A Utah woman received two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison Friday after pleading guilty to murdering her parents, as her brother blamed what he called the reckless prescription of sex-change hormones.
Mia Bailey received two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life for the murders of her parents, Joseph Bailey, 70, and Gail Bailey, 69, according to a news release from the Washington County Attorney’s Office. The court added up to five years for aggravated assault stemming from the same attack.
Prosecutors said Bailey broke into her parents’ Washington City home on June 18, 2024, and shot her father twice in the head and her mother four times. After killing her parents, Bailey fired shots through her brother’s bedroom door while he and his wife barricaded themselves inside, according to prior reporting by KUTV.
Police arrested Bailey the following day and charged her with 11 felony counts tied to the double homicide and the attempted killing of her brother. She later pleaded guilty in November, admitting in court documents that she intentionally shot and killed her parents, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Defense attorney Ryan Stout urged the judge to impose concurrent sentences, arguing Bailey had no criminal record and suffered from severe mental illness that left her functioning at the level of a young child. Court records listed diagnoses that included autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD and OCD, with possible bipolar disorder, The Salt Lake Tribune stated.
Bailey’s brother, Dustin, acknowledged her mental illness during emotional remarks in court but placed blame on medical decisions tied to her transgender treatment. He said doctors prescribed powerful hormones and other drugs while she was in psychiatric crisis, a decision he said intensified her instability.
“We support LGBTQ rights fully. This has nothing to do with identity,” Dustin said, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. “Providing powerful hormones to a person in a psychiatric crisis without proper psychiatric safeguards is not affirming care. It is reckless … it acted as an accelerant, intensifying instability, impairing judgment and compounding risk. That failure harmed Mia, and it endangered our parents.”
Bailey apologized during sentencing, telling the court she felt deep remorse and could not live with herself after the killings, according to ABC4.
Washington County Attorney Tony Jaeger said the sentencing focused on honoring the victims rather than the defendant.
“This has been a difficult case for our office, for me personally as the prosecutor, and especially for the Bailey family,” Jaeger said. “Today wasn’t about Mia. It was about Joseph and Gail, two individuals whose lives were cut tragically short. We are relieved and grateful for the judge’s ruling that Mia serve consecutive prison sentences, one sentence for each victim. We also hope there can be healing for all involved.”
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will determine the final length of Bailey’s incarceration following sentencing.
Sex-hormone pills have been shown to affect mood regulation and emotional processing, with studies finding changes in affect and emotional variability after hormone exposure, according to a 2025 study. Neuroscience research in 2022 indicates that altering sex-hormone levels through medication can change how the brain processes emotional stimuli, demonstrating that these drugs can influence brain function related to mood and perception.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Flickr/ Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office)
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