Jayla A. Cunningham, a 19-year-old Maryland hairstylist who was charged after a viral video showed her dragging a 15-year-old client by the hair after a disagreement over a $150 payment, has been sentenced.
Per FOX 5 DC, Cunningham was sentenced to five years, suspended all but 6 months to be served on home detention. Her conviction came after she was found guilty of second-degree assault in November 2025.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, the incident occurred in March 2025. Cunningham claimed that she had just finished putting a weave on for the client when a quarrel occurred over payment.
The New York Post reported that the altercation, which happened inside a hair salon in Prince George County, caused a lot of controversy.
The teen claimed to have sent the money via Cash App, but Cunningham never got it, according to FOX 5 DC.
Cunningham grabbed the girl by the sweatshirt and dragged her back into the salon as she tried to leave.
“She ran. Forget trash; she ran without paying me,” Cunningham told the outlet. Security footage caught the hairstylist dragging the teen down a hallway and into a separate room near a garbage bag.
Cunningham is heard in the video telling the girl to remain on the ground as she goes to get scissors to take off her freshly done hairstyle.
“Sit right here until somebody sends it. I’m not f—— playing. You just tried to f—— run. You lucky I ain’t beat the s— out you,” Cunningham said, in the video obtained by FOX 5 DC.
READ ALSO: Georgia salon owner denied permit after spending over $30K on salon, files lawsuit
Cunningham stepped out of the corridor for a moment, then returned to gaze into the camera that captured the whole event.
“I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or, you know, until the police come or until, you know, she let me take out the service, because it’s like she literally ran outside, like she was about to be gone,” Cunningham explained.
Later, the mother of the client explained that the confusion resulted from her daughter sending the payment to an incorrect account by mistake.
“It’s just absolutely absurd. It’s viral. It’s all over the country,” the disheartened mother told the outlet.
According to the teen’s mother, Cunningham scared her daughter by allegedly yanking her hair while she was snatching her hoodie. The family’s lawyer, De’Aja Thompson, called the video “horrendous.”
Thompson told PEOPLE, “It’s a 15-year-old girl. We’re talking about someone’s child here. A child who is being dragged across a salon floor by her jacket over something as simple as a mistake.”
The mother emphasized the emotional toll the incident had taken on her daughter and echoed the lawyer’s thoughts. Meanwhile, Cunningham, also known as Jayla Amora on social media, defended the way she behaved, arguing she was merely attempting to protect herself from losing money.
“I feel like if I didn’t do that, she would have been gone and I would have just never been paid,” Cunningham said.
