He was seconds away from being sentenced to prison in $3 million California kidnapping plot. Then a series of unpredictable events led to his acquittal

SAN FRANCISCO — In 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 free, with no convictions hanging over his head.

In a weird way, Evgeni Kopankov has his co-defendant’s cocaine use to thank for it.

The 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 Humboldt County 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 flabbergasted 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, to two years and six months behind bars.

But a seemingly innocuous statement by Borisov’s lawyer 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, removing the kidnapping conviction and returning to Kopankov the legal presumption of innocence. 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.