Ashley Grayson, a 35-year-old Texan influencer, has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison for attempting to orchestrate the murders of three people. Known for her online business that taught others how to create and sell courses, Grayson's social media prominence became overshadowed by her criminal actions, as revealed in a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Tennessee.
Acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren announced Grayson's conviction on November 18 in connection with the murder-for-hire plot. According to the press release, Grayson approached a couple from Memphis in September 2022, offering $60,000 to have her ex-boyfriend and two business rivals killed. One of the targets was a woman who had criticized Grayson on social media, while the other was a Mississippi entrepreneur whom Grayson suspected of creating fake accounts to tarnish her reputation.
The U.S. Attorney's office reported that "each one of these killings had a value to Grayson of at least $20,000." In a recorded video call, Grayson urged the Memphis couple to prioritize the murder of the Mississippi woman, offering an additional $5,000 if the task was completed within a week.
The Memphis couple, however, never carried out the plan. Instead, they deceived Grayson by using police car photos to convince her they had attempted but failed to execute the murders. They demanded half of the promised amount and met with Grayson and her husband in Dallas, where they received $10,000 for their fabricated effort.
In July 2023, a grand jury in Tennessee indicted Grayson and her husband, Joshua Grayson, on a charge of "Use of Interstate Facility in Commission of Murder-for-Hire." On October 31, 2024, United States District Court Judge Thomas L. Parker handed Grayson the maximum penalty of 120 months in prison.
"This was a twenty-first-century crime where online feuds and senseless rivalries bled into the real world," Fondren stated. "The defendant tried to hire someone to murder a woman over things that happened exclusively on the internet." He emphasized that while no one was physically harmed, the emotional toll on the victims and their families was profound. "The proactive response from the investigating agencies and our prosecutors prevented an even more serious crime from occurring," he concluded.
Originally published on Enstarz.
