Two Nevada men were convicted this week after they were caught destroying an ancient rock formation in a national park.
Wyatt Fain, 37, and Payden Crosper, 31, were each found guilty of one count of injury and depredation of government property related to destroying the rock formations at Lake Mead National Park on April 7, 2024.
The two men face up to a year in prison, a $100,000 fine, or both when they are sentenced on July 8.
The rock formations the men destroyed were found on the Redstone Dunes Trail and had been formed by erosion over 140 million years, per the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Fai and Crosper were indicted in August 2024 after witnesses took a video of the duo shoving a large boulder off the edge of one of the formations.
A young girl, the daughter of one of the men, could be seen standing behind them, horrified, and screaming intermittently as the rocks fall.
‘Daddy, don’t fall,’ she yelps as the two men push boulder parts over the edge and watch them break as they smash down the side of the cliff.
The footage went viral as the internet reacted with outrage at Fai and Crosper’s antics, with the video receiving millions of views across social media.
Shocking footage from April 2024 showed two men destroying a 140 million year old rock formation in Lake Mead National Park. This week, they were found guilty in court and face up to a year in jail
Payden Crosper, 31 (pictured) and Wyatt Fain, 37, were each found guilty of one count of injury and depredation of government property related to destroying the rock formations at Lake Mead National Park on April 7, 2024
Officials condemned the senseless destruction of the ancient rock formations at the time, as they said the damage could not be fixed.
John Haynes, a public information officer for the park, told KVVU: ‘It’s one of my favorite places in the park and they’re up there just destroying it. I don’t understand that.’
‘Why would you even do something like this? Like, why on Earth would you do this? This almost feels like a personal attack in a way,’ he added.
Haynes told the Review Journal that he was dismayed by the perpetrators’ lack of respect for nature and the ancient space.
‘These sandstone formations take millions of years to form, and a couple of yahoos show up and destroy them in a few minutes,’ he said.
Prosecutors said Fain and Crosper’s antics resulted in over $1,000 worth of damages.
They were arrested by the US Marshals Service months later, and were released without needing bail after pleading not guilty at the time.
A jury found them guilty this week, and they will learn if they will spend time behind bars on July 8.
Footage of their antics went viral on social media last year as the public shared its outrage at their senseless act
Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show Fain has previously been arrested for charges including assault with the use of a deadly weapon, reckless driving, destruction of personal property and domestic battery by strangulation.
The Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which is just outside of Las Vegas, sees about 6 million visitors each year.
Park staff cannot be physically present across the entirety of the 2,344 square mile area, which means they sometimes rely on the public to keep watch over some of the sites in the park.
‘It is 1.5 million acres. We have two big lakes, a chunk of the Colorado River. It gets pretty difficult based on our staff levels to be everywhere all at once,’ said Haynes.
To help the park staff keep an eye on the public, the National Park Service operates a tipline that receives thousands of submissions every year.
