Inset: Julia Egler, left, and Kelley McCollom. Background: Egler after her arrest for killing McCollom, her mother, and Matthew Szejnrok, McCollom’s boyfriend (Law&Crime).
A Florida teenager will spend decades behind bars after she waited for her mother and mom’s boyfriend to walk inside their home before unleashing a barrage of bullets, killing both of them.
Julia Egler, now 18, was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of her mother 38-year-old Kelley McCollom and 22-year-old Matthew Szejnrok, Brevard County prosecutors say.
Authorities say Egler killed her McCollom and Szejnrok because she disapproved of her mother dating a much younger man. McCollom also disagreed with Egler’s gender transition.
A frantic Egler called 911 shortly after midnight on July 7, 2024, claiming a man broke through a sliding glass door of her Palm Bay home, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit. When cops arrived at the home, they found McCollom and Szejnrok dead inside.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Egler, then 16, told cops she was in the living room when she heard someone breaking into the home. She locked herself in a bedroom with her dogs, but left her cellphone behind. Egler said the home invader kicked down her mother’s door but not hers, saying she believed her dogs were a deterrent.
The defendant said she heard five or six gunshots and screaming. She said she waited about an hour before coming outside, grabbing her phone and calling 911 after finding her mom and Szejnrok dead.
But cops quickly disproved Egler’s claims because bloody footprints were found beneath the broken glass near the sliding door, which contradicted her claim that the intruder broke in before the shooting occurred. The bloody footprints also matched Egler’s shoes. The murder weapon was in the backyard.
Eventually, Egler told the truth. She said she broke into her mom’s bedroom to grab a gun and ammunition. Egler then waited for her mom and Szejnrok to walk through the front door. When they did, Egler said “welcome home” and opened fire. First, she shot her mom. She then turned the gun on Szejnrok as he pleaded with her to stop.
McCollom fell to the ground and died in the living room. Szejnrok stumbled to the bathroom and collapsed, still alive. Egler went to her mom’s room for more ammunition to reload the gun.
She then walked into the bathroom and repeatedly stabbed Szejnrok with a kitchen knife. She said Szejnrok “essentially asked her to take him out of his misery” and shot him in the head, ultimately killing him.
Egler admitted to staging the scene to making it look like a home invasion.
“Julia advised that she had reached her boiling point with her mother following many disagreements in the previous weeks,” cops wrote. “Julia was not happy with the fact that Kelley was not very accepting of her gender transition (pronouns he/him), and she also did not like that Kelley was dating Matthew, who was 22-years-old.”
Szejnrok’s brother and his family still live next door to the murder scene. The brother was home at the time of the killings but thought the shots were fireworks.
“I was 75 feet away from my brother and had no idea he was fighting for his life,” David Szejnrok told the court, according to prosecutors.
Seeing the home where his brother died is a constant reminder of him, he said.
“Her actions didn’t just take my brother, they ruined our home,” he said. “There isn’t a sentence that will bring my brother back.”
Egler was originally charged with first-degree murder before she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. She graduated high school while incarcerated.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “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.”
She may get that chance. Egler will be eligible after 25 years.
The post Teen said ‘welcome home’ before blowing away mother and boyfriend as they walked through front door because she disapproved of mom dating a much younger man — now she’s headed to prison first appeared on Law & Crime.
Recent Comments