Shaninth Michael Ray

Introduction

Shaninth Michael Ray, 38, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced on August 6, 2026, to ten years in federal prison for cyberstalking an Iowa resident. United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand imposed the 120-month sentence in Sioux City — to run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment — along with a three-year term of supervised release. Between April 2023 and October 2023, Ray continuously threatened to kill an Iowa resident and members of the victim’s family, even after a no-contact order was issued against him, pursuing the campaign by telephone, text message, and video across numerous platforms.

Background Information

The case was investigated by the Mason City, Iowa Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ron Timmons under case number 24-3015. Evidence in the case showed Ray was a convicted felon whose criminal history already included numerous domestic abuse convictions, violations of protection orders, interference with emergency communications, assault causing bodily harm, possession of controlled substances, harassment, and obstruction. The stalking campaign against the Iowa resident ran from April through October 2023, outlasting the no-contact order meant to stop it. Ray was arrested in Minnesota in October 2023 for possession of a gun as a convicted felon — and, per the Justice Department, he continued to contact the victim while in custody in both Minnesota and Iowa.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Ray was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison for the cyberstalking campaign. The statements below are those the Justice Department put in the sentencing record.

For roughly six months, Ray made his threats by telephone, text message, and video, through numerous platforms, directing them at an Iowa resident and the victim’s family members. He stated that he would “end” the victim’s life and “bash [the victim’s] face in with a rock,” and threatened to kill the victim in other ways besides. In one of his videos, he explicitly threatened to end the victim’s life while displaying a gun. The no-contact order issued against him did not interrupt the campaign — the threats continued after it was in place — and even his October 2023 arrest in Minnesota on a felon-in-possession charge did not stop the contact, which persisted from custody in two states. Judge Strand, imposing the maximum-adjacent decade-long term, cited Ray’s “atrocious and disgraceful criminal history, as well as the horrific events in which he terrorized the victim and their family in this case.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence is the case’s public consequence: ten years, ordered consecutive to any other term of imprisonment Ray owes, so the cyberstalking conviction adds its full decade on top of whatever else his record carries. The announcement’s account of a victim stalked across platforms while under a protection order, then contacted from jail cells in two states, is the portrait of a protection-order system defied without pause — and the reason a stalking case produced a sentence normally seen in violent-felony cases. Ray is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

Current Status

Ray is serving a 120-month federal sentence imposed August 6, 2026, in United States Marshal custody pending transport to a federal facility, with the term running consecutively to any other imprisonment he owes. After the decade he owes three years of supervised release. The cyberstalking conviction under case number 24-3015 joins a criminal history the sentencing judge described from the bench in unvarnished terms. No appeal is noted in the Justice Department announcement.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 38, Ray begins a ten-year sentence that will carry him into his late forties, consecutive to other custody he owes — with the felony record beneath it covering domestic abuse, protection-order violations, assault, harassment, and obstruction. The federal conviction permanently bars him from firearm possession, a right his October 2023 Minnesota arrest showed he had already lost and already ignored. A decade of imprisonment also means the victim he terrorized gets the same decade of physical separation, under a supervised-release term that will govern him afterward. The announcement records no statement from Ray.

Sources

• Justice Department announcement of sentencing, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa, August 6, 2026: source