14-year-old Carly Gregg sentenced to life in prison without parole for the fact that shot her mother in their Mississippi home, and then attempted to shoot her stepfather, hitting him in the shoulder, but he was able to immobilize the killer.
Carly has appeared in court charged with the murder of her mother, 40-year-old maths teacher Ashley Smiley, and the attempted murder of her stepfather, Heath Smiley.whom she shot with a .357 magnum pistol on March 19. The Independent reports, Then 14-year-old Carly shot and killed her mother because she discovered her daughter's “secret” drug use. In particular, Carly Gregg was shown in court to own several phones and a marijuana vape pen.
However, the court also pointed to a number of mental health issues with the girl, who was repeatedly caught cheating at school and often engaged in self-harm.
As for the attempted murder of her stepfather, Carly lured him home by sending a text message from her mother's cell phone saying: “When are you coming home, darling?” She then shot Heath Smiley in the shoulder and tried to escape, but was arrested shortly after. The teenager's defense team argued that she had serious mental health issues and was in “a state of psychosis in an episode of great stress during which she lost herself.”
Video footage was played in court showing the teenager hiding something behind her back moments before she walked into a back bedroom where the sounds of three gunshots and her mother's screams could be heard.
During her arrest, Carly was calm and even smiled during interrogation. It only dawned on her the next day what she had done…
After four days of testimony, jurors deliberated for two hours Friday and found the teenager guilty of murdering her mother, attempting to murder her stepfather and tampering with evidence. At 15, she will spend the rest of her life in prison without parole. The girl burst into tears not from remorse, but when she heard the unanimous verdict of the jury: GUILTY!
Prosecutors say that Carly killed her mother after a friend, concerned about the girl's frequent marijuana use and her “secret” phones, revealed to her mother what she knew about the situation. The girl's friend reportedly spoke to Ashley Smile on the day she was killed and allegedly found a vape pen in Carly's belongings.
Psychiatrist Andrew Clarke, who testified at the trial, said the teenager was going through a mental health crisis that day and that her significant mood swings were made worse by her medication as she heard voices and had problems with dissociation.
«Carly cared a lot about her mother's approval, so this was a crisis for her,” Clarke said, commenting on the impact of his mother's discovery on the teenager. «She had mood issues, an eating disorder, she was cutting herself, hearing voices and having trouble sleeping – all before January 2024,” added He. On March 12, days before the shooting, she was given a new medication that he said made her symptoms worse.
Prosecutors also presented jurors with a diary in which Carly kept a written list of five “beliefs” including “there is no God,” “it's okay to be bad,” and “family is not necessary.” The diary was examined by a forensic psychiatrist, who described the entries as “extremely disturbing.” Her defenders argued the diaries paint a picture of a mentally ill child who repeatedly described how hard he was fighting inside to survive.
Police say Greg had previously texted one of her friends asking her to come home because “emergency situation”. When she arrived, the teenager allegedly asked her “had she ever seen a corpse before?” and led her to her mother's body.
The stepfather, in turn, stated in his testimony that Greg had once been “a sweet little girl”but that day it looked like “I saw a demon.”
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