Influencer gets max sentence for trying to pay pal $60K to murder three people including rival and an online critic

A Texas influencer who hawked online courses was sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to pay a friend to murder three people — including a business rival and someone who trashed her on social media.Ashley Grayson, 35, ran a popular Internet business from her home in Dallas, touting herself as a bestseller, an eight-figure business coach, course creator, and philanthropist, according to the US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

In 2022, she contacted a friend in Memphis and asked her to fly to Dallas to discuss a “business opportunity” — for the pal and her husband to kill three people for $20,000 each hit, Fox 4 News reported.The three included Grayson’s ex, as well as a bitter rival who ran a similar online business in Mississippi.She also asked them to kill a Texas woman who made negative social media posts about her online, prosecutors said.

“This was a 21st-century crime where online feuds and senseless rivalries bled into the real world,” acting US Attorney Reagan Fondren said.“The defendant tried to hire someone to murder a woman over things that happened exclusively on the internet.” The Memphis couple pretended to agree to the deal — but instead gave police a video of Grayson saying she would pay them an extra $5,000 to carry out the murder of the Mississippi woman within the week.

The couple later sent Grayson a video of police lights from an unrelated incident, claiming they tried to carry out the murder but got caught.They later met with Grayson and were given $10,000 for their “attempt,” prosecutors said.

Grayson was found guilty of murder-for-hire and given the maximum sentence of 120 months in prison.She will not be eligible for parole because it was a federal case.Her husband was earlier acquitted of any involvement....