26-Year-Old Influencer Faces 20 Years for Hiring Cousin to Break into Domain Owner's Home

Rossi Lorathio Adams II, the 26-year-old founder of media company State Snaps, faces up to two decades in prison for hiring an intruder to break into a house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to force the transfer of an internet domain at gunpoint, according to CNN.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Iowa, Adams, who once had “over a million followers on his social media sites, which mostly contained images and videos of young adults engaged in crude behavior, drunkenness and nudity,” had used the slogan “Do it for state” when posting videos and images. Adams tried to purchase the domain name doitforstate.com from a Cedar Rapids resident who wasn’t interested in parting with the site name.

“Between 2015 and 2017, Adams repeatedly tried to obtain ‘doitforstate.com,’ but the owner of the domain would not sell it,” court documents stated. “Adams also threatened one of the domain owner’s friends with gun emojis after the friend used the domain to promote concerts.”

In June of 2017, Adams enlisted the help of his cousin, Sherman Hopkins Jr. to force the transfer. Hopkins drove to the house, grabbed the victim by the arm, and showed him a demand letter containing instructions on transferring the domain, placing a gun against the victim’s head.

“Fearing for his life, the victim quickly turned to move the gun away from his head. The victim then managed to gain control of the gun,” court records show. The victim then shot Hopkins, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year, multiple times before calling authorities.

Adams remains in custody pending sentencing. Along with the maximum sentence of 20 years, he faces a $250,000 fine and three years of probation.