A Texas woman has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison over a murder-for-hire targeting three different people, including an online rival.
Ashley Grayson, 35, a self-described "best seller, eight-figure business coach, course creator, and philanthropist" from Dallas, made an apparent living teaching other aspiring influencers how to turn their skills into online courses. According to Fox 4 News, she once claimed to have made $1 million in just 40 minutes.
However, in 2021, Grayson ran afoul of a woman from Mississippi who ran a similar online business. And although the two women never met in person, Grayson suspected the other woman of harassing her with fake online profiles to criticize her and her business.
Per a release from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Grayson approached a Memphis woman in August 2022 whom she had previously worked with, and asked her and her husband to fly to Dallas for a so-called "business opportunity." The following month, the couple met with Grayson and her husband, who offered them $20,000 each for the killing of the rival as well as a former boyfriend and another woman who said negative things about her online.
Instead of carrying out the killings, the couple worked with police to expose the plot, and even video-recorded a call in which Grayson requested that the Mississippi woman be killed as soon as possible, offering an extra $5,000. The couple then alleged that they attempted the murder but were unsuccessful. As "proof" of their attempt, they sent her a "picture of police lights from an unrelated incident in Memphis" and demanded half of the money, which Grayson and her husband gave them.
Grayson and her husband, Joshua Grayson, faced a grand jury in July 2023, and after a week-long trial she was found guilty of Use of Interstate Facility in Commission of Murder-for-Hire while her husband was acquitted of the charges. Last month, Grayson was sentenced to 120 months in prison, the maximum sentence for the charges, followed by three years of supervised release. Because it was a federal case, she is ineligible for parole.
"This was a twenty-first century crime where online feuds and senseless rivalries bled into the real world," said acting U.S. Attorney Fondren in a statement. "The defendant tried to hire someone to murder a woman over things that happened exclusively on the internet. Fortunately, no one was physically hurt in this case, but the victim and her family still felt a severe and emotional impact as the result of the defendant’s actions. The proactive response from the investigating agencies and our prosecutors prevented an even more serious crime from occurring."
