Trans teen who gunned down mom gets 50 year sentence in plea deal
A transgender Florida teenager was sentenced to 50 years behind bars after accepting a plea deal in the grisly 2024 slayings of her mother and her mom's much-younger boyfriend.
Julia Egler, 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the killings, in which she lay in wait for the couple to arrive at their Palm Bay home - greeting them with a "welcome home" before opening fire with her mother's .38 revolver and then staging the scene to look like a burglary.
The mom, Kelly McCollom, 38, and her boyfriend Matthew Szejnrok, 22, both died at the scene.
Egler, who was born female but wanted to transition to male, was charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder until the plea deal, which will see her eligible for parole in 25 years.
"I'm sorry," she said during her sentencing Friday. "I'm haunted by grief every day. I have shown that I can be rehabilitated. Please give me a chance to reintegrate back into society."
The teen confessed to killing the pair, saying she disapproved of her mom dating someone so much younger - and had "reached her boiling point" with her mom's disapproval of her transgender identity, according to the affidavit.
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