Julia Egler was prosecuted as an adult but retains a future sentence-review opportunity because the killings occurred when Egler was 16.
VIERA, Fla. — Julia G. Egler entered Florida’s criminal justice system as a 16-year-old accused of two premeditated murders and emerged from the case two years later with adult second-degree murder convictions and a 50-year prison sentence.
The Sept. 25 plea hearing resolved a case in which Egler’s age had been important from the beginning but did not keep the prosecution in juvenile court. A Brevard County grand jury had indicted Egler on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder after the July 2024 deaths of Egler’s mother, Kelley McCollom, 38, and McCollom’s boyfriend, Matthew Szejnrok, 22. Prosecutors chose to proceed against Egler as an adult. The negotiated agreement ultimately reduced the case to two second-degree murder convictions. It also preserved a consequence tied directly to Egler’s youth: after serving at least 25 years, Egler will become eligible under state law for a sentence review, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
That distinction is central to understanding the punishment. Circuit Judge Michelle Naberhaus sentenced Egler, now 18, to 50 years in state prison under the negotiated agreement. The first 25 years are a mandatory minimum before the youth-based review can occur. Prosecutors did not describe that review as an automatic release date. After incarceration, the sentence also requires a mental health evaluation and 20 years of supervised probation. The agreement was approved by surviving relatives of the victims, the State Attorney’s Office said. Assistant State Attorney Kerri Fowler said the resolution gave the families finality without the uncertainty and additional proceedings of a murder trial.
The adult prosecution stemmed from events inside a Palm Bay home shortly before police were called early July 7, 2024. Egler initially presented officers with a claim that an unidentified intruder had broken in. In a 911 call placed shortly after midnight, Egler said the intruder entered through the back sliding glass door and that Egler had hidden in a bedroom. When officers arrived, they found McCollom dead in the living room and Szejnrok dead in a bathroom. Investigators said both victims had been shot and that Szejnrok had also been stabbed. The scene was therefore treated as a double homicide, but detectives soon began questioning the account offered by the teenager who had summoned them.
The probable cause affidavit documented several inconsistencies. Police said there was no evidence of the kind of forced entry Egler had described before the deaths. Broken glass at the rear of the house lay above bloody footprints, investigators reported, suggesting the glass had been shattered after violence had already occurred. Authorities said the footprints matched Egler’s shoes. A silver .38-caliber revolver was recovered outside near Egler’s bedroom window. Inside the bathroom, investigators found evidence that included spent .38-caliber cartridge cases and a kitchen knife. Taken together, prosecutors later said, the physical scene contradicted the claim that an unknown burglar had entered the home, killed the couple and escaped.
Police said Egler then confessed during subsequent questioning. The account in the arrest paperwork was not one of an unexpected confrontation after the victims came through the door. Investigators said Egler had broken into McCollom’s bedroom, obtained a firearm and ammunition and waited for McCollom and Szejnrok to return. According to the affidavit, Egler said “Welcome home” when they entered and began shooting. McCollom was killed in the living area. Szejnrok made it into a bathroom, where authorities said the attack continued. Afterward, investigators said, Egler tried to alter the scene to support the story of a break-in and eventually called 911.
Those allegations formed the basis for first-degree premeditated murder charges, a legal theory that would have required the state to prove premeditation had the case gone to trial. Egler later told the sentencing court that the killings had not been planned. Local reporting quoted Egler saying, “I didn’t plan what I did. I just did it.” That assertion did not produce a trial over intent because the parties reached the plea agreement for second-degree murder. By pleading guilty, Egler accepted criminal responsibility for both deaths while avoiding a jury trial on the more serious premeditated murder counts. The original charges and the final convictions therefore reflect different legal resolutions of the same underlying deaths.
Egler’s age also surfaced in defense challenges to police questioning. Before the plea, defense attorneys disputed the circumstances under which the teenager had spoken to detectives and sought to prevent portions of the interrogation from reaching a jury. Local reporting said the defense argued that investigators’ statements about juvenile consequences affected Egler’s decision to waive rights. The defense had sought several forms of relief during the case, including efforts related to whether Egler should be prosecuted as a juvenile and whether interrogation material should be admitted. Because the case ended in guilty pleas, those evidentiary issues did not become questions for a trial jury.
The reason investigators believed the killings occurred was described more cautiously than the physical evidence. Police said Egler reported repeated conflict with McCollom in the weeks before the deaths. Authorities identified disagreement over McCollom’s relationship with Szejnrok, who was 16 years younger than McCollom, and tension concerning McCollom’s response to Egler’s gender transition. The affidavit described Egler as having reached a “boiling point.” Those statements came from police accounts and should not be read as a complete explanation of a family’s private dynamics. Criminal motive can provide context, but it was not separately tested at a trial because Egler pleaded guilty.
While the prosecution was pending, Egler remained in detention and completed high school, according to prosecutors. That fact became relevant at sentencing when Egler asked Naberhaus to consider rehabilitation. Egler apologized and said the deaths continued to cause grief. “I’m haunted by grief every day,” Egler told the court, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Egler said there had been evidence of an ability to change and asked for an eventual opportunity to reenter society. The plea agreement nevertheless required a prison term measured in decades before any statutory review could even be considered.
Surviving relatives urged the court to recognize a different kind of permanence. Dustin Szejnrok told the judge that his family remains next door to the house where his brother died. He said he heard gunfire that night but believed it was fireworks and did not realize his brother was in mortal danger only about 75 feet away. “There isn’t a sentence that will bring my brother back,” he said. His statement underscored why prosecutors described the agreement not as erasing the harm but as ending the legal uncertainty surrounding responsibility and punishment.
Currently, Egler is serving the 50-year adult sentence for two second-degree murder convictions. No criminal trial remains pending, and the first-degree murder counts no longer control the case. The next major legal milestone identified by prosecutors is far in the future: a possible sentence review after the mandatory 25-year period based on Egler’s juvenile status at the time of the crimes. Until then, the judgment entered in Viera governs the case.
Author note: Last updated November 9, 2026.