Background: Jayla Cunningham drags a 15-year-old girl by her hood during a dispute over a payment for services (WTTG/YouTube). Inset: Cunningham speaks during an interview (WTTG/YouTube).
A woman in Maryland has learned her punishment for dragging a 15-year-old across the floor of her hair salon because she believed the client was trying to avoid paying.
Jayla Cunningham, 19, has been sentenced to six months of home detention, according to local news sources such as The Washington Post. She was convicted in November of second-degree assault.
The case became widely known after Cunningham herself posted a video of her encounter with the younger girl on March 2, 2025. It went viral, reportedly amassing over 50 million views.
Months later, it would be used as evidence against her, helping result in her conviction.
In what appears to be surveillance footage from inside the Temple Hills salon, Cunningham can be seen dragging the girl across the floor by her hood before lurching her forward and ordering, "stay right here." She then appears to add: "I'm not f— playing. You just tried to f— run?"
Cunningham had just worked on the girl's hair, installing a weave with tracks that cost $150, Washington, D.C.-based Fox affiliate WTTG reported. She then proceeded to use scissors to cut the weave out.
"She ran without paying me," Cunningham told the area TV station. "I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or, you know, until the police come or until, you know, she let me take out the service. Because it's like … she literally ran outside, like she was about to be gone. I feel like if I didn't do that, she would have been gone, and I would have just never been paid."
The 15-year-old girl's mother ended up filing a charge against Cunningham after the assault, with the pair saying the assailant pulled the minor's hair and not just her hood. They also said that the girl did not try to skirt payment but rather sent her payment to the wrong address.
Cunningham reportedly had no idea she had been charged following the incident until WTTG brought it to her attention. As court proceedings commenced and continued, she told a Prince George's County judge that "I really do regret what I did," adding, "Can you have faith in me? Can you believe in me that I am trying?"
The defendant said she was going through mental health struggles at the time and was in the throes of an abusive relationship.
While the judge said he has "no reason to believe you're a bad person," he told the defendant that the "disregard you showed that young lady on that day is unacceptable." As part of her sentence, Cunningham must take anger management classes and undergo mental health treatment.
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