the witness that if the witness testified at trial, certain photographs—including images the evidence demonstrated were of Vick holding firearms—could be used against him. Federal prosecutors said Vick stated, in part:
- “So you know they need you to testify that the allege gun they found in the car is the allege gun from the picture if they can’t get that in then they have no case”
- “At trial without them pictures coming in they can’t do sh*t…You got to figure that s*** out man…They get that picture…in at trial I don’t have much of a chance at anything.”
Vick suggested that prosecutors would have no case without the photographs and urged the witness to be elsewhere during the trial.
“When that date comes you need to be somewhere chilling away for that week,” Vick wrote in one message, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Vick also sent the following to the witness: “You don’t have to f*** with me respond or anything…just PLEASE do not testify against me…”
In a message sent on Dec. 28, 2023, Vick offered to pay the witness not to testify, stating in part: “I hope you enjoying life…I have trial in 11 days…If I have to pay you to stay away lmk smh…Just do me a favor…That night pack…a bag go stay with [name redacted]…two days that’s it please all I ask…”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brendan O’Shea and Zachary Stendig of the Worcester Branch Office are prosecuting the case.
