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Inmate at federal Pa. prison indicted on threats against staff

Robert Foust was indicted on four counts involving alleged threats against two correctional officers, a counselor and a prison physician

USP Allenwood

Bureau of Prisons

By Justin Strawser
The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — An inmate incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Allenwood for stabbing a cellmate in Arizona threatened to assault and murder multiple employees of the federal Bureau of Prisons , according to a media release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

A federal grand jury indicted Robert Foust, 42, on four counts of threatening two corrections officers, a corrections counselor and a prison physician while they were performing their official duties. The threats were made on Aug. 5, 2025, and Nov. 6, 2025.

The FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur is prosecuting the case.

The maximum penalty under federal law is 40 years in prison, a term of supervised release and a fine.

Foust, formerly of Alabama , was sentenced in September 2023 in Tucson, Ariz. , to five years in prison after pleading guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.

On Oct. 18, 2018 , Foust, an inmate at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Federal Correctional Center in Tucson, Ariz. , attacked another inmate with a prison-made knife. The victim fell to the ground, but Foust continued stabbing him. The victim sustained more than 20 non-life-threatening wounds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office .

Foust later told agents that, had the victim resisted or defended himself during the stabbing, Foust would have “smoked” the victim. Foust also admitted that he had made the five-inch knife, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office .

At the time of the attack, Foust was already serving an 185-month sentence for commercial robbery, use of a firearm during a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office .

Walsh is scheduled to appear for arraignment at 10 a.m. Oct. 13 in the U.S. Courthouse in Williamsport.

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