A transgender teenager in Florida was sentenced to 50 years behind bars after she struck a plea deal for the fatal shooting of her mother and her 22-year-old boyfriend. 

Julia Egler, 18, learned her fate on Friday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the horror 2024 shooting of Kelly McCollom, 38, and her boyfriend Matthew Szejnrok, 22. 

'I'm sorry,' she told the court. '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.' 

At 16, Egler said she lashed out and killed McCollom and Szejnrok because she disapproved of her mother dating a much younger man. 

Her mother also didn't approve of Egler's gender transition, authorities said. She told detectives interviewing her after the murders that her preferred name is Jasper, and she sported a short haircut in court. But charging documents refer to her as Julia. 

Egler had cried hysterically as she made a frantic 911 call just after midnight on July 7, 2024, claiming that a man had broken in through a sliding glass door with a hammer.

'I don't think that the door was locked, but I don't think he knew there was a hammer by the back window,' Egler told officers, according to Fox 35. 

When the operator asked whether it was her family's hammer or if the assailant brought a hammer of his own, Egler replied: 'It was just the house hammer. It was just by the back [inaudible].

'I think they grabbed it and broke in the window.'

But when she was asked to describe the man who broke into the house, Egler simply said, 'Oh... it's hard to remember.' 

Her story quickly unraveled when police showed up at the scene of the crime. 

Detectives noticed that there was broken glass on McCollum's leg, and on top of Szejnrok's phone, which suggests the glass was broken after the two were already killed.

They then found a .38-caliber revolver just outside Julia's bedroom window, a bloodstained knife on the bathroom counter, and bloody footprints matching her shoes.

Police also said they found droplets of blood, leading from the front door to the bathroom - where Szejnrok's body was found with several shell casings nearby after he pleaded with Egler to stop.

None of the many cameras around the outside of the house found any trace of an intruder.

Officers eventually brought Egler in for questioning and she confessed to the double homicide. 

Authorities said Egler explained she had stolen her mother's gun and waited in the kitchen with it and a knife hidden in her pockets for them to arrive home about 10:30 pm.

'Welcome home,' she told them, before she opened fire on her mother with the revolver from her mother's bedroom, shooting her several times until she was dead.

Police say Egler then turned the gun on Szejnrok as he fled to the bathroom and begged for his life, but she repeatedly shot him.

When the gun ran out of bullets, she allegedly took out the kitchen knife and began viciously stabbing him on the bathroom floor.

Szejnrok, mortally wounded and in agony, 'essentially asked [Julia] to take him out of his misery', the affidavit read.

At that point, Egler walked back to her mother's room, loaded another bullet into the revolver, and shot him in the head, police said in an affidavit. 

Egler admitted to staging the scene to look like a home invasion, claiming she had 'reached her boiling point' after weeks of disagreements with her mom, police said. 

Palm Bay Police Lieutenant Virginia Kilmer said: 'Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements related to her gender transition, as well as disapproval of her mother's relationship with Szejnrok, as motives for the crime.'

The murderer, who was born female, was trying to transition in her teenage years. She appeared as a girl on McCollom's social media pages from at least 2015.

Police investigated past episodes tied to the family, including those in which McCollom was allegedly abused. 

One incident occurred with Egler's biological father around 11 years ago, while the other involved Szejnrok in April 2024, Florida Today reports.

Police at the time said he and McCollom were arguing in public when he repeatedly grabbed her. 

Prosecutors dismissed the charges, and he was allowed to return home to McCollom and Julia.

Szejnrok's family continue to live next door to the murder scene. According to Law & Crime, his brother had been home at the time and mistook the gunshots for fireworks.

'I was 75 feet away from my brother and had no idea he was fighting for his life,' David Szejnrok told the court, prosecutors said. 

'Her actions didn't just take my brother, they ruined our home. There isn't a sentence that will bring my brother back.'

At the time of his brother's death, David posted on Facebook announcing the news.

'Hey everyone it’s hard to put into words but it’s easier to share with those who may not have been contacted,' he wrote.

'My youngest brother Matthew Szejnrok has passed away. If you have not been contacted please do not blow up our phones on what happened or how.'

Egler was initially charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder until accepting the plea deal on the lesser charge.

She will be eligible after 25 years.