Jasmine Alycia Cannady, a 22-year-old Black/African American non-binary person from Ambridge, Pennsylvania, was killed on February 22, 2021, inside a home in the 900 block of Maplewood Avenue. Police were called to the residence around 1:30 p.m., and when officers arrived, they found Jasmine and their 16-year-old sibling, Jeffrey “JJ” Bright, dead from gunshot wounds. Authorities described the scene inside the home as gruesome, and reports said both victims had been shot in the head.
The person arrested was their mother, Krisinda Ann Bright, who was 48 at the time. Investigators said Bright was believed to have called 911 herself after the shootings. When police arrived, she was at or near the home and was taken into custody. She was charged with two counts of criminal homicide in the deaths of Jasmine and Jeffrey. Early reports described uncertainty around the motive, but later accounts said Bright told police she shot one child while the victim was lying in bed, then went downstairs, pointed the gun at the other child, and pulled the trigger.
Jasmine's death was part of a double killing that devastated people in Ambridge and those who knew the siblings. Jeffrey, often called JJ, was a student at Ambridge High School and was remembered by LGBTQ advocacy groups as a transgender boy; Jasmine was later identified by the Human Rights Campaign as non-binary. Their deaths drew wider attention because both siblings were described as LGBTQ, and because the accused killer was not a stranger but their own mother, inside the family home.
As the case moved through Beaver County court, prosecutors pursued severe punishment. Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier announced that his office would seek the death penalty against Krisinda Bright, who was facing first-degree murder charges in the killings. Bright initially pleaded not guilty, but the case later ended through a plea agreement.
In November 2021, Krisinda Bright pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges. As part of the plea arrangement, prosecutors dropped the death penalty request. She was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, one for each of her children. The sentence ensured she would spend the rest of her life in prison for killing Jasmine Cannady and Jeffrey “JJ” Bright.
