A general view shows the exterior of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and US Courthouse in San Francisco, California, on January 18, 2023. - A lawyer for angry Tesla investors told a California courtroom on January 18, 2023, that CEO Elon Musk "lied" about having funding in place to take the company private, costing his clients millions of dollars. More than four years after firing off tweets saying he had funding secured to buy the electric car maker at $420 a share, investors who felt burned by the misleading statements began to make their case in the San Francisco court. (Photo by David Odisho / AFP) (Photo by DAVID ODISHO/AFP via Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO — Over the course of one year, a defendant in a $3 million kidnapping for ransom plot went from being seconds away from receiving a likely federal prison term to walking away from the case a free man with no convictions hanging over his head.
And in a weird way, Evgeni Kopankov has his co-defendant’s cocaine use to thank for it.
The uniquely astounding series of courtroom dramatics that led to Kopankov’s eventual acquittal started, ironically, after he’d already pleaded guilty to joining in a plot to kidnap a California cannabis farmer and threaten him into giving up $3 million. In February 2022, Kopankov appeared before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria to be sentenced, but many in court — Chhabria included — were left flabergasted when both Kopankov and his attorney denied Kopankov had knowingly joined in an abduction plot at all.
“What the heck is going on?” Chhabria demanded at one point in the hearing, before postponing the sentencing altogether. Then he sentenced Kopankov’s co-defendant, Emanoel Borisov, two two years and six months behind bars.
But it was a seemingly innocuous statement by Borisov’s lawyer that threw things further into chaos. While arguing that Borisov deserved leniency, attorney James Bustamante said his client was in “la la land” and in a “fog” of heavy cocaine and alcohol addiction during the time of the kidnapping plot.
Just six weeks later, Kopankov’s lawyer was filing court paperwork citing the neurological effects of cocaine in an attempt to withdraw Kopankov’s guilty plea altogether. Kopankov wouldn’t have pleaded guilty, his attorney explained, except for the fact that he was concerned what Borisov might say if the prosecution called him as a witness during trial.
“In context, Kopankov believes he is innocent of the charged offenses and, without any incriminating testimony of Borisov, there is virtually no compelling evidence against him,” defense lawyer David Michael wrote in a motion.
Chhabria would later grant the motion, shifting Kopankov from a convicted kidnapper to innocent until proven guilty once again. A year later, in May 2023, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley dealt the prosecution’s case another blow, ruling that authorities had illegally searched Kopankov’s phone during his arrest in April 2019.
Kopankov went to trial later that month, in a case that saw testimony from his co-defendant, Paul Brooks. On May 22, jurors announced they’d reached a verdict of not guilty. Kopankov, who’d been out of custody while the case was pending, was officially discharged from the case that week.
Brooks, who has pleaded guilty, is set to be sentenced on Oct. 18, records show.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell