Influencer decides violent hijacking best way to elevate online brand

Rossi Lorathio Adams II brought a gun to a domain name fight. 

The 27-year-old social media influencer was sentenced to 168 months in jail on Monday for a 2017 plot involving viral videos, a pantyhose-sporting henchman, a gun, and the rather asinine catchphrase “Do It For State.” 

Needless to say, things didn’t exactly work out the way the aspiring digital-media mogul hoped. 

The plot is detailed in a Dec. 9 press release from the Department of Justice. Adams, it seems, fancied himself an entrepreneur — he ran the social media company “State Snaps,” which he founded in 2015 while attending Iowa State University. 

“At one time, Adams had over a million followers on his social media sites,” notes the press release, “which mostly contained images and videos of young adults engaged in crude behavior, drunkenness, and nudity.”  

His online followers for some reason loved the phrase “Do It For State” — and so, starting in 2015, Adams attempted multiple times to buy the domain doitforstate.com from a man living in Cedar Rapids. That person would not sell, but like any good social media influencer committed to the brand, Adams decided that “no” wasn’t in his vocabulary. 

This is where the predictably stale life of the Midwestern influencer took a turn for the unhinged. 

Adams decided that, if the unnamed owner of doitforstate.com didn’t want to sell, he would simply make him. And so, enlisting the help of his cousin, Sherman Hopkins, Jr., on June 21, 2017, Adams drove to the domain owner’s house with that very goal. 

“When Hopkins entered the victim’s home in Cedar Rapids,” reads the press release, “he was carrying a cellular telephone, a stolen gun, a taser, and he was wearing a hat, pantyhose on his head, and dark sunglasses on his face.”

Adams had provided Hopkins with instructions that, with the assistance of a gun to the side of the owner’s head, he hoped would convince the man to transfer ownership to him. 

It didn’t exactly work out that way. The press release explains what happened after Hopkins broke into the house, kicked the bathroom door down to reveal the hiding victim, and then dragged him to his computer:

Hopkins put the firearm against the victim’s head and ordered him to follow the directions on the demand note. Hopkins then pistol whipped the victim several times in the 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, but during the struggle, he was shot in the leg. The victim shot Hopkins multiple times in the chest. He then contacted law enforcement.

Hopkins, who did not die, was sentenced in 2018 to 20 years in jail.

It’s not exactly clear how Adams expected to get away with this crime — presumably, police would be able to see to whom the domain had been transferred and draw an obvious conclusion from that. However, as described by the DOJ, it doesn’t read as if either of the two men involved really thought this through. 

And while Adams can’t be too happy with how things turned out, he can at least rest easy knowing that he will indeed be doing it for State. It just so happens that, in this case, the “it” is a 14-year prison sentence.