Last week, the FBI arrested a Florida woman on charges of stalking and harassing Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. The suspect, 32-year old Jessica Leigh Robbins of Tampa, Florida, had allegedly threatened Cornell and his family with an alarmingly high number of posts and messages through various social media outlets. A federal judge in New York issued the warrant for Robbins' arrest, while a federal judge in Tampa set her bail at $50,000, which she paid on Friday. Robbins is currently awaiting trial in Tampa, where she lives with her mother.
The Tampa Tribune reports that Robbins has been forbidden Internet access, and must submit herself to psychiatric evaluation and treatment. In addition, she has been ordered to wear a GPS tracking device on her ankle, and is forbidden to go within 1,000 feet of Soundgarden's upcoming concert at the MidFlorida Amphitheatre in Tampa on August 11.
According to court records, one of the earliest incidents of Robbins' harassment came in either 2008 or 2009, when she arranged a public signing for Cornell and asked him if he had received her "manuscripts," which Cornell knew nothing about, as the two had never met before. Robbins then began posting online videos where she accused Cornell of plagiarizing her writings.
Robbins' harassment only grew worse, as she began accusing Cornell's wife Vicky of abusing the couple's children, even going so far as to call the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to make a child abuse allegation. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Robbins even claims to be the mother of one of Cornell's children.
The height of Robbins' stalking came in October 2013, when she allegedly drove seven hours from Tampa to Cornell's Miami home, though she couldn't get inside because the home requires an elevator key. As a result of Robbins' harassment, the Cornells have pulled their children out of public school, and claim to have suffered "emotional trauma, inability to focus on work activities, sleep loss, and anxiety."
