Detroit Lions star Terrion Arnold was granted $1 million bail Monday after he was charged with a kidnapping and armed robbery plot.
Authorities testified at the cornerback’s hearing that he offered to pay his 18-year-old lover and her roommate to lure his targets to their apartment by promising them sex, according to an investigator in the case.
Arnold wrongly suspected his driver and the driver’s hairdresser pal of stealing from him and set out to viciously beat him, the cop testified at the NFL player’s bail hearing Monday.
The 23-year-old pro football player asked Ariana Del Valle, 18, to set up the victim under the guise of a booty call with Del Valle’s 19-year-old roommate, Jasmine Randazzo, at their apartment, Tampa Police Det. Scott Barnett testified.
“They are trying to set him up and he’s trying to pay us for it,” Del Valle texted Randazzo of Arnold’s alleged scheme, according to messages Barnett read in court.
At one point Randazzo told Del Valle they should “delete” their texts and said “I’m going to get money,” adding she would give it to her dad, the detective testified.
The plot was allegedly cooked up after Arnold and his pals had over $250,000 worth of property stolen from them at an Airbnb in Largo on Feb. 1.
Arnold suspected that his driver and the hairdresser were the thieves and starting chatting about luring them to a hotel room for questioning.
But one of the friends pointed out that a hotel would have too many cameras, Barnett testified that Randazzo and Del Valle told cops.
Del Valle then chimed in suggesting the confrontation take place at her and Randazzo’s apartment because the barber “wants to get with Jasmine and he’s been to our apartment before so he knows where it is,” she allegedly told Arnold and his cronies, Barnett testified.
Three of Arnold’s buddies, armed with guns and an AR-15, allegedly pistol whipped and beat the hairdresser and two of his friends at the girls’ apartment on the night of Feb. 3 and into the morning of the 4, the detective testified.
Del Valle used FaceTime to show the whole assault to Arnold and others driving in a car, and also took instructions from one of Arnold’s pals in a simultaneous text message, Barnett claimed.
Around the same time, Del Valle side-texted Randazzo, “I’m scared. I hope they don’t kill them,” Barnett said.
The terrifying kidnapping incident left the victims – who didn’t actually steal from Arnold – fearing for their lives, Barnett said.
“They thought they were going to be killed and stuffed in their car and taken somewhere or taken somewhere and killed there,” Barnett explained.
The victims were eventually let go and they reported the attack to cops.
Arnold has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and robbery and he faces up to life if convicted.
Prosecutors asked that he be held without bail at the hearing Monday.
But Arnold’s lawyer Harvey Steinberg argued there was no proof the football player actually carried out the beating and that one of his co-defendants was clearly the “quarterback” of the incident.
Prosecutor Kevin Riley said if the other man was the quarterback than Arnold was the “general manager.”
“The only reason this plan or this act gets off the ground is because of Mr. Arnold,” Riley argued.
Randazzo and Del Valle have both pleaded guilty and are cooperating in the probe against Arnold.
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