E-Paper
Carly Gregg: Teen killer gets life in prison for fatally shooting mom, injuring stepdad
The 15-year-old sobbed in court as she received her lifetime imprisonment verdict without the possibility of parole for killing her mother
Teen killer Carly Gregg has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting her own mother and wounding her stepfather. The 15-year-old was found guilty on all charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence on Friday. The juvenile murderer sobbed in court as she received her lifetime imprisonment verdict without the possibility of parole for killing her mother and 30 years on other charges.
Carly Gregg sentenced to life in prison for fatal shooting of mom
The jurors reached the verdict two hours after watching the chilling surveillance footage that showed the Mississippi teen in her Brandon home clutching a gun behind her back just minutes before she gunned down her mother, Ashley Smylie, 40, a math teacher at Northwest Rankin High School.
Gregg, who was 14 at the time of the shootings, can be seen storming into her mother's room in the surveillance footage. Moments later, three shots followed by a scream can be heard. She was also charged with attempted murder of her stepfather, Heath Smylie, whom she tried to lure into the house by sending him text messages from her mother's phone.
“When will you be home honey?” one of Gregg's texts to Heath read. As soon as he arrived home, she shot him in the shoulder. However, her wounded stepfather was able to wrestle the firearm away from her. The harrowing incident came just hours after her parents found out about her “secret life” that involved the usage of drugs like marijuana.
Gregg's lawyers argued an insanity defence, with a psychiatrist backing their claim that she was having a mental crisis on the day of the shootings. Dr. Andrew Clark explained that she was hearing voices and experiencing dissociation. “And then, her mother finds out she’s smoking marijuana,” Clark said during his testimony.
“For Carly, in particular, she so cared about her mother’s approval, so for her, this was a crisis,” the psychiatrist added. Meanwhile, her stepfather also testified on her behalf, saying that “she wasn't herself that day,” according to Daily Beast. Calling her a “sweet little girl,” Heath said, “I do not believe she even recognized me,” adding that they still talk every day.
