Influencer Ashley Grayson has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for a murder-for-hire plot. The 35-year-old had planned to kill a Southaven, Mississippi, woman, her ex, and an online critic, according to officials.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Grayson, who ran an internet-based business and went viral from her online presence, had a dispute with the Southaven woman who ran a similar business in 2021.
Grayson described herself on Instagram as a philanthropist, course creator, eight-figure business coach, and bestseller. According to Fox4 News, she claimed to have generated $1 million in just 40 minutes with an online course that taught people how to transform their skills into online courses.
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Even though Grayson and the Southaven woman had never met in person, Grayson suspected her of creating fake online profiles that slammed Grayson and her businesses.
In August of 2022, Grayson asked a Memphis woman she had previously worked with to fly to Dallas to discuss a “business opportunity,” according to a release by the U.S. Department of Justice. Grayson and her husband met with the Memphis woman and her husband in Dallas at the beginning of September 2022.
Grayson proposed to pay the Memphis couple to murder three people: a Texas woman who had lately made negative posts about Grayson on social media, the Southaven woman, and Grayson’s ex-boyfriend. Grayson offered to pay them $20,000 for each murder.
On September 10, 2022, the Memphis woman video-recorded a call to Grayson, where Grayson confirmed that she wanted the Southaven woman killed as soon as possible and offered an extra $5,000 for the murder to be carried out in the next week. The Memphis couple gave the police the video of the call.
They also sent Grayson a picture of police lights from an unrelated incident in Memphis under the guise that they had attempted to carry out Grayson’s murder-for-hire but were unsuccessful.
They demanded $10,000 (half the promised price) from Grayson for the attempt. The Memphis couple went to Dallas, where they met with Grayson and her husband Joshua Grayson, and received $10,000 from them for the “attempt.”
In July 2023, a grand jury in the Western District of Tennessee returned a one-count indictment for the Use of an Interstate Facility in the Commission of Murder-for-Hire in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1958 against both Ashley Grayson and her husband. The case proceeded to trial in March 2024, where, after a week-long trial, a jury acquitted Joshua but found Grayson guilty as charged.
On October 31, 2024, United States District Court Judge Thomas L. Parker sentenced Grayson to 120 months, the maximum sentence of imprisonment available for a violation of 18 U.S.C. §1958, and three years of supervised release, the release by officials said. There is no parole in the federal system, it added.
Reagan Fondren, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said “This was a twenty-first century crime where online feuds and senseless rivalries bled into the real world. 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.”
Special Agent in Charge Joe Carrico of the FBI Nashville Field Office, Memphis Resident Agency, also stated, “This murder-for-hire plot underscores the strength of joint federal law enforcement efforts to ensure the safety of the citizens in our community. This sentence demonstrates the commitment of the FBI and our partners to investigate violent crimes and root out those who seek to prey on the public.”
