DALLAS — A Dallas influencer was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in connection with a murder-for-hire plot, federal officials say.
Ashley Grayson, 35, ran a business as an online course coach and had developed a following on social media. Her Instagram bio describes her as a business coach, course creator and philanthropist.
Reagan Fondren, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced Nov. 18 that Grayson had been convicted in connection with the plot and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Grayson offered to pay a Memphis couple to kill three people in 2022, officials said. The three targets included a Mississippi woman who ran an online business similar to hers that she had a falling out with, Grayson’s ex-boyfriend and a Texas woman who made negative social media posts about Grayson, federal officials say.
Grayson suspected the Mississippi woman of creating fake online profiles that criticized her and her business, federal officials say.
“Each one of these killings had a value to Grayson of at least $20,000,” a press release from federal officials reads.
The plot began when Grayson asked a Memphis woman she’d worked with in the past to fly to Dallas in August of 2022 to discuss a “business opportunity,” according to federal officials.
The Memphis woman and her husband went to Dallas in September 2022 and met with Grayson and her husband, officials said.
The Memphis woman video-recorded a call to Grayson on Sept. 10, 2022, when Grayson said she wanted the Mississippi woman killed as soon as possible and offered “an extra $5,000 for the murder to be carried out in the next week," according to a press release.
The Memphis couple sent Grayson a photo of police lights from an unrelated incident under the guise that they’d tried to carry out the murder-for-hire plot, but were unsuccessful, officials say.
The couple asked Grayson for $10,000 (half of the agreed-upon amount) for the attempt and flew to Dallas where they received the $10,000 from Grayson and her husband, according to a press release.
A grand jury in Tennessee indicted Ashley and her husband, Joshua Grayson, on a charge of use of interstate facility in commission of murder for hire in July of 2023, according to federal officials. Joshua Grayson was acquitted but Ashley Grayson was found guilty in a trial in March of this year, according to officials.
Grayson was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release, the maximum sentence available Oct. 31, 2024, according to a press release.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
