Julia Egler, who was 16 when prosecutors say conflicts involving her mother’s relationship and Egler’s gender transition preceded the killings, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and received a 50-year prison sentence under a negotiated agreement.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
PALM BAY, Fla. — An 18-year-old Florida defendant has been sentenced to 50 years in state prison after pleading guilty to killing her mother and her mother’s 22-year-old boyfriend inside their Palm Bay home in 2024, resolving a case that originally carried two first-degree premeditated murder charges.
The New York Post reported Monday that Julia Egler, who police records said was transitioning from female to male at the time of the killings, accepted a plea agreement Friday in the deaths of 38-year-old Kelley McCollom and 22-year-old Matthew Szejnrok.
Egler was 16 when the killings occurred on July 7, 2024.
At a Sept. 25 hearing in Viera, Egler pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder before Brevard Circuit Judge Michelle Naberhaus. Prosecutors had initially pursued two counts of first-degree premeditated murder but reduced the charges under a negotiated agreement approved by surviving family members, according to Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
“This gives resolution and finality to the family that it’s done today,” Assistant State Attorney Kerri Fowler said after the plea.
Egler was sentenced to 50 years in state prison and must serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for a sentence review under Florida law because Egler was a juvenile when the crimes occurred. The sentence also calls for 20 years of supervised probation following imprisonment and a mental health evaluation after release, according to prosecutors.
The case began shortly after midnight on July 7, 2024, when Egler called 911 and reported that an unknown intruder had broken into the family home on Benchor Road in Palm Bay.
Responding officers instead found McCollom dead from gunshot wounds in the living room and Szejnrok in a bathroom, where prosecutors said he had been shot and repeatedly stabbed. Investigators recovered five spent .38-caliber shell casings near Szejnrok’s body and a kitchen knife from the bathroom counter.
Police soon found problems with the burglary account.
Investigators said there was no evidence of forced entry, while surveillance video failed to show an unknown person entering the property. Detectives subsequently said Egler admitted fabricating the home-invasion story and staging the scene in an attempt to make the killings appear to have been committed by a burglar.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, Egler retrieved a .38 Special revolver from McCollom’s bedroom and waited for McCollom and Szejnrok to return home.
When they entered the residence, Egler allegedly said, “Welcome home,” before opening fire.
The affidavit said McCollom was shot multiple times before Egler turned the gun on Szejnrok, shooting him repeatedly as he pleaded for the attack to stop. When the revolver ran out of ammunition, Szejnrok retreated into the bathroom, where Egler followed and repeatedly stabbed him, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said Szejnrok eventually “essentially asked her to take him out of his misery.”
Investigators said Egler then returned to McCollom’s bedroom, obtained another round for the revolver, went back into the bathroom and shot Szejnrok in the head, killing him.
Police said two ongoing disputes between Egler and McCollom emerged during the investigation.
One involved McCollom’s relationship with Szejnrok, who was considerably younger than McCollom. Investigators said Egler objected to the relationship.
The second involved Egler’s gender transition. Police said Egler told detectives that McCollom did not accept the transition, identifying the conflict as another source of tension between mother and child.
Those factors were described by police as motives Egler provided during questioning. The plea agreement means the prosecution did not have to prove a motive to a jury at trial.
Egler initially maintained that a masked intruder had entered the house.
During the 911 call, Egler told a dispatcher that the supposed intruder had entered through a rear sliding-glass door and that Egler had hidden in a bedroom with two dogs.
Physical evidence and surveillance footage did not support that account, investigators said.
Palm Bay detectives eventually confronted Egler with the discrepancies. According to investigators, Egler then admitted shooting the two victims and staging the apparent break-in.
A Brevard County grand jury indicted Egler in August 2024 on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, and prosecutors elected to try the teenager as an adult. Because Egler was 16 at the time, the death penalty was not available.
The negotiated agreement avoided a trial and the possibility of a life sentence.
FOX 35 Orlando reported that Egler acknowledged responsibility during Friday’s hearing and asked the court for an opportunity eventually to return to society.
“I was just a kid who made a bad decision. The gun just happened to be in here. I didn’t plan what I did. I just did it,” Egler told the court.
Egler also expressed regret for the killings.
“I regret my decision every day. I am haunted with grief day and night, even in my nightmare — I still see their faces.”
The State Attorney’s Office quoted a similar portion of Egler’s statement to the judge.
“I’m sorry. 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,” Egler said.
Egler graduated from high school while being held in pretrial detention in Polk County, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney Michael Pirolo described the circumstances surrounding the killings as deeply troubled.
“This is as tragic of a case as it comes,” Pirolo told the court, according to Florida Today reporting.
Egler also told the court, “I was a kid crying out for help and no one did,” while asking the judge for mercy. Court records and reporting indicated that Egler had experienced emotional and mental-health difficulties before the killings, including previous involuntary mental-health interventions.
Family members of the victims also addressed the court.
Szejnrok’s brother Dustin said his family continues to live next door to the Benchor Road home where the killings occurred and is confronted daily with the location of his brother’s death.
“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.”
Dustin Szejnrok recalled being only about 75 feet away while his brother was being attacked.
“I heard the shots – I thought they were fireworks,” he said. “I was 75 feet away from my brother and had no idea he was fighting for his life.”
Another family member described the broader loss caused by Matthew Szejnrok’s death.
“You don’t think about when someone dies at 22,” the family told the court, according to FOX 35. “You don’t only lose the person they were that day. You lose every version that should have existed after that.”
Another statement said, “Our family has been robbed of a person understood as our angel on earth.”
Egler’s decision to plead guilty substantially changed the potential punishment.
The grand jury’s original first-degree murder indictments alleged that the killings were premeditated. The plea agreement instead resulted in convictions for two counts of second-degree murder and a negotiated 50-year prison term.
Although some reporting has described Egler as becoming eligible for parole after 25 years, the State Attorney’s Office describes the process more precisely as eligibility for a judicial sentence review after serving the mandatory minimum 25 years because Egler committed the crimes as a juvenile.
That review does not guarantee release.
If Egler ultimately leaves prison after becoming eligible for review, the sentence requires a mental-health evaluation and 20 years of supervised probation.
Egler would be approximately 43 years old after serving the minimum 25-year portion of the sentence.
The plea closes the criminal case without a jury trial more than two years after officers entered the Palm Bay home believing they were responding to a reported burglary and instead encountered the bodies of McCollom and Szejnrok.
For the victims’ relatives, prosecutors said the negotiated agreement was intended to provide certainty without requiring family members to endure a murder trial.
For Egler, it replaces the possibility of spending life in prison under the original first-degree murder prosecution with a lengthy sentence that leaves open the possibility of eventual release following judicial review.
Egler will now begin serving the 50-year state prison sentence imposed Friday.
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