Detroit Lions player Terrion Arnold linked to kidnapping and robbery conspiracy in Airbnb hack

The Detroit Lions quarterback is involved in a plan to bring “justice” to a motorist and two other people accused of breaking into an Airbnb in Florida where he has been staying, according to court records.

Terrion Arnold has not been charged with a crime, but his friend Boakai Eugene Hilton was the mastermind behind the allegations, said Hillsborough County District Court Judge J. Logan Murphy, in a seven-page order filed Tuesday.

“Hilton appears to be the quarterback who calls the game,” Murphy wrote. “Hilton is planning an ambush.”

Murphy then granted the state’s motion for pretrial detention of Hilton on three counts of kidnapping to injure or fear and three counts of armed robbery. Each is a first offense punishable by life in prison under Florida law.

Hilton, 23, was arrested on Feb. 17 and was being held Friday in the Hillsborough County Jail, according to a search of jail records. It was not immediately clear whether Hilton has legal representation.

Arnold, 22, was the Lions’ first-round draft pick in the 2024 NFL draft and was signed that year to a four-year contract worth $14.34 million. His jersey number was zero during his rookie year.

Representatives for Arnold and the Detroit Lions did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.

In a statement to TMZ, Arnold’s attorney denied any wrongdoing.

“He did not, and has not, participated in any conduct related to these charges,” the statement said. “There is no evidence of police reports, text messages, or witness statements implicating Mr. Arnold in any way.”

Murphy, according to his plan, wrote that Arnold had hired a driver to drive him and his friends to and from the Airbnb he was renting in Largo, a small town north of St. Louis. Petersburg, Florida.

The driver, who makes a living driving celebrities around the Tampa Bay area, introduced a friend who wanted to be a “celebrity barber” to Arnold.

The order does not say exactly when Arnold rented the apartment, but it says that while he and his friends were staying there, it was robbed twice. Among the items taken were $100,000 in cash, an $80,000 necklace, designer handbags and a cellphone given to Arnold by the NFL, the order said.

The Detroit News reported that Arnold filed a police report on February 3 with the Largo Police Department. NBC News reached out to that police department for confirmation.

“Through a series of events, Arnold began to suspect that (the driver of the car) may have been involved in the burglary,” the judge wrote. “And even though they had reported the theft to Largo authorities, Arnold and his friends decided to take matters into their own hands.”

Murphy wrote that Hilton is accused of orchestrating the scheme to recover the stolen property through text messages and a group chat, asking Arnold’s 18-year-old girlfriend, Arianna Del Valle, to record a video on FaceTime so she could see and hear what was going on.

The text messages, the judge wrote, also showed Arnold’s girlfriend urging another woman named Jasmine Randazzo to “play as bait” and lure the barber to her Tampa apartment. The girlfriend told the woman that Arnold and his friends would pay her “for doing that.”

When the barber arrived at the Tampa apartment with a friend, the driver waited outside in a car, the warrant said.

Arnold’s girlfriend was there along with two other friends of the football player who were “armed with a gun and a rifle,” the judge wrote.

Murphy identified the men as Lyndell Hudson and Christion Williams.

The barber and his friend, the judge wrote, were interrogated, beaten, and held at gunpoint for “the better part of an hour,” the judge wrote.

Meanwhile, the taxi driver “became suspicious and went up to the apartment,” the judge wrote. “When he entered, he was shot in the head and taken to a room with the other victims.”

There, one of Arnold’s friends allegedly “stuck the barrel of his gun” in the driver’s mouth and demanded he return the stolen property, the judge wrote.

“Before the victims left, the defendants took their phones and wallets,” the judge wrote. “All this was done so that (the men) would admit to stealing property from AirBNB, which they never did. There is no evidence that any of the dead were involved in the crime.”

Hudson, 25, and Williams, 24, are currently being held in the Hillsborough County Jail. Both are facing charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, jail records said. It was not clear whether they have legal representatives.

Del Valle and Randazzo, 19, were also charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. They were also detained in the district jail and it is not clear whether they have legal representatives.