On Tuesday, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced that a grand jury had indicted 27-year-old TikTokker Charles Smith on five counts for a social media “prank” he pulled in December. On Dec. 19, Smith — or “WolfieParty” on his social media channels — posted a video of himself spraying fruit, vegetables and rotisserie chickens at a Mesa Walmart with Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer. He was arrested shortly afterward.
According to the indictment, Smith caused more than $900 in damage. Smith is charged with burglary, a class 4 felony, and two counts of adding poison to water, food, drink or medicine, a class 6 felony offense. He also faces endangerment and criminal damage charges, both class 1 misdemeanors.
If convicted of all charges, Smith could be sentenced to between two and nine years in prison and a fine of up to $155,000. The severity of his sentence will depend on Smith’s criminal history and other factors. Prior to his Mesa arrest, Smith had an outstanding warrant in Tempe and past arrests for shoplifting, theft and making false reports, according to Mesa Police’s incident report from the arrest.
Charles Smith allegedly thought filming himself spraying grub with bug repellent was a good idea.
Mesa Police Department
Smith told police that he pulled the stunt for social media attention — and cold hard cash. According to the police report, Smith claimed he could earn $6,000 to $10,000 a month for creating these types of social media videos. He also admitted that someone could become ill and “may even have to go to the hospital” if they ate the food Smith sprayed.
Smith hasn’t posted on social media since his arrest. His last video to his 374,000 followers on his “WolfieParty” Instagram account was posted on Dec. 17 and shows him using a bungee cord to trap Goodwill customers and employees inside a store. Two days later, he posted the bug-spraying video that led to his arrest. That video no longer appears on his accounts.
And while his TikTok account is no longer active, his backup account in the platform, “wolfiekahletti2” is still around, just at a much smaller scale. Smith hasn’t posted to the account, which has only 16,900 followers, since October.
Smith’s next day in court is on Feb. 26 for an initial pretrial conference. His trial is set for May 7.
