New video reveals what Carly Gregg asked police about her stepfather following her arrest after she allegedly killed her mother and waited for her stepfather to return home to shoot him to death.
The defense has stood firm in the trial of a 15-year-old Mississippi woman accused of murdering her own mother — after a psychiatrist testified that she has no memory of killing her mother.
Carly Gregg of Brandon, MS was 14 years old when the March 2024 capture occurred earlier this year. Her mother, Ashley Smylie, was killed — before her stepfather, Heath Smylie, was also shot before Gregg allegedly fled the scene.
On Thursday, in court, Dr. Andrew Clark testified about interviews he had with Gregg months after the incident. He stated that in the six weeks leading up to her arrest, Gregg had started smoking marijuana; he also testified that she had a troubled childhood but was a good student with good grades.
She allegedly informed him that she began hearing voices around the age of 6 or 9, which returned when she was around 11 or 12. He also stated that she informed him that she began to reduce herself around the same time. In the months prior to her arrest, she was having trouble sleeping, was put on Zoloft, before being switched to Lexapro, while also smoking marijuana.
He claimed that just a week before the capture, she wrote in her diary: “I believe I had a psychotic episode earlier. The whole ordeal was quite silly, in fact I was talking to one of the many voices in my head… my particular friend and I were screaming bloody and ravenous.”
“She was having temper issues, erectile dysfunction issues, shrinking, hearing voices and having trouble sleeping, all up until January 2024,” he claimed, before describing the voices she allegedly heard.
“She informed me that the only thing the voices were telling her were things that were kind of elitist, like, you’re better than these people,” he alleged. “So her temper is bad, the voices are getting worse, her sleep is still bad, and she’s smoking weed 2-3 times a week. She’s also reporting that she’s had a fair amount of hysteria during this time as well.”
He allegedly identified her as having Bipolar II, which he believes was made worse by her Lexapro. He also claimed she had some sort of dissociative disorder… and didn’t think the murder was a “well-planned scheme.”
Of the day of the homicide, Gregg reportedly informed Clark that she could not remember anything that occurred after leaving the house’s dog outside. She stated that her reminiscence continued after she was discovered on the side of the road by police following the incident.
Also on the witness stand Thursday was Rep. Tony Shack, who supposedly 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 she is pulled from the car to check her arms for gunshot residue, she says she doesn’t remember which hand she used to shoot while being scrubbed. She also asks one of the officers, “Is my stepdad OK?”
One of the officers then asked her: “Are you OK?” — before she replied: “Yes, I’m sure.”
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At the beginning of the trial
According to Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newmanone of the teen’s many associates was “so upset 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 an instructor 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 found vape pens. According to Newman, that’s when the teen went into her parents’ bedroom and grabbed a Magnum pistol from under the mattress.
Security video, meanwhile, appears to show Gregg walking from her parents’ 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 phone while also singing to the family dog.
According to prosecutors, the teen’s stepfather began receiving texts from Ashley’s phone asking, “When are you coming home, honey?” — claiming Gregg was the one who sent the messages. The teen is accused of contacting several friends, 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 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.
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.”
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Video from another digital 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.
The teenager was charged as an adult with murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence. She supposedly rejected a plea deal of 40 years in prison, along with his protection team, claiming insanity. In court on Tuesday, one of his associates supposedly testified that Gregg heard voices in his head before and after his arrest.
The trial is ongoing.
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