Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was voice on phone impersonating Lennay*Kekua | SI Tracking Blog
The Heisman Trophy finalist thought it was a female he was talking with, lawyer Milton Grimes acknowledged to the Daily News. It was Ronaiah as Lennay. [C]ome on, Hollywood does it all the time. People can do that.
The résumé of Tuiasosopo, 22, includes vocal and dramatic training. He was also president of the drama club at his high school, a member of a Christian rock band and had auditioned for the TV talent show, The Voice in 2012. Footage of him performing can be seen in a YouTube video he posted in June 2011. The photos of Kekua were instead pictures that had been taken off the Facebook page of Diane OMeara, a high school classmate of Tuiasosopo, who reportedly had no knowledge of the hoax.
Grimes said his client wasnt trying to prank Teo, rather he was reaching out with the hope of establishing a connection with someone to form a relationship:
This wasnt a prank to make fun. It was establishing a communication with someone. t was a person with a troubled existence trying to reach out and communicate and have a relationship.
Tuiasosopo is currently seeing a mental health professional and plans on coming forward with his own side of the story, though Grimes would not give a timetable for this interview. He also said that Teo finding out about Kekuas death hours after his grandmother had passed away was merely a coincidence.
In an interview with Katie Couric set to air today, Teo said he found out almost three months after Kekuas death that shes still alive and that he was going to be put on national television two days later.
This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12. Now I get a phone call on Dec. 5, saying that shes alive and then Im going to be put on national TV two days later.