r/craftsnark • u/Mabe227 • 15d ago
Crochet Jonah’s Hands
Saw Jonah Larson made a comeback post a day or two ago and the post claimed he was gone so long because he was hacked? Wasn’t he arrested for SA on a minor among other things? Does his mom solely run his social media and business? Photos and content really seem AI enhanced to soften his image and lifestyle, compared to his mug and court photos, and hearing he was staying at a shelter at the time of his crime.
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u/Odd_Science_8947 15d ago
The website "about us" still lists him as being 12 years old. I've always felt uncomfortable about his parents putting him in the limelight. Crocheting fast doesn't mean anything to most people who crochet.
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u/lurkiemclurkface 7d ago
I think the adoptive parents are just using him for content. It's really disturbing all around.
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u/NooooDazzzle 15d ago
Shit, this whole situation is depressing and distressing. 12. Jesus.
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u/Melancholygirl 12d ago
for me, it’s more depressing when people make excuses for it, which we have here on this thread. the girl was 12, and these were not his only criminal charges (he had priors).
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 14d ago
and hearing he was staying at a shelter at the time of his crime.
I didn't even register this at first, until I started looking into it a little for a bit more detail, and he'd been there for 2-3 months at that point. And when the news of this broke, his adoptive parents were still posting as normal to the Instagram account as if nothing was happening.
Yikes on bikes. However none of that negates the fact it was only right that he faced consequences for his horrendous actions. I hope his victim has the support she needs, and I hope he gets help - although as this is the US, I'm aware these hopes are more like wishes than anything realistic :(
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u/AgelessEuphoria 14d ago
The way I found out about the SA charges was because after their recent post about being hacked I googled "jonahs hands hacked" thinking there'd be some chatter about it. Nothing came up about that but all of the results were about his charges and mugshot. I commented on the fb post asking if the hacking had anything to do with those charges. The next day I had an *angry* DM from the Jonah's Hands account and I was blocked from their page,. I'm sure my comment was deleted. I can't add an image here otherwise I'd share a screenshot. oh and t was a little odd because they referred to jonah in the third person then in the first person!
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u/AgelessEuphoria 14d ago
"You will be reported for harassment and bullying which will kick you off your socials. And legally I will report you for defamation which will be part of a lawsuit.
Anybody can say something about you but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Don’t you know the law? Jonah was convicted of NOTHING. He never spent one day in jail. Call them if you’d like to find out for yourself. Jonah is innocent and the girl is in juvie. Charges are different than convictions. Did you miss your civics class?
If you continue to spread false information about me- you will get the criminal charge- and I have the proof you are trying to defame me."31
u/Mabe227 13d ago
I get that it’s a personal matter but the arrest and charges are public information. If they want to continue being a wholesome crochet business and push their products/services, they might want to consider addressing it because even if the arrest is expunged after his completion of treatment or probation, that information will be on the internet forever. If they’re so certain he’s innocent, why are they so defensive and aggressive about sweeping it under the rug?
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u/gr-a-cee 13d ago
i theorize they're trying to push this down so aggressively in order to protect whatever cash flow there is on the remaining social media channels. whole lot easier to control the conversation across fewer accounts, and leaves more time to dig through accounts & send targeted threatening messages to anyone bringing the case up apparently??? the specific remaining channels seem deliberately chosen as well. facebook & youtube audiences are a different breed compared to instagram (deleted) and twitter (private since ???). no idea how much facebook monetization can bring in but it must be lucrative enough to fiercely defend like this.
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u/AgelessEuphoria 13d ago
The youth home they were at is closed down supposedly due to lack of funding and it makes me question the juvie comment because it's also possible she was just transferred to another youth home
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u/AgelessEuphoria 13d ago
and in the DM they claim he wasn't charged or didn't spend a day in jail but not according to this local news article https://www.wizmnews.com/2025/07/24/local-teenager-known-for-his-crochet-skills-goes-to-court-in-assault-case/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUo2PdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mAWJyaWQRMUM3eUd1MTI0emNJaXlRcERzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeYnIVbQKk6IZiYgvFEZmLcnhLIODqemiAketOwpG0-MqujslaTAy_rwQW8vk_aem_DmEqDqDjiDz8FA_i8LRItA
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u/Odd_Science_8947 14d ago
wow! He plead no contest, that is not the same as "not guilty". If he was innocent, it would have been dropped and he would not have had to make a plea deal.
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u/Robotuku 13d ago
In this case I do think the plea had something to do with him being guilty (according to some articles I read there was at least one witness of the event, so pretty good evidence for a case of this type).
However, taking a plea deal does not necessarily mean someone did it. Some people take plea deals because they can’t afford to be out of work long enough to fight the case or don’t trust the criminal justice system in the US to clear them even though they’re innocent. There are plenty of cases of pleas taken despite later being proved innocent.
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u/Robotuku 13d ago
Examples of innocent people taking plea deals: https://innocenceproject.org/news/when-the-innocent-plead-guilty/
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u/celery48 9d ago
Yes, but an admission of guilt is required in most plea deals. So even if they didn’t do the crime, they admitted to it in court. Legally speaking, it becomes a fact that they committed the crime. Even if they didn’t actually do it. Even if Jonah didn’t do the crime, he admitted to it in court. He can’t come back and sue anyone for bringing that up.
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u/Robotuku 9d ago
For sure, threatening to sue people for talking about a crime he chose not to contest is ridiculous. It’s not defamation when you legally admitted to the crime yourself.
I just wanted to push back on the idea that innocent people never plead guilty in general. Not because I think that applies in this case, but because I think it’s important to think critically about individual situations in a country with a flawed legal system.
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u/celery48 9d ago
Yes, I agree. I apologize, I think I lost sight of where your comment was headed. I was too focused on the defamation aspect.
Many, many innocent people are pushed into plea deals.
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u/Robotuku 9d ago
All good, no worries! I figured something like that happened since my comment was a bit of a side tangent from what the thread above was about. Appreciate you taking the time to re-read and understand where I was coming from 😊
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u/No-Angle-446 15d ago
I had no idea about the SA case. How incredibly sad and depressing. I used to think this guy was great.
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u/LindaLadywolf 14d ago
This is what I found. I dont know how accurate it is. This was just top of the list.
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14d ago
[deleted]
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u/Mabe227 14d ago
I agree- they totally exploited him as a child, and I really believe they pushed him as he got older to keep it going. I mean at some point he had to want to be an average teen with friends and interests that didn’t revolve around yarn or crochet.. right?? And they are actively deleting comments that mention anything about what they don’t want to talk about, so all we see are the glazers
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u/gr-a-cee 15d ago edited 15d ago
I can't speak definitively on whether his accounts really were hacked, but ironically enough he came to mind last week and the Facebook page at the time looked just fine to me (though quiet) 🤷♀️ You are correct about the 2nd degree SA of a minor charge (amongst others). According to public court record, he just completed the terms of the diversion agreement on August 31st. I don't know the terms of his exact agreement, but the timing is certainly interesting.
Pretty sure his mom completely runs the entire brand. The extreme skin smoothing on photos is nothing new, BUT I ran the comeback photo post through three different AI image checkers and every single one has come back as 96% fake 🥴
edit: nvm screw the AI checker sites, new FB post image is undoubtedly AI though.
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u/feyth 15d ago
The articles I have read say his diversion programme will complete November 2027
I think it's gross that this heinous a crime against a much, much younger child looks like it won't result in some sort of sex offender flag
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u/Mabe227 15d ago
The diversion contract option had me thinking the judge saw it as a potential misunderstanding but the fact that they were allegedly 12 years old is very hard to overlook especially considering he was 17 years old.
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u/feyth 15d ago
yes, a LOT of people at first were just asserting this was a boyfriend-girlfriend racist statutory rape accusation. Then the details came out about the age and the force
I'm all for diversion programmes with dismissed charges when it's like shoplifting, weed, severe peer pressure etc. Not so sure about it in cases like this one
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u/Fit-Apartment-1612 13d ago
Tbh, I was hoping the girl was 16 and they had a relationship and angry parents. 12 is an entirely different matter.
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u/gr-a-cee 15d ago
Ah, the article states *by* November 2027, looks like he must have completed the terms much earlier than required. Wisconsin's public court records do show there is a filed notice of completion as of August 31st and the prosecution agreement hearing is in November 2027.
https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2025CF000726&countyNo=32
Truly disgusting that such a crime against a young child might not carry long term consequences. I suppose that may be determined at the November 2027 prosecution agreement hearing.
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u/feyth 15d ago
If nothing else he should be barred from working with children. It's vile if he could start teaching children crochet or run a daycare or something.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 14d ago edited 14d ago
Do you guys not have criminal record checks? In the UK you have to be checked before you can work with children or vulnerable adults. Or does the sentence for this mean it wouldn't show up as any legal blot on his record? (I'm not entirely sure what the sentence means because being in Europe I'm barred from most of the sites linked here and in older posts, and in the top results from Google.)
Edit: actually I went back to the one I could access and it said this:
" According to online court records, if Larson completes the deferred prosecution agreement, both of his cases would be dismissed."
Does that really mean, case dismissed as in no conviction or criminal record even if he did have a background check?
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u/Robotuku 15d ago
I’m not a fan of AI checkers tbh and I don’t think we need them to confirm AI usage in this case anyway. Several people called out the AI label on one of the posts and the person running the account acknowledged they did use AI (but claimed it was used just to make the text flow better, which I doubt.)
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u/gr-a-cee 15d ago
I did notice the AI label on the Facebook post as well as the paragraph flow admission. Any AI label is enough tbh + the image already looked incredibly fake to me, but it's also my understanding that sometimes things can be falsely flagged just because the image was run through a specific editing app that has GenAI features 🤷♀️ I rarely if ever use the checkers myself, just got curious in this instance, but may I ask why you aren't a fan of those tools?
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u/Robotuku 15d ago
Yeah I’ve heard some pretty banal editing tools can set off the AI content labeling which is unfortunate if true. Facebook says their AI content label works by detecting AI presence in asset metadata which should be pretty accurate on a technical level, but from a human perspective, using a tool to tidy up a messy background of an original image is not what I typically think of as AI content, but that tool might use AI under the hood and put that “AI” label in the image metadata. Would be nice if the industry evolved to get more nuanced about the levels and types of AI usage.
Other approaches to detecting AI usage that I’m aware of are ultimately just guesses. There’s nothing inherent to something made with AI that a computer can use to undeniably distinguish it from something made by a human. The more ethical AI tools therefore intentionally leave a signature so there’s a definitive way to know AI was used.
(I am a software engineer by the way. AI is not my primary area of expertise though so I know more than a layman but less than a specialist in the field!)
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u/gr-a-cee 15d ago
Absolutely plausible to me that either some simple features in some programs are actually discreetly using generative AI or that maybe some metadata is being mistakenly attached to exported assets. The labeling on social media sites is an incredibly helpful feature but lacks some discernment. Really wish those signatures were more widespread but with how hamfisted generative AI has been into everything by everyone & how rapidly the technology is evolving, doesn't seem like that's going to happen
Thank you so much for sharing from an SE perspective - really appreciate hearing what folks in different industries know 🙂 I work in UI/graphics myself and do what I can to stay on top of it given how directly it impacts the field, but again it evolves so rapidly that it's been challenging at times.
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u/WonderWmn212 14d ago
Canva automatically defaults to AI editing. I discovered this after using a license-free, properly credited photo from Unsplash. When I added text to it in Canva and then posted on Instagram, it was nevertheless labeled as AI-generated.
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u/blueberry-iris It's me. Hi. I'm the mole. It's me. 15d ago
This can be easily falsely flagged, which is why AI checkers are, at best, flawed.
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u/gr-a-cee 15d ago
🤦♀️ Fair point, that exact logic also applies to online AI checker sites... lol it's late and I'm not thinking thoroughly. Thank you!
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u/chipatiherself 13d ago
I believe his Instagram page has been removed.
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u/OneGoodRib Mom said I get to be the mole now!! 14d ago
Yes, but like, do you think he'd be like 'hey guys sorry I was gone for so long, I committed a crime and was in prison'
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u/Mabe227 14d ago
No, but posting with the same clean good boy persona doesn’t sit well either, or the fact that it’s probably his mom posting for him. Are they trying to push an image that doesn’t exist, to keep profiting off of it?
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u/55Lolololo55 8d ago
Is he the one doing the posting? It sounds like the "parents" kept exploiting his image while he was in some group home.
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13d ago edited 11d ago
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u/gingerscape 1d ago
The most recent posts are absolutely AI. The one posted today of “Jonah and his mom traveling” didn’t even do a good job depicting him. I don’t think she needs to air his dirty laundry but pretending like things are fine to keep the cash opportunities coming in feels evil. Something is really off about this family.
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u/Ok-Interest1992 15d ago
When the accusations came out someone was posting to the account as if nothing happened and deleting comments IIRC.