A Maryland hairstylist who posted a video to social media showing her dragging a 15-year-old client toward the door at her home-based salon over a payment dispute was sentenced Thursday to six months of home detention.
The video, which was viewed more then 50 million times, became insurmountable evidence in the courtroom.
In November, a jury convicted 19-year-old Jayla Cunningham of Laurel of second-degree assault, which carries up to 10 years in prison. She asked the judge for mercy and a sentence of probation.
“I really do regret what I did,” Cunningham said to Judge Michael Pearson in Prince George’s County Circuit Court before he handed down the sentence. “Can you have faith in me? Can you believe in me that I am trying?”
While Pearson said he has “no reason to believe you’re a bad person,” he couldn’t ignore the video.
“The disregard you showed that young lady on that day is unacceptable,” Pearson said. “I trust you’re going to learn from it.”
In what appears to be surveillance footage, Cunningham, then 18, is seen pulling a girl across the floor by her hood and toward a doorway.
Cunningham ended up in court after the 15-year-old’s mother filed a charge against her shortly after. The charging documents say the girl was “pulled and dragged by her hair,” but the video does not appear to show Cunningham pulling the girl’s hair. The mother accused Cunningham of telling her daughter “not to move until I get my money” before approaching her daughter with a pair of scissors to scare her.
The mother also said Cunningham admitted in a video she posted online that she dragged the 15-year-old, pulled her hair and used scissors to cut her hair out, according to the charging documents.
The girl tried to pay Cunningham electronically, prosecutors said.
Samuel Elira, Cunningham’s attorney, argued that Cunningham should receive probation. She’s already lost her business and her apartment, he said.
In court documents, Elira said Cunningham ran a licensed hair-braiding business in Temple Hills and spent hours on March 2 installing a weave and styling the girl’s hair. The client had agreed to pay $150 for the hairstyle, but attempted to leave without paying Cunningham once the service was completed, Elira said in the documents. Cunningham acted in defense of her business and livelihood, Elira said.
Cunningham used scissors to “take the service out” of her client’s hair, not to physically harm her, he added.
“What Ms. Cunningham needs is business skills, training, anger management,” Elira said.
At court Thursday, Cunningham said she had just moved into the apartment two weeks before the incident. She was worried about not being paid by the client, and was also going through serious mental health struggles brought on by an abusive relationship, she said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Woolf said Cunningham showed no remorse for her actions, going as far as to post videos on TikTok of her dancing to taunting music. Elira said those videos were shown at trial, and Cunningham has not posted further.
In evidence admitted at trial, Cunningham texted an apology to the 15-year-old client.
Cunningham will be on probation following the home detention and must undergo mental health treatment and complete anger management as part of her sentence.
Though Pearson sentenced Cunningham to home detention with the Prince George’s County detention center, Cunningham was taken into custody Thursday. There was an outstanding bench warrant for her failure to appear at court for another criminal matter.
Elira argued to have his client not held in jail for missing the court date.
“I think she’s going to be a successful young woman,” Elira said afterward. “I’m sure the way she conducted herself at 18 won’t be the same way she conducts herself at 25.”
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