A Las Vegas woman admitted Tuesday that she killed her model friend during a photo shoot last year.
Allysandra Blea, 20, pleaded guilty to a count of first-degree kidnapping and a count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the August shooting of Mark Gaughan, 23.
Prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence of five years to life in prison on the kidnapping count and do not oppose her sentence on the manslaughter count being concurrent, meaning she would receive credit for serving both counts at the same time.
“I think from the defense perspective, we have tried to explain that the significant amount of alcohol and marijuana in a 19-year-old girl is what led to this horrible accident,” Chief Deputy Public Defender Robert O’Brien said after court.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo declined to comment.
Authorities have said Blea fantasized about shooting people. A witness to the killing said Blea was also upset that the victim had referred to her as his girlfriend.
“I tell her that Mark talks about her all the time and how much he loves her,” Maverick Crafts testified, according to grand jury transcripts. “She was disgusted to hear that he would call her his girlfriend.”
Before the shooting, Blea and Crafts had asked Gaughan to photograph them holding his gun, court records said.
Blea pointed it at Gaughan and fired immediately after he took the last picture, hitting him in the neck, police have said. She told authorities the killing was an accident.
But police, who reviewed her social media accounts, discovered photos of her holding firearms to her head. Investigators said she had a “fascination with firearms” and had expressed a desire to shoot people in the face.
In a court filing, public defenders referred to her posts about shooting people as “dark humor.”
Blea spoke so softly as District Judge Carli Kierny questioned her about her plea that a court staffer had to move a microphone closer to her so her voice would be recorded.
She confirmed that she could read, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was pleading guilty willingly. She said she had completed high school and attended some college.
As part of the plea, she simultaneously admitted to kidnapping Gaughan for the purpose of causing substantial bodily harm or death and killing him without the intent to do so.
Blea previously faced a murder charge.
When police confronted her about posts where she discussed killing prostitutes and burying them in the desert, she brushed them off.
“She stated that they were a joke,” a detective testified to grand jurors. “And she stated that her grandfather was actually a serial killer who was previously convicted in New Mexico.”
Police found that Joseph Blea, her grandfather, was a suspect in about a dozen missing persons cases involving sex workers and was convicted of sexual assault but not charged in connection with any slayings.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
