It seems like there’s no limit to the insanity spawned by Instagram stardom but one former influencer will have a good fourteen years to ponder it all as Rossi Lorathio Adams II suffers the consequences for attempting to rob a man of a web domain name at gunpoint.
According to details from the case, Adams held the man at gunpoint in a failed attempt at extracting the domain from his ownership when the victim fought back and pushed off his attacker.
The influencer in this case owns State Snaps, an Iowa State University-based account that shows off various acts of inanity from around the campus and submitted to the Instagram for public consumption.
Or, in the account’s own words, “crude behavior, drunkenness, and nudity.” It is also relevant to note that Adams is 27 years old.
With 1.5 million followers, the Instagram account wasn’t a small affair and it would seem like Adams would be content with that. So why did he want to steal a website domain name? Apparently, followers of the Instagram account use a hashtag #DoItForStateSnaps and Adams wanted to buy the domain doitforstate.com.
The owner of the domain, Ethan Deyo, was willing to sell it but for nothing less than the eye-watering sum of $USD 20k.
Rather than pay that, Adams decided to commit a series of felonies that now have ruined not only his Instagram influencer career but a good portion of his life.
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Adams enlisted the help of his convicted felon cousin, Sherman Hopkins, Jr., to help him in extracting the domain’s ownership out of Deyo’s hands.
They broke into Deyo’s house in June of 2017, held him at gunpoint, and pistol whipped him several. Times.
Deyo eventually distracted Hopkins, wrestled him to the ground, got shot in the leg once, but obtained Hopkins’ firearm and then shot him multiple times in the chest.
Deyo and Hopkins survived with Hopkins pleading guilty back in 2017 and receiving 20 years in prison for his role in the whole thing.
Adams, meanwhile, thought a trial would be better for him and went to trial in April of this year where he lost and was ordered to pay $USD 9,000 in restitution and $USD 22k in attorney’s fees, PetaPixel reports.
What do you think? Just another example of how toxic influencer culture can be or a case of a madman with a lust for money? Or some mix of the two? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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2 Comments
The craziness just keeps escalating.
And over a domain name! Thanks for your comment Kent!