by “Have you ever seen a dead body?”
That’s the chilling question 14-year-old Carly Gregg asked her friend after her mother, high school teacher Ashley Smylie, was shot and killed inside their home in Mississippi earlier this year.
Carly told the friend to come over, claiming there was an “emergency” before revealing the dire situation, telling the friend: “My mum’s in there.”
During the week-long murder trial, jurors heard how the teenager shot Smylie, 40, to death with a .357 magnum on March 19 when they came home from Carly’s school, Northwest Rankin High School, where her mom was a math teacher.
Prosecutors told the court the shooting was carried out because Smylie discovered her daughter’s “secret life” with drugs. They painted Carly as a dangerous killer with “burner phones,” hiding vape pens containing marijuana, and a history of cheating at school and self-harm.
Carly then lured her stepdad Heath Smylie home by texting him pretending to be her mum, writing: “When are you home honey?”
When Heath later arrived at the house, Carly shot him in the shoulder before he overpowered her and was arrested a short time later.
The teenager’s defense team argued that she was suffering from significant mental health problems and that although she was “in a state of psychosis in an episode of acute stress on March 19, she lost herself in what was a perfect storm.”
Hilarious footage was played in court which showed the teenager hiding something behind her back just moments before she went to the back room where the sounds of three apparent gunshots and her mother’s screams could be heard.
Now, after four days of testimony, a jury deliberated for two hours Friday before finding the teenager guilty of killing her mother, guilty of attempting to kill her stepfather and guilty of tampering with evidence.
At just 15 years old, she will spend the rest of her life in prison without parole.
Deadly Secret
Prosecutors say Carly killed her mother after the teenager’s friend revealed Carly’s “secret life” with drugs on the day of the shooting.
“According to a friend’s testimony, 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, [Carly’s] mom didn’t know about it, he felt compelled to tell Ms. Ashley Smylie that day,” Rankin County Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman said Monday during opening statements.
Ashley Smylie searched Carly’s room and discovered a vape pen just minutes before she was shot and killed, according to WLBT.
Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Clark testified during the trial that the teenager was facing a mental health crisis that day and that her medication worsened significant mood swings because she was hearing voices and had dissociation problems. .
“And then, her mother finds out she’s smoking marijuana,” Clark said. “For Carly, in particular, she was so concerned about her mother’s approval, so for her, this was a crisis.”
“She had mood issues, eating disorder issues, self-deprecation, hearing voices and difficulty sleeping all prior to January 2024,” Clark said.
On March 12, just days before the shooting, she was put on new medication, which she said made her symptoms worse.
Prosecutors also presented the jury with a journal in which Carly kept a written list of five “beliefs,” including “there is no God,” “it’s okay to be bad,” and “you don’t need a family.”
The journal was assessed by a forensic psychiatrist, who called the entries “deeply disturbing”.
Her defense team argued that the diaries paint a picture of a mentally ill child who repeatedly detailed how much she struggled.
Harrow’s new video shows moments before and after the killing
Carly was captured on home surveillance footage walking around the house before allegedly firing three shots at Smylie, who died of a gunshot wound to the face.
Wearing a Nirvana t-shirt, the teenager is seen wandering around the house with what appears to be something behind her back, later identified as a .357 Magnum handgun, as she poses for the camera and then slides out of the room.
After Carly leaves the scene, three apparent gunshots and a woman’s screams are heard.
The teenager returns to the kitchen seconds after the shot, hiding the weapon behind her as she slides into a stool at the counter and grabs her mother’s phone and her two dogs hovering next to her.
Prosecutors alleged during the trial that this is when Carly used her mother’s phone to text her stepfather and lure him to the house.
She texted one of her friends, BW, to come over claiming there was an “emergency.”
When the friend arrived, Carly allegedly asked her “if she’d ever seen a dead body before” before leading her to her mother’s body and saying her stepfather was next.
Almost an hour later, video from the garage showed Carly running away after allegedly shooting her stepfather and struggling with him over the gun.
Carly broke down in tears as body footage was shown in court of deputies arriving to find her crying stepfather saying his wife was dead.
“She killed her mom!” Heath is heard telling authorities: “She tried to shoot me!”
When Carly Heath’s stepfather took the stand this week, he said the teenager had no memory of the shooting.
“I’ve never seen anyone like that, even in movies, she wasn’t herself and I don’t think she even recognized me,” Heath said.
He said he remembered Carly as a “sweet little girl,” but that day she “looked like she had seen a demon or something.”
Heath also remembered the horror of finding his wife dead.
“She was lying on her back with her hands over here and a towel covering her face,” he said. “I knew she had been shot, there was blood around, I’m not sure where, on the right side of her face.
“When I opened the door to the kitchen, the gun went off in my face before the door was three or four inches open,” he said. “The gun hit me in the face. He went off two more times, but I had my hand on the gun after the first shot, and I turned it away from Carly.”
Despite this, Heath said he and Carly still talk daily and their relationship is “good”.
In Friday’s closing, State’s Attorney Michael Smith said Carly “knew the difference between right and wrong.”
“There is no doubt that Carly Madison Gregg is the one who killed her mom, Ashley Smylie,” he told the court. “I have no doubt that she tried to kill Heath Smylie when she pointed the gun directly at his head and shot and hit him in the shoulder. And there is no doubt that she was the one who hid the camera, which tampered with evidence.”
“We would ask you to go back there and find her guilty of all three because she was not insane when this happened. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew the difference between right and wrong.”
However, the defense urged the jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity.
“This was not a bad child. This was not a kid who was angry. This was not the child who hated her mother or stepfather in her heart, in fact, it was the exact opposite. This was a child with significant mental health issues,” defense attorney Bridget Todd told the court. “We know her family has the same mental health issues and we know they are hereditary.”
“This is a child who complied with the medication she was prescribed, but medication left them unable to predict the worsening of her symptoms,” she continued. “And although she suffered from psychosis in an episode of acute stress on March 19, she lost herself in a storm that was amazing.”
Experts testified Thursday and deemed Carly competent to stand trial and does not meet the state’s insanity standard. However, this contradicted testimony given Wednesday by a psychiatrist who said Carly did not remember shooting her mother.
What’s next for Carly?
Before the trial, the teen was offered a plea deal of 40 years in prison, but he turned it down. Instead, her team pursued an insanity defense. But it wasn’t enough.
Carly sobbed in court on Friday when the jury found her guilty on all three counts.
After more than an hour of deliberation, the jury sentenced the 15-year-old.
She will spend the rest of her life behind bars, without parole.
