NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What is interstate stalking penalty
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, bringing over 40 years of combined experience to cases that others call impossible. You’ve probably heard about some of our famous cases – Todd represented Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series, we handled the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct matter, and we defended the individual accused of stalking Alec Baldwin. Interstate stalking charges are federal – that means the U.S. government is prosecuting you, not just your state. This article explains what penalties you’re actually facing under 18 USC 2261A, because the range goes from a few years to life in prison depending on what happened.
The base penalty sounds manageable until you understand how prosecutors stack enhancements. Then you’re looking at a decade or more, even life imprisonment if someone died.
The Base Penalty Is Five Years But Enhancements Multiply Fast
Federal law under 18 USC 2261A sets the maximum penalty for interstate stalking at five years in federal prison. Christopher Au-Young got exactly five years in 2023 after pleading guilty to six counts of stalking five different victims. He drove from California to Illinois to stalk one victim at her workplace for three days, posted videos with racial slurs on YouTube and Facebook, even offered a $4,000 bounty for information on another victim’s location. The Middle District of Florida judge gave him the maximum five years.
But five years only applies when there’s no enhancements. No protective order violations, no weapons, no injuries – just the stalking itself. Most interstate stalking cases don’t look like that.
Brian Balda got 39 months in 2025 for cyberstalking and interstate stalking a former U.S. government official. He sent abusive text messages for ten months before driving from Oregon to Arizona with four knives, binoculars, and a replica handgun. The District of Arizona sentenced him in September 2025 to 39 months plus three years supervised release. Law enforcement arrested him near the victim’s home with weapons – that proximity with intent mattered.
Protective Order Violations Trigger a One-Year Mandatory Minimum
Federal law specifically punishes stalking when you violate a protective order – and the penalty is mandatory. Under 18 USC 2261(b), whoever commits stalking in violation of a temporary or permanent civil or criminal injunction, restraining order, no-contact order, or other protective order “shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than 1 year.”
That one-year mandatory minimum stacks on top of whatever other penalties apply. Judges hate mandatory minimums because they remove judicial discretion, but Congress wrote them into the statute and judges must follow them. The only way around a mandatory minimum is a 5K1.1 substantial assistance motion filed by prosecutors – that means you cooperated against someone else.
At Spodek Law Group – we’ve handled many high-stakes federal cases where mandatory minimums were in play. The key is negotiating with prosecutors before charges are filed or convincing them not to charge the protective order enhancement. Once it’s in the indictment, the mandatory minimum becomes almost impossible to avoid without cooperation.
Weapons and Bodily Injury Push Sentences to Ten or Twenty Years
When serious bodily injury results from interstate stalking or when you use a dangerous weapon during the offense, the maximum penalty jumps to ten years in federal prison. Serious bodily injury means substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of a body function.
If permanent disfigurement or life-threatening bodily injury results, the maximum penalty increases to twenty years. Permanent disfigurement includes scars, burns, loss of limbs or digits, permanent facial injuries. Life-threatening bodily injury means injuries that could have killed the victim even if they survived – gunshot wounds, stab wounds to vital areas, strangulation causing loss of consciousness.
Dustin Beach got ten years in January 2022 after pleading guilty to interstate stalking that involved driving a victim from South Carolina to Maine while threatening and assaulting her with a hammer and a metal chain. The District of Maine gave him the maximum ten years. Federal prosecutors dropped two kidnapping counts in exchange for his guilty plea.
These enhancements aren’t just about what weapon you carried. Showing up at someone’s house with a knife while violating a restraining order can trigger the dangerous weapon enhancement even if you never took the knife out of your pocket.
If Death Results You’re Looking at Life Imprisonment
Interstate stalking resulting in death carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or any term of years. There’s no mandatory minimum for the death enhancement itself – judges have discretion – but in practice, when someone dies because of your stalking conduct, you’re getting decades in federal prison at minimum.
Luigi Mangione was charged in December 2024 with interstate stalking resulting in death in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. According to the Southern District of New York, Mangione meticulously planned the execution over several months, tracked Thompson’s whereabouts, and traveled from out of state to New York City where Thompson was attending an investor conference. The interstate stalking resulting in death charge carries a maximum of life imprisonment.
Jarvis Wayne Madison got life imprisonment in July 2021 after being convicted of interstate stalking resulting in death. Madison shot his victim three times point-blank with a .45 caliber pistol in Florida, then transported her body across state lines. The Middle District of Florida sentenced him to life in federal prison – no possibility of parole because there’s no parole in the federal system. Life means life.
The death enhancement requires causation – the government must prove your stalking conduct caused the victim’s death. That sounds obvious when the defendant personally killed the victim, but it gets complicated when someone dies by suicide after being stalked. Federal prosecutors will argue foreseeability and proximate cause. If your stalking created the dangerous situation that led to death, even indirectly, they’ll charge the enhancement.
What Makes Your Case Federal Instead of State
Most stalking cases get prosecuted at the state level. Interstate stalking becomes federal when you cross state lines or use interstate commerce to engage in the stalking conduct. That includes traveling from one state to another with intent to injure, harass, intimidate, or place someone under surveillance. It also includes using mail, email, social media, phone calls, text messages – which is basically all of them since internet traffic routes across state boundaries even when both people are in the same state.
The federal government also has jurisdiction when stalking occurs on federal property like military bases, national parks, federal buildings, ships at sea, and U.S. embassies abroad.
Prosecutors choose federal court over state court because federal sentences are typically longer, there’s no parole in federal prison, and the FBI has more resources to investigate complex cases. The conviction rate in federal district courts is over 90% – because the system is designed to favor the government at almost every stage.
At Spodek Law Group, we focus on working with clients facing federal charges where the stakes are highest. Todd Spodek is a second-generation criminal defense lawyer who’s handled hundreds of federal cases, including matters that got national media attention because others said they were unwinnable. Our attorneys include former federal prosecutors who understand exactly how the government builds these cases and what leverage exists for the defense. We’re available 24/7 and we handle cases nationwide – if you’re under investigation for interstate stalking or you’ve already been charged, you need attorneys who know federal court and who aren’t afraid to push back against prosecutors who want maximum sentences. The difference between five years and life imprisonment often comes down to how your case is charged and what evidence the government can prove.