The plea agreement ended the Palm Bay murder prosecution but left relatives describing losses they said no prison term could repair.
VIERA, Fla. — More than two years after Matthew Szejnrok was killed only yards from relatives who did not know he was in danger, his family watched Julia G. Egler plead guilty to two murders and accept a 50-year state prison sentence.
The Sept. 25 hearing brought a legal end to the prosecution over the deaths of Szejnrok, 22, and his girlfriend, Kelley McCollom, 38, who was Egler’s mother. Egler, now 18, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder under an agreement with prosecutors that surviving relatives approved. The deal replaced two first-degree premeditated murder charges that had been pending since 2024. Assistant State Attorney Kerri Fowler described the agreement as a way to give the families “resolution and finality.” Yet the victim impact statements made clear that the end of the court case did not end the consequences of what happened inside the Palm Bay home.
Szejnrok’s family had an unusually close connection to the place where he died. Prosecutors said members of the family still live next door to the Benchor Road SE house, and Szejnrok had lived with them before his death. His brother Dustin Szejnrok told the court that he heard gunfire on the night of the killings but mistook it for fireworks. “I was 75 feet away from my brother and had no idea he was fighting for his life,” he said. Living beside the house has turned an ordinary part of the neighborhood into a continuing reminder of the deaths. In another statement, he told the judge, “Her actions didn’t just take my brother, they ruined our home.”
The sentence Judge Michelle Naberhaus imposed was the product of a negotiated resolution rather than a verdict after trial. Egler admitted two second-degree murders and received 50 years in state prison. Because Egler was 16 when the crimes occurred, prosecutors said state law permits a sentence review after a mandatory minimum 25 years have been served. That future review is not a promise of release. The judgment also requires a mental health evaluation after prison and 20 years of supervised probation. The prosecution had originally exposed Egler to the far more severe consequences attached to first-degree premeditated murder, but those charges were resolved as part of the plea.
The case began shortly after midnight July 7, 2024, with a very different story. Egler called 911 and said an unknown man had broken into the family home through a sliding glass door. During the call, Egler portrayed herself as having hidden in a bedroom with dogs while the intruder moved through the house. Police arrived and found McCollom dead in the living room. Szejnrok was found in a bathroom. Both had been shot, investigators said, and Szejnrok had also been stabbed. The probable cause affidavit shows that officers initially had to examine whether they were looking at a violent break-in. Physical evidence soon led them in another direction.
Detectives found circumstances that did not fit the sequence Egler had described. The shattered rear door did not appear to show that a stranger had entered and killed the couple before Egler emerged. Investigators reported finding bloody footprints associated with Egler’s shoes beneath broken glass, an order of events suggesting the glass had been smashed only after blood was already on the floor. Prosecutors also cited the lack of forced entry and the placement of other evidence as reasons the account did not hold together. A .38-caliber revolver was recovered outside near a bedroom window. Inside, investigators documented spent cartridge cases and a kitchen knife connected to the killings.
As questioning continued, authorities said Egler abandoned the intruder account and admitted staging the break-in. The arrest affidavit said Egler had entered McCollom’s bedroom before McCollom and Szejnrok came home and obtained a revolver and ammunition. Investigators said Egler waited for them to return and greeted them with “Welcome home” before firing. McCollom was killed in the living room. Szejnrok survived the initial gunfire long enough to reach the bathroom, according to authorities. Police said the violence against him continued there. The public record contains disturbing details about his final moments, but the central investigative finding was that the purported home invasion had been created after the killings in an effort to misdirect police.
The explanation investigators gave for the violence focused on conflict within the household rather than a single event that night. Police said Egler described having reached a “boiling point” after repeated disagreements with McCollom. Authorities cited two subjects in particular: McCollom’s relationship with Szejnrok, who was considerably younger than she was, and disagreements involving Egler’s gender transition. Investigators said Egler objected to the age difference in McCollom’s relationship and felt McCollom was not accepting of the transition. Those assertions originated in police records describing Egler’s statements. They should not be treated as a complete psychological explanation for two killings or as a judgment about transgender people generally.
The legal response was swift after the investigation. A Brevard County grand jury indicted Egler in August 2024 on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, and the State Attorney’s Office chose to prosecute Egler as an adult. The case nevertheless remained shaped by Egler’s age. Defense attorneys challenged aspects of the interrogation and raised questions about whether a 16-year-old had been properly advised and had knowingly waived constitutional protections while speaking with detectives. Those disputes could have become major trial issues. Instead, the plea agreement removed the need for jurors to hear evidence about Egler’s statements, the crime scene and the competing positions on premeditation.
During the two years that followed the arrests, Egler remained detained and completed high school while in custody, prosecutors said. By sentencing day, the courtroom was addressing not whether Egler would be held criminally responsible, but how that responsibility would be resolved. Egler apologized and asked the judge to consider the possibility of rehabilitation. “I’m sorry. I’m haunted by grief every day,” Egler said, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Egler added, “I have shown that I can be rehabilitated. Please give me a chance to reintegrate back into society.” Local reporting also quoted Egler as saying the killings were not planned, a position different from the premeditation alleged in the original indictment.
For Szejnrok’s relatives, the hearing was also a chance to put into the record what had been lost beyond the basic facts in a criminal charge. One family member described the future experiences Szejnrok would never have, while Dustin Szejnrok emphasized that the physical setting of the crime remained part of the family’s daily life. Their statements placed the sentencing in a different frame from the evidence that had dominated the investigation: not shell casings, broken glass or interrogation footage, but the absence of a 22-year-old son and brother and a house that could no longer be separated from what happened next door.
Egler has now begun the 50-year sentence imposed for both second-degree murder convictions. The first possible sentence review will not occur until at least 25 years of the term have been served, according to prosecutors, and no release at that point is guaranteed. For the victims’ relatives, the prosecution is finished. The house, the memories and the effects described in court remain.
Author note: Last updated November 9, 2026.