Ashley Grayson: Popular Influencer Offered $60k to a Hitman to Murder Three People, Including an Online Critic

Ashley Grayson, a once-successful online influencer and business coach, has been sentenced to ten years in federal prison. 

According to authorities, she orchestrated a chilling murder-for-hire scheme that targeted her online critics and a former romantic partner. 

Ashley Grayson

Ashley Grayson was a Dallas-based entrepreneur and content creator, who created content related to credit repair. 

She portrayed herself as a philanthropist and a business coach.

She also had online courses where she taught people how to make money

She appeared to be doing really great for herself, but in 2021, her perfectly crafted life started to crumble.

That year, Ashley Grayson became involved in an online feud with a Southaven, Mississippi woman who ran a similar business. 

Grayson accused the woman of creating fake online profiles to attack her business reputation.

Despite never meeting in person, their rivalry escalated to a shocking level.  

Ashley Grayson

By 2022, Ashleys Grayson’s frustration and paranoia had reached a breaking point. 

In August of that year, Ashley invited a former friend and her husband from Memphis to discuss a lucrative "business opportunity."

When the couple arrived, Grayson revealed her true intentions.

She offered to pay them $20,000 if they killed her Southaven business rival.

She also offered an extra $40,000 to kill two more people for $20,000 each. 

The targets included a Texas woman who criticized her on Social media and Ashley Grayson's ex-boyfriend. 

She even promised an extra $5,000 to speed up the killing of her business rival.

Thankfully, the Memphis couple did not follow through with the plan. 

Instead, they secretly recorded Grayson discussing the murders and later provided the evidence to law enforcement. 

To further implicate Ashley Grayson, the couple sent her a fake photo of police lights, claiming they had attempted one of the murders but failed. 

Remarkably, Grayson met the couple with her husband and paid them $10,000 for the fabricated “attempt.”  

Ashley Grayson

By mid-2023, federal authorities had enough evidence to take action against Grayson and her husband. 

They were arrested and indicted for using interstate facilities in their murder-for-hire scheme.

During the trial in March 2024, Ashley's husband was acquitted, but Ashley was found guilty. 

In October 2024, Judge Thomas L. Parker sentenced her to the maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, with no chance of parole, along with three years of supervised release.  

Reagan Fondren, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, called this “a twenty-first-century crime where online feuds and senseless rivalries bled into the real world.” 

She emphasized that although no physical harm occurred, the emotional toll on the intended victim and their family was immense. 

Thankfully, the proactive response from the investigating agencies prevented an even more serious crime from occurring. 

While no lives were lost, the emotional scars left behind are a grim testament to the real-world impact of digital disputes.  

In another case, a woman has been charged with murder after she drowned her daughter during a domestic dispute. 

See details of that case here.