Carly Gregg was found guilty of murder after a week-long trial that featured CCTV footage of the teenager murdering her mother, as well as body camera footage of her arrest and her stepfather’s heartbreaking reaction to his wife’s brutal death.
Carly Gregg, 15, was found responsible Friday for murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence.
Gregg of Brandon, MS was 14 years old when the March 2024 photos took place earlier this year. His mother, Ashley Smylie, was killed — before his stepfather, Heath Smylie, was also shot before Gregg allegedly fled the scene.
She supposedly rejected a plea deal of 40 years in prison, along with her protection team — who acknowledge she was the one who pulled the trigger — claiming insanity. In closing arguments earlier in the day, her attorney, Bridget Todd, said the teenager was in a “state of psychosis” at the time of her mother’s murder.
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“This was not a dirty child. This was not a child who was angry. This was not a child who had hatred in his heart for his mother or his stepfather, in fact, it was quite the opposite. This was a child who was going through vital psychological health issues,” Todd said in a statement. WAPT. “The same psychological well-being issues that ran in your home and that we all know are hereditary. This may be a child who was compliant with the medication that was prescribed to him, however, that medication without them being able to inform him beforehand, made his symptoms worse.”
“And while she was in a state of psychosis, in an acute stress episode on March 19, she was lost in what was the right storm,” she argued.
The prosecution, however, was adamant that she “was not insane at the time this occurred.”
“There is no doubt that Carly Madison Gregg is the one who killed her mother, Ashley Smylie. There is no doubt that she attempted to kill Heath Smylie when she put the gun to his head and shot him in the shoulder,” attorney Michael Smith said. “And there is no doubt that she is the one who hid the camera and tampered with the evidence. We would ask that you go back and hold her accountable for all three of those things, because she was not insane at the time of this. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew the difference between right and wrong.”
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Video of the alleged murder
According to Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newmanone of the teen’s many associates was “so anxious about Carly’s marijuana use” and the woman’s use of burner phones, “that he felt compelled to tell Miss Ashley Smylie that day.” Smylie was a teacher at Northwest Rankin High School, where her daughter was a student.
According to prosecutors, Smylie began searching her daughter’s room after they returned from college that day and located vape pens. According to Newman, that’s when the teen went to her parents’ bedroom and grabbed a Magnum pistol from under the mattress.
Security video, meanwhile, appears to show Gregg walking from her mother and father’s bedroom to her personal bedroom — hiding something, believed to be the gun, behind her back. The audio then captures what appears to be a gunshot, followed by a scream and two more gunshots. Gregg is then seen heading to the kitchen, where she immediately begins using a cell phone while also singing to the family dog.
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According to prosecutors, the teen’s stepfather began receiving text messages from Ashley’s phone asking, “When are you going to be home, honey?” — claiming Gregg was the one who sent the messages. The teen is accused of contacting several associates, asking for help. One of them responded to her pleas and was allegedly asked if “she had ever seen a dead body before,” as well as if the friend was “squeamish around dead bodies?”
According to prosecutors, Gregg then confirmed to the witness the victim’s body — and claimed her stepfather was nearby — saying, “I put three on my mom and I got three more ready for my stepfather when he got home.” The friend was then told to wait in the backyard, before hearing gunshots and seeing Gregg running.
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Alleged attempted murder of stepfather
When Heath Smylie took the stand Tuesday, he testified that when he opened the kitchen door of the home, “the gun went off in my face before the door was even open 3 to 4 inches, and everything happened very fast from there.”
“The gun flashed in my face. It went off twice more, but my hand was on the gun after the first shot, and I twisted it away from Carly,” he alleged.
Video from another camera shows him arriving home, before screams from inside the house can be heard, along with him yelling, “Carly!” Gregg is then seen running from the house, with Heath hot on his heels. “She looked like she was terrified… she was screaming out of her mind, scared, like she saw a demon or something,” he testified.
Gregg was apprehended after Heath called 9-1-1, with dramatic body camera footage showing the chaos as first responders arrived on the scene. She was seen crying in court as the video was played.
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Video of the aftermath and arrest
Gregg was apprehended after Heath called 9-1-1, with dramatic body camera footage showing the chaos as first responders arrived on the scene. The teenager was seen crying in court as footage of paramedics tending to her stepfather was shown.
Testifying Thursday, Deputy Tony Shack also shared with the court body camera footage of him driving Gregg back to the crime scene after they found her on the side of the road.
As they pull her out of the car to check her fingers for gunshot residue, she says she couldn’t remember which hand she fired with as she was being scrubbed. She also asked one of the officers, “Is my stepdad OK?”
One of the officers then asked her: “Are you OK?” — before she replied: “Yes, I’m fine.”
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