A Las Vegas woman with an apparent fixation on firearms, who had once talked about wanting to “shoot people with real guns and get away with it,” has been ordered to serve five years to life in prison for fatally shooting her friend during an unplanned photo session.
Allysandra Blea, 21, kept her head lowered in court during Tuesday’s sentencing, according to Court TV, after previously admitting guilt to first-degree kidnapping and involuntary manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Mark Gaughan.
Gaughan died after Blea fired a single shot that struck him in the neck near his residence, about four miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, shortly before 5 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2025.
In the hours before the deadly shooting, Blea and Gaughan had reportedly been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana at the home of mutual friend Gavin Fitzpatrick and his girlfriend, Maverick Crafts, Court TV reported.
Before the sentence was handed down, Clark testified that Gaughan had been in “love” with Blea, while Blea had privately said she did not view him as her boyfriend and did not even like him, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“She was disgusted to hear that he would call her his girlfriend,” Clark told the court.
Investigators said Blea had been posing with Gaughan’s gun on the hood of a truck parked in the driveway when the weapon discharged, sending the fatal round into him. Three days later, she was taken into custody on an “Open Murder with a Deadly Weapon” charge.
At the scene, police also recovered two Polaroid pictures — one that appeared to show Blea holding a gun, and another showing a girl holding a knife.
Blea, who was 20 at the time, told investigators the shooting was accidental and that she believed the gun wasn’t loaded during the early morning photo shoot.
However, a search of Blea’s phone revealed what investigators described as a “fascination with firearms,” including numerous messages referencing her enthusiasm for building an arsenal and images of her posing with various weapons.
Police also found one message in which Blea allegedly said, “I wish I could shoot people with real guns and get away with it,” and spoke about gunning down prostitutes and the homeless, according to Court TV.
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Another message Blea sent to someone on social media said, “I would kill prostitutes and bury them in the New Mexico desert.”
After making the disturbing discovery, detectives decided to bring Blea in for questioning, homicide detective Kasey Kirkegard told a grand jury during her trial, the outlet reported.
“In the middle of the interview, when we confronted her about all these statements that were made through social media, she stated they were a joke and that she has a somewhat intimate knowledge to prostitutes being buried in the New Mexico desert,” Kirkegard said.
“And she stated that her grandfather was actually a serial killer that was previously convicted in New Mexico.”
Blea’s grandfather, Joseph Blea, is a person of interest in the disappearance of 10 to 12 prostitutes in New Mexico and has a prior conviction for sexual assault against several of the women.
He is currently serving a 36-year prison sentence, imposed in 2015, for the 1988 rape of a 13-year-old girl, KOAT reported.
Following her sentencing on Tuesday, Blea will serve a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
She was also ordered to pay restitution for Gaughan’s funeral expenses totaling $16,085.81 and to his mother, Caroline Gaughan.
Caroline Gaughan, who delivered an impact statement during the sentencing, expressed fury at the light sentence handed down to her son’s killer.
“She is a danger to society,” she said following the verdict, according to the outlet.
“She will continue to live her life after sentencing, but me, I will live with a life sentence of grief, of trauma, of depression, stress, anxiety, brokenness, a nightmare I can’t escape until the day I die.”
Judge Jacqueline Bluth acknowledged the victim’s mother’s disappointment but said she would endorse the plea agreement since there was “too much to risk on both sides.”
“This was a case that should not have gone to trial,” Bluth said.
