A Maryland hairstylist who posted a viral video of her dragging a 15-year-old client to the door of her home-based salon over a payment dispute was sentenced Thursday to six months of home detention.
What was Jayla Cunningham charged with?
Jayla Cunningham, 19, of Laurel, was convicted in November of second-degree assault, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, following a March dispute in which prosecutors said she physically assaulted a teenage client at her salon, according to Fox 5 DC and The Washington Post.
Cunningham said she believed the teen was attempting to leave without paying for the service. In the video, Cunningham, then 18, was seen dragging the 15-year-old girl across the floor by her hood and toward a doorway of a room inside the home.
“She ran. Forget trash, she ran without paying me,” Cunningham told Fox 5 DC in March. “I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or, you know, until the police come or until, you know, she let me take out the service. … I feel like if I didn’t do that, she would have been gone and I would have just never been paid.”
Judge says, ‘I trust you’re going to learn from it’
During Thursday’s hearing, Cunningham pleaded for mercy and asked for a lesser sentence, such as probation.
“I really do regret what I did,” Cunningham said to Judge Michael Pearson in Prince George’s County Circuit Court before he issued the sentence, per The Washington Post. “Can you have faith in me? Can you believe in me that I am trying?”
Pearson said he did not believe she was a bad person but that her actions in the video showed a disregard for the teen she assaulted.
“The disregard you showed that young lady on that day is unacceptable,” Pearson said, according to The Washington Post. “I trust you’re going to learn from it.”
The dispute was over a $150 fee that the client agreed to pay
The teen’s mother filed the charges, claiming that Cunningham had dragged the young girl by her hair, but the viral footage does not appear to show the teen’s hair being pulled.
The mother also accused Cunningham of telling her daughter not to move until she was paid and approaching her with scissors, according to The Washington Post. She said Cunningham later admitted in a video that she dragged the teen, pulled her hair and cut it, according to court records, per The Washington Post.
Prosecutors said the teen attempted to pay electronically. Cunningham’s attorney, Samuel Elira, argued she acted to protect her business after the teen tried to leave without paying the agreed-upon $150 for hair services completed at her licensed Temple Hills hair-braiding business, per The Washington Post.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Woolf said Cunningham showed little remorse for her actions after posting the footage and other videos on TikTok, according to The Washington Post. Elira said Cunningham has not posted on the video-sharing platform since and has also reached out to the teen via text to apologize.
Cunningham was sentenced to home detention followed by probation, with requirements to undergo mental health treatment and complete anger management.