Carly Gregg, aged 14, faced trial for murder earlier this year, after she killed her mum, Ashley Smylie, with her own gun as she searched Carly’s bedroom for drugs
At the start of this year, 14 year old Carly Gregg made some changes to her appearance. She started to wear more black clothes and cut her long hair into a short bob with a fringe. These changes didn’t raise any concerns. All teenagers experiment with their style and no one could have predicted what she was about to do with the gun that was tucked under her mother’s bed.
Gregg lived in Brandon, Mississippi, with her mum Ashley Smylie and her stepfather, Heath Smylie, 39. Ashley, 40, was a maths teacher at her daughter’s school, Northwest Rankin High School. Gregg had been recognised as an intelligent student, but she was struggling with some mental health issues, so she had attended nine weeks of sessions with a therapist. She had been put on anxiety and depression medications. Gregg mostly talked about school but admitted she was smoking marijuana and expressed concern that her mum might find out.
On 19 March 2024, Ashley and her daughter left for school together as usual. Heath went to his work as a physical therapist, less than five minutes from the house. At school, a student told Ashley that her daughter had been smoking marijuana. When Ashley and Gregg returned home just before 4pm, Heath wasn’t back yet.
Ashley started to search Gregg’s room and found vape pens. Security cameras in the home recorded while holding something behind her back. She had gone to her mum’s bedroom and found the family’s handgun under Ashley’s side of the bed. Gregg then went into her bedroom and confronted her mum. The security camera recorded the gunshots and Ashley’s screams as her daughter shot her three times – twice in the head and once close-up under the chin.
Gregg went to the kitchen, where the cameras recorded her calmly taking a seat on a stool, with the two family dogs walking around near her. At around 4.15pm, she casually picked up her mum’s mobile phone off the counter and used it to send a text to her stepdad, saying, “When will you be home, honey?” It was slightly unusual wording, but Heath didn’t suspect anything was wrong.
Just after 5pm, Heath returned home. As soon as he walked into the kitchen Gregg pulled the trigger, hitting Heath on the shoulder. He was heard shouting, “Stop it, Carly!” on the video footage. Heath wrestled Gregg for the gun and when he managed to overpower her, she fled. As Heath called 911, he discovered his wife’s body and cried in disbelief to the dispatcher, “She killed her mum!”
He also cried out, “She tried to shoot me!” and added, “God, why?” The police found Gregg shortly afterwards in a nearby field and took her into custody. She tested positive for marijuana. There was no denying what Gregg had done. Officers discovered that before Heath had returned home, she had messaged a friend saying there was an emergency. When the friend arrived, Gregg asked if they’d ever seen a dead body before. She then revealed her mum’s body on the floor with three wounds to her head. Gregg had put a bloody towel over her face.
Gregg was charged with murder, attempted murder and evidence tampering, in connection to hiding a security camera in the fridge after the shootings to try to damage the footage. Her bond was set at $1 million and Gregg was told she would be tried as an adult. She was offered a plea deal of 40 years, but her defence team turned it down to pursue a defence of insanity.
The case was shocking and during the trial in September, Gregg, now 15, caused outrage by smirking and giggling in court during proceedings. She was periodically childlike, covering her ears when there were things she didn’t want to hear. The prosecution said Gregg had killed her mum after she had found out about Gregg’s “secret” life of smoking drugs. After shooting Ashley, Gregg had “baited” her stepdad and lured him back home, so she could shoot him too. She had even messaged a friend so she could show them her mum’s body.
The court watched chilling footage of Gregg walking around the kitchen wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, hiding the gun behind her back. They heard Ashley’s screams and the gunshots. Afterwards, Gregg sits with the dogs like nothing has happened. The prosecution shared content from Gregg’s journal which outlined five “beliefs” she held. They included, “There is no God”, “Heaven and hell are false” and “writing your own destiny”. The final two read, “You don’t need family” and ”It’s OK to be evil”.
Gregg’s defence team said she had “blacked out” during the attack. She was on drugs for mood disorders and was experiencing a mental health crisis due to a bipolar disorder. Gregg’s stepfather took the stand and described her as being a “sweet little girl”, but said she was very different that fateful day. He said Gregg had looked like she had “seen a demon” when she attacked him and, at first, he thought there was an intruder in the house and Gregg was defending herself.
“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,” he said. “I’d never seen anybody like that, even in movies – she was not herself and I do not believe she even recognised me.” Heath said he still talks to Gregg daily on the phone. While the defence talked about Gregg hearing voices and having side effects to her medication, her therapist noted that Gregg hadn’t raised those issues in her sessions and other experts disputed the claims.
The prosecution told the court that Gregg was not insane at the time of the killings. She had lured in a second victim and had tried to destroy evidence to get away with it. “She knew exactly what she was doing and she knew the difference between right and wrong,” they said. The jury found Gregg guilty of all charges and she was sentenced to life in prison. She received two life sentences to run concurrently for the murder of Ashley and attempted murder of Heath and 10 years for tampering with evidence. Gregg was visibly upset as she was comforted by her legal team.
It’s unclear what made a teenager with no history of violence murder her mum and attempt to kill her stepdad. The extreme brutality of that day is hard to believe when the camera footage is examined. Gregg calmly walks around the family home where she shed so much blood that day. She now faces living the rest of her life behind bars.
