Maryland Hairstylist Seen Dragging Child In Viral Video Gets Sentenced
Turns out, even if your client attempts to leave without paying, you can’t assault them. That’s a lesson a home-based hairstylist found out the hard way, when she responded to a client trying to avoid paying because she didn’t like her style.
Jayla A. Cunningham, now 19, was working in her licensed home-based salon in Temple Hills, Maryland, last March when a 15-year-old customer tried to leave without paying the agreed-upon $150 for a weave installation. Cunningham told Fox News that she was simply making sure that the client paid her when she dragged the teen back into the shop.
Unfortunately, the seeds to Cunningham’s own downfall were ones she planted, as it was Cunningham herself who posted the video of the incident to social media.
“She ran. Forget trash, she ran without paying me,” Cunningham told Fox News after the video racked up 54 million-and-counting views. “I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or until the police come.”
Cunningham said she was simply trying to ensure she was either paid or that the client allowed the weave to be removed.
The teen’s mother pressed charges, saying her daughter was trying to pay Cunningham but sent the money to the wrong account. She said her daughter was traumatized and went viral against her will.
“It’s a 15-year old girl,” the teen’s lawyers said. “We’re talking about a 15-year-old girl – somebody’s child – being dragged by her jacket over something as simple as a mistake.”
Cunningham apologized to her former client via text, but had to move her home and business as she was receiving death threats at her old location.
She’ll be spending more time there, as a Prince George’s County, Maryland judge sentenced her to six months of house arrest after a conviction on second-degree assault in November.
The assault came with a five-year sentence, with all but six months suspended. Cunningham will also have to complete mental health treatment and anger management classes.
Per The Washington Post, the same day Cunningham was sentenced, she was also taken into custody for failure to appear in another criminal case. Her lawyer, Samuel Elira, told the Post he believes his client will be better for the experience and shouldn’t be jailed for missing the earlier court date.
“What Ms. Cunningham needs is business skills, training, anger management,” he said. “I think she’s going to be a successful young woman. I’m sure the way she conducted herself at 18 won’t be the same way she conducts herself at 25.”
In the assault case, Cunningham asked the judge for leniency, saying she’s experienced mental health issues in the past.
“I really do regret what I did,” she said. “Can you have faith in me?”
Judge Michael Pearson said while he hoped she learned from the incident, he cited the “utter disregard” shown to the teen as “unacceptable.”
