A Nevada woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing her friend at a photo shoot, admitting that her grandfather was a serial killer, and now faces lenient prison time. Allysandra Blea, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping and involuntary manslaughter.

Charges and Sentencing

Blea was initially charged with open murder for the August 23, 2025, death of Mark Santiage Gaughan, 23, who was shot. As part of a plea deal with the state, she agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a more lenient sentence. At next month’s sentencing, she is expected to receive only around five years.

A mutual friend of the defendant and the victim, Maverick Crafts, said she had both of them over to her home, which she shared with her boyfriend, on the evening before the incident. Gaughan brought a bottle of vodka, and the group sat around drinking it. The victim also had a compact Glock .40 on him.

Crafts said after their boyfriends went to sleep, she and Blea began having girl talk. “I tell her that Mark talks about her all the time and their relationship and how much he loves her, and he’s good in their relationship, and she was disgusted by that,” she said.

Blea claimed the two were not dating, saying, “I don’t understand why he thinks I’m his girlfriend. I don’t like him like that.” When Blea finished off the bottle of vodka, she “turned around randomly and slammed it down on him when he was asleep,” Crafts described her shock. 

Photo Shoot Ends Tragically

Crafts and Blea decided whimsically to do a photo shoot and got dressed up for the occasion. The victim said he would take photos of the girl with a Polaroid camera. They got on the hood of a truck where they posed with knives and guns. Gaughan was capturing the moments when Crafts described that “Another flash goes off and it’s really loud this time, and Mark and the camera fell.”

First responders reported the victim had been shot only once, but the bullet traveled through his neck down and out his left back shoulder. Officers initially thought the shooting was an accident; however, after reviewing some of Blea’s social media, they became concerned it was more than that.

Social Media Activity

“Within several of these photos, videos, and messages to other people, it was very problematic,” homicide detective Kasey Kirkegard said during the grand jury indictment. “Very concerning images depicting Allysandra and almost an obsession she had with guns and wanting to shoot someone and get away with it.”

According to Kirkegard, they found that the words “gun” and “guns” was populated over 200 times across Blea’s social media. One damning piece of evidence they found was a message sent where she admitted, “I wish I could shoot people with real guns and get away with it.”

In a separate message, she also admitted that she “would kill prostitutes and bury them in the New Mexico desert.”

Killer Family

Detectives brought her in for an interview to discuss their findings and allow her to explain. “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.”

Upon further investigation, they uncovered that her grandfather is Joseph Blea, a man wanted in connection with the disappearance and presumed killings of 10 to 12 prostitutes in New Mexico. He was convicted several times of sexually assaulting the sex workers. 

Blea will be sentenced on July 29, 2026.