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Shayla Addison

Shayla Addison, 28, of Indianapolis, pregnant and due in January 2027, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison over what her lawyer called a 13-minute angry outburst of texts and one email at Nancy Mace, sent the morning after the Mace-Crockett 'take it outside' exchange.

First page of the felony information in United States v. Addison
Credit: U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, via CourtListener. Source

Shayla Addison, 28, of Indianapolis, Indiana, was sentenced on the docket in mid-July 2026, announced by the Justice Department on July 21, 2026, to 27 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised release for threatening Rep. Nancy Mace. She pleaded guilty to two counts of Influencing a Federal Official by Threat, 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B), in United States v. Addison, No. 1:26-cr-00014-JRS-KMB (S.D. Ind.). She is pregnant, with a child due in January 2027. Chief U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II recommended she serve the sentence in a Bureau of Prisons placement that allows inmates to stay with their children, per the SC Daily Gazette.

Thirteen minutes on January 15, 2025

According to the stipulated factual basis in her plea agreement, everything happened in one morning burst on January 15, 2025:

  • 8:53 a.m.: five text messages to Mace's campaign phone number: "Come outside BITCH WELL KILL YOU," "We WILL KILL YOU BITCH," "TREAD LIGHTLY," "THIS JASMINE COME OUTSIDE BITCH," and "YOU NEED THAT?"
  • 8:56 a.m.: one email to Mace's campaign email address: "HOE WE WILL KILL YOU AND BLOW THAT WHOLE BUILDING UP BITCH COME OUTSIDE."
  • The same day, two comments on Mace's Instagram page, including "Shut up hoe I'll kill you."

The messages came the morning after the January 14, 2025 hearing-room clash in which Mace challenged Rep. Jasmine Crockett to "take it outside" (cataloged here). Addison's texts named Jasmine and echoed the phrase. Her federal defender's sentencing memorandum called the episode "an early-morning impulsive 13-minute angry outburst triggered by news reports of mutually disrespectful verbal conflict on the floor of the House of Representatives," and observed: "'If you want to take it outside' was a theme both of the exchange between representatives and Ms. Addison's missives."

Page 9 of the plea agreement, with the verbatim messages The stipulated factual basis in the plea agreement reproduces the messages verbatim. (full PDF)

The FBI executed a search warrant at her residence, where, per Mace's office, Addison confessed. The charging documents never name Mace, referring only to "Victim 1," a member of the House since 2021; Mace identified herself publicly as the victim.

A guilty plea and the government's own bottom-of-the-range ask

Addison was charged by felony information on January 13, 2026, with a plea agreement filed the same day. She was arrested January 15, 2026, exactly one year after the messages, and released the same day on conditions; the government did not seek pretrial detention. She remained free until sentencing.

The government's sentencing memorandum detailed a prior record of nearly identical conduct: 2019 threats to "blow up" or "shoot up" the Hendricks County restaurant where an ex-boyfriend worked; more than 50 calls to the same restaurant in a single day; and a 2023 felony intimidation case in which she threatened to burn down her mother's apartment building and poured gasoline on the front steps. Prosecutors called the guidelines range 27 to 33 months and asked for the bottom: 27 months. U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Wheeler II said in the DOJ release: "Threats of political violence regardless of where they come from, or who is targeted, are unacceptable and constitute a serious federal crime."

Page 1 of the defense sentencing memorandum The defense memorandum asked for a mix of confinement, house arrest, and community service instead of a straight prison term. (full PDF)

What the defense told the court

The defense memorandum is notable for turning the lens around. It described "a childhood marked by abuse, intermittent poverty, and instability," "a lack of anger management tools combined with impulsive behavior," and her engagement in counseling. It devoted pages to her pregnancy, walking the court through the Bureau of Prisons' options for pregnant prisoners and the sole Residential Parenting Program available. And it argued the political context cut both ways: "Victim 1's brand of performative politics has triggered legions of angry public responses," the memo states, reproducing the November 2024 House resolution (H.Res. 1599) that condemned death threats against Mace. The defense conceded the messages "clearly merited a visit from FBI agents"; the dispute was only over whether a pregnant woman's 13-minute outburst required 27 months in a federal prison.

The court imposed the 27 months the government requested.

Mace's statements

At a January 20, 2026 press conference, Mace said: "I have had to change everything about the way that I live... I basically live in hiding... I can't run errands," per the SC Daily Gazette. On sentencing day her office declared: "I receive over 1,300 credible threats a year and every single one is taken seriously. Political violence has no place in this country."

Mace's X post on the Addison sentence Mace's July 21, 2026 post on the sentence, with screenshots of the messages. (original post)

The full account of both July 21, 2026 sentencings is in the dispatch Two threat sentencings in one day.

Documents on the record

Sources

See also