U.S. Senate Candidate Inspired by Home Alone Hara*sed Airbnb Tenant by Throwing Live Tarantula

On Friday, March 13, Marisa Simonetti, 32, was found guilty of harassment and assault and is scheduled to be sentenced in May

A political candidate in Minnesota has been found guilty following an unusual case involving an Airbnb tenant. Authorities say the situation escalated into harassment and assault, drawing widespread attention due to the strange details involved.

On Friday, March 13, a jury found Marisa Simonetti, 32, guilty of gross misdemeanor harassment, misdemeanor domestic assault and disorderly conduct, the Star Tribune, Eden Prairie Local News, and KARE 11 report.

Simonetti, who was running for a seat on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners at the time of the incident and is now running for U.S. Senate as an independent, made national headlines on June 21, 2024, when she was seen on video tossing a live tarantula down the stairs to the basement unit a guest was renting, court documents show, Star Tribune, KSTP and Eden Prairie Local News.

Jacklyn Vasquez had rented space in Simonetti’s basement through Airbnb and was studying for the bar exam when the incident took place, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Star Tribune, Eden Prairie, and KARE 11.

Shortly after Vasquez moved in, tensions apparently rose after Vasquez asked Simonetti about hiring a pest control company to combat “large spiders” in the unit, the complaint says.

On June 21, 2024, Vasquez called 911 several times, first when Simonetti began banging pots and pans together while Vasquez was trying to study, and then when Simonetti shut off the home’s internet service, the complaint says.

Vasquez called 911 yet again saying Simonetti and a man who came to the home entered the basement unit by taking a door apart, the complaint says.

Saying she felt “scared,” Vasquez hid in her room, but left her laptop at the bottom of the stairs to record what was happening, per the complaint.

In video shown on KARE 11, the sound of pots and pans banging and a woman yelling “Hallelujah!” can be heard coming from upstairs.

After a torrent of small balls and other items cascaded down the stairs, Simonetti can be heard yelling “spider infestation!” before dumping what appears to be a tarantula and dirt in a plastic container onto the staircase, the video shows.

Officers called to the scene found “pins, tacks, nails, a live tarantula, which was moving around, what appeared to be the contents of a terrarium dumped down the stairs, and several small toys,” the complaint says, KSTP reports.

Simonetti claimed she was upset because Vasquez refused to leave the unit after Simonetti canceled the reservation, even though short-term rentals that are not allowed in Edina, KARE and NBC News report.

In an interview with NBC News in 2024, Simonetti alleged that two weeks after Vasquez moved in, the woman began irking her by doing things such as speaking loudly on the phone at 10:30 at night. “I’m just sitting up here … thinking this is not going to go well,” Simonetti told NBC News.

Simonetti told NBC News she bought the tarantula from a pet store after Vasquez “barricaded herself in my basement like she had no intention of leaving.”

Telling NBC News that she watched the movie Home Alone while growing up, she said, “If I’m scared or hurt, I try and make jokes. And I was so scared, I was just like, I didn’t know what to do, and so, yeah, I got the spider.”

Vasquez told NBC News in a separate interview that she “desperately wanted to [leave]” but couldn’t because Simonetti created “a hostile environment. … I didn’t refuse to leave. Only when she was arrested, I fled.”

Simonetti, who represented herself in the trial after parting ways with her lawyer, told the Star Tribune that she believes she lost because she didn’t fully understand court procedures.

“I was just outplayed,” she said, the Star Tribune reports. “That’s all.”

She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Simonetti said, “I am unable to give a comment beyond what is in the current court filings.”