FBI Says Tampa Woman Stalked Soundgarden Front Man

When Soundgarden takes the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater’s stage Aug. 11, Tampa’s Jessica Leigh Robbins won’t be there.

At least that’s the hope of U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson following the 32-year-old Tampa woman’s Friday arrest on federal stalking charges. Wilson barred her from going within 1,000 feet of the venue when the band performs. He also ordered her to cease all contact with the singer Chris Cornell, his family and the band, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Robbins’ had her first run-in with Cornell back in 2008 or 2009 when she helped stage a public signing for Cornell, according to The Tampa Tribune. After that event, Robbins ran toward Cornell, yelling his name and asking if he’d received her manuscripts. Following that event, she began posting videos online that accused Cornell of plagiarizing her work, the Tribune reported.

That’s when things started to escalate. At one point, she posted online that Cornell’s wife, Vicky, abused her children. She reached out to New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services to make child abuse allegations against the woman. Then, in 2013, she posted online that she attempted to pay a visit to the Cornell’s Miami home, but couldn’t get past the elevator, the Tribune stated.

All told, the FBI says Robbins posted more than 100 online messages a day about Cornell and his wife, writing under different usernames. Many of those posts were directed toward Cornell’s wife.

FBI Special Agent Bradford Price wrote the initial complaint against Robbins, filed in New York. In that complaint, he wrote, the Cornells “became concerned for their safety because, among other reasons, their residence in Miami has an elevator that requires a key and because Miami is approximately a seven-hour drive from Tampa, Florida, where Robbins is believed to reside,” the Times reported.

Robbins was released on $50,000 bond following her Friday arrest. She’s banned from using the Internet and must wear an ankle bracelet until the case is resolved.