Photo Credit: Linn County Jail
Rossi Lorathio Adams II of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who also goes by "Polo," was convicted this this past Thursday with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats, and violence.
He held someone up at gunpoint... all for a WEBSITE.
Adams is a owner and founder of State Snaps, a social media enterprise which showcases college-age students participating in activities that most of us would consider pretty stupid. It's basically college students doing college students things like heavy partying and drinking.
The current website domain for State Snaps is doit4state.com, but that wasn't good enough for Adams, he wanted better. For him his prized goal was getting the doitforstate.com domain. But he had one issue, this domain was already owned by a man in Cedar Rapids.
This predicament led Adams to ask his cousin Sherman Hopkins Jr. to do his dirty deed and get him the domain. Adams gave his cousin a stolen gun, taser, and detailed instructions on how to transfer an internet domain from one GoDaddy account a to another. GoDaddy is a internet domain registrar and web hosting company.
When Hopkins entered the home of the owner of the domain, things got intense. According to court records, Hopkins burst into the home and shouted at the owner to "Come Here!" The owner tried to to keep Hopkins out but it was just too much, and was forced to his computer at gunpoint.
Check out the mugshot of Sherman Hopkins Jr.
Photo Credit: Linn County Jail
Hopkins then forced the owner to log into his GoDaddy account and transfer the domain name. After the deed was done, Hopkins hit the owner with his gun and then used a taser on him.
After all that he wanted to make sure the owner stayed quite by saying, “This better be right... You better do this right. You know who you stole from. If you go to the police or tell anyone about this I’ll be back for you.”
But thankfully this owner was not having it, and fought back against Hopkins. The scuffle led to the gun going off, with the bullet hitting Hopkins in the leg. The owner then managed grab the gun and shot Hopkins in the chest several times.
Somehow Hopkins survived this brutal take down and was later taken into custody. In June of 2018 Hopkins was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was hit with a $250,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by threats and violence.
Rossi Lorathio Adams II, the mastermind of it all, is now facing the same charges and began his trial last week. The jury found him guilty and sentencing has not been scheduled yet.
Somehow through this all State Snaps is still active, but its still on its old domain.