A 15-year-old girl is accused of fatally shooting her mother inside their home after the woman discovered her daughter’s “secret life” of marijuana use.
Carly Gregg, from Brandon, Mississippi, is on the third day of trial for the murder of her mother, 40-year-old high school teacher Ashley Smylie, on March 19, 2024.
Security camera footage shows the teen holding an object behind her back, later identified as a .357 Magnum handgun while attempting to conceal the weapon from the recording.
Highlights
- Carly Gregg, 15, is on trial for shooting her mom, Ashley Smylie.
- Surveillance footage captured Gregg entering her mother's bedroom with a .357 Magnum handgun before three gunshots were heard.
- Prosecutors allege Gregg used her mother's phone to lure her stepfather home, later shooting him in the shoulder before he wrestled the gun away.
Gregg can be seen entering her mother’s bedroom before three loud bangs are heard. The bangs, presumably gunshots, were followed by Smylie’s screams, footage obtained by Law & Crime shows.
Image credits: 16 WAPT News Jackson
The 15-year-old then returned to the kitchen and started using a phone.
Prosecutors have alleged that she used her mother’s phone to lure her stepfather, Heath Smylie, to the house by texting: “When will you be home honey?,” the crime news outlet reported Tuesday (September 18).
When Heath Smylie arrived at the home, Gregg shot him in the shoulder before he wrestled the weapon away from her.
Prosecutors also allege that Gregg texted one of her friends, asking her to come over to the scene and claiming there had been an “emergency.”
“Have you ever seen a dead body? My mom is in there,” the then 14-year-old told her friend when she arrived, according to WLBT3.
Gregg is accused of fatally shooting her mother at their home on March 19, 2024
Image credits: 16 WAPT News Jackson
She reportedly told her that she had “three more gunshots waiting” for her stepfather.
After Gregg shot Heath Smylie, both friends ran to a nearby home. Smylie called 911, and police located Gregg sitting in a field before taking her into custody.
Prosecutors accuse the teen of shooting her mother because a concerned friend had told her about Gregg’s “secret life.”
“From the testimony of a friend, he was so worried about Carly’s use of smoking marijuana, so worried about her being high, and so worried about her having these burner phones, that [Gregg’s] mom didn’t know about, that he felt compelled to tell Miss Ashley Smylie that day,” Rankin County Assistant District Attorney said Monday (September 16).
Surveillance footage shows the teenager entering her mother's bedroom with a handgun before three loud bangs are heard
Image credits: 16 WAPT News Jackson
After learning of her daughter’s behavior, Ashley Smylie searched Gregg’s room and found vape pens. This is when Gregg allegedly shot her mother.
On the first day of the trial, Gregg broke down into tears when the courtroom was shown footage of the Sheriff’s Office arriving at the home and discovering a crying Heath Smylie saying his wife was dead inside, as per The Post.
The teen’s stepfather took the witness stand on Tuesday (September 17) to describe the moment he found Ashley’s body and got shot.
“I knew that she had been shot; there was blood around, I’m not sure exactly where, on the right side of her face."
The 15-year-old killed her mother after she discovered Gregg smoked marijuana and had different burner phones, one of the teen's friends testified
Image credits: Northwest Rankin High School
He continued: “When I opened the door to the kitchen, the gun went off in my face before the door was three or four inches wide open.
“The gun flashed in my face. It went off two more times, but my hand was on the gun after the first shot, and I twisted it from Carly.”
Gregg was “screaming out of her mind and scared” after firing the shots, Smylie recounted.
“It was like she had seen a demon or something. She was terrified. My first thought was that there was an intruder somewhere, and she thought she was after someone else. I still, to this day, don’t even think she recognized me. Something was off.”
Prosecutors said she used her mother's phone to text her stepfather and shoot him once he arrived at the house
Image credits: COURT TV
Gregg has been charged as an adult with counts of murder, attempted murder, and tampering with evidence.
According to Smylie, the teen had previously been sent to an alternative school for bringing a Swiss army knife to class.
He also testified that Gregg’s father had an extensive history of substance abuse and “was constantly doing drugs in front of her.”
Smylie said he and Gregg still talk over the phone while the 15-year-old is in solitary confinement at the Rankin County Jail.
Psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark diagnosed Gregg with Bipolar 2 disorder and stated that the medication she was taking had worsened her mood swings that day
Image credits: COURT TV
The teen was “screaming out of her mind and scared” after firing the shots, her stepfather testified
Psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark, who conducted an evaluation on Gregg, diagnosed her with Bipolar 2 disorder. The teen’s medication to treat her mental health disorder had been switched from Zoloft to Lexapro a week before the incident, but Dr. Clark said she didn’t make the switch properly.
He further testified that the medication made her mood swings worse and that she was hearing voices the day of the shooting.
The teenager told him that her memory went blank during the attack, and she only remembers when the deputy picked her up.
Gregg’s attorneys are planning to plead insanity after twice refusing the state’s plea deal of 40 years in prison going into the trial, SuperTalk Mississippi reported.
"She needs help and then she can become a productive citizen," a Facebook user wrote
