USP Atwater Inmate Sentenced to 10 Additional Years in Prison for Threatening to Kill Prosecutor’s Family

On Feb. 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sheriff sentenced Stanislav Yelizarov, 36, to 10 years in prison for threatening to kill the family of the prosecutor who previously secured his conviction in another case, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

On Oct. 31, 2025, a federal jury in Fresno found Yelizarov, an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary at Atwater, guilty of this offense. Today's sentence will run consecutively to his existing sentences.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on a recorded prison telephone line, Yelizarov threatened to kill the "whole family" of an Assistant U.S. Attorney who had previously prosecuted him in the District of Maryland. Yelizarov had previously sent threatening letters to the prosecutor and several judges.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Prisons conducted the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the District of Maryland and the Eastern District of Virginia. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Veneman-Hughes and Joshua Banister prosecuted the case.