A Social Media Influencer Gets 14 Years In Federal Prison For Holding A Loaded Gun To A Rival Influencer's Head And Demanding He Turn Over The "DoItForState.com" Domain Name
DES MOINES, Iowa — A social media influencer from Iowa has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison after he enlisted his cousin to hold a man at gunpoint in exchange for his Internet domain, officials said. Rossi Lorathio Adams II, also known as Polo, founded the social media company "State Snaps" in 2015 while he was a student at Iowa State University, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. His followers often used the slogan, "Do it for State!"
OneZero has a massive longform breakdown of this crazy story that you should check out if you've got some time to spare:
But the TL;DR for the cube monkeys:
Rossi Adams — better known as "Polo" — ran the hugely popular "State Snaps" which people describe as "WorldStar for college kids." Their version of the "WORLDSTAR!" call was "DO IT FOR STATE!" At their peak they broke 1M followers across platforms.
(If you're wondering the heavily-guarded, super secret to launching a brand like that into the viral stratosphere, I'll reveal it to you, but please please keep it between us):
“Guys would write #DoItForState on a girl’s ass and send it in, and that really ignited the trend,” Thomas said, adding that Adams told him he was getting hundreds of thousands of views on the Snapchat account. [OZ]
Once the boobs and butts started rolling in, it was only a matter of time before "Do It For State!" became a movement.
One problem quickly came up though: Rossi didn't own DOITFORSTATE.com.
Longtime Barstool fans will notice the parallel here between this story and Barstool Sports vs. Barstool.com and the infamous lunatic Zonker. We have tried for decades to get that Barstool.com domain name.
The difference is, we just sent a bunch of emails and money offers over the past 20 years — Polo decided to take a little bit more forceful of an approach.
And just like every head of a social media empire (cough cough Gaz), he got others to do the work for him.
Adams, 27, wanted the domain doitforstate.com, but it was already registered to a Cedar Rapids man. Authorities said Adams tried to buy the domain, but the owner repeatedly declined to sell it.
In June of 2017, Adams enlisted his cousin, Sherman Hopkins Jr., to break into the website owner's home and force him at gunpoint to sell the domain to Adams, the news release said.
Turns out the cousin was more of a "Twitter Fingers" fighter…didn't have much success IRL:
Hopkins, wearing pantyhose and sunglasses over his face and a hat on his head, chased the man upstairs before catching him. During a struggle, the victim managed to gain control of the gun but was shot in the leg, police said. He then shot Hopkins several times in the chest.
Breaking into a house and putting a gun to a guy's dome to force him to turn over a website isn't supposed to end with you getting shot multiple times in your own chest with your own gun. That I know.
Now to be fair, the guys who had DoItForState.com — the Deyo brothers (Ethan Deyo is the one in the gun incident) — didn't just have it for fun: they specifically bought it when the phrase started going viral, to piggyback off of it and sell their own merch. That's some dirty shit in the world of viral social media.
Deyo and his brother, Chris, had no official ties to State Snaps, but they knew a business opportunity when they saw one. The brothers, both in their twenties, had purchased DoItForState.com in January 2015, when they first noticed State Snaps going viral. They wanted to capitalize on the State Snaps hype by selling merchandise and working with a friend to brand and promote parties under the tagline. [OZ]
…But it's also kind of the name of the game. You gotta deal with that stuff in other ways that doesn't involve shooting someone in the fucking head with a gun.
Long story short, instead of the domain name he wanted, Polo got a cool fourteen (14) years in federal prison while his cousin got 20 and some gunshots to the chest.
And people think this Internet Life is easy.
PS,
Sneaky favorite part of the story:
