A 15-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in jail with out parole after she murdered her mom after which invited a buddy over to see the physique.
Carly Madison Gregg was sentenced on Friday in Rankin County, Mississippi for the deadly capturing of her mother, Ashley Smylie, the tried homicide of her stepfather, and tampering with proof.
In March, Gregg entered her mom’s bed room and shot her, then texted her stepfather, Heath Smylie, to come back dwelling. When he arrived, she shot him, grazing his shoulder.
The jury deliberated for 2 hours over the decision and for a 3rd hour over sentencing. Prosecutor Kathryn Newman argued the sentence was acceptable as a result of Gregg has proven “zero regret.”
“She knew what she did,” Newman stated in court docket, in keeping with the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.
The life sentence will run concurrently with a 10-year sentence for proof tampering.
Gregg beforehand turned down a plea deal provide to serve 40 years behind bars.
The teenager damaged down in tears with the decision and sentence was learn. Members of the family within the courtroom reportedly supplied phrases of encouragement.
Protection lawyer Kevin Camp instructed jurors {that a} life sentence would “make this worse on the household”. He argued at trial that the capturing occured when Gregg was 14 and within the midst of a psychological well being disaster.
Gregg plans to enchantment, WAPT experiences.
“Lengthy week, unhappy day. Carly Gregg is evil. That’s not simple to say, however the fact of the matter is usually evil is available in younger packages, small packages — and that is a kind of circumstances,” Bubba Bramlett, district lawyer for Rankin and Madison counties, stated after the decision.
“She’s fixing to go to jail for the remainder of her life. You hate that; she’s 15 years previous, however that’s precisely the place she belongs.”
Throughout the trial, Gregg’s stepfather described her as a “candy little woman”, and described returning dwelling to seek out her in an obvious state of psychological misery.
“She was screaming out of her thoughts scared,” Heath Smylie stated. “It was like she had seen a demon or one thing, and my first thought was, there was an intruder someplace, and he or she thought she was after someone else.”
Smylie instructed the court docket he and his stepdaughter speak almost daily.
“I believe we’re good. We speak nearly daily now. I don’t all the time get off work in time to catch her on a cellphone name, however we textual content some backwards and forwards over the app that’s allowed, and we speak over the video chat factor that’s allowed by way of the jail on weekends,” he stated. “We’re good.”
He stated he believed the teenager didn’t acknowledge him through the capturing.
“I nonetheless to at the present time don’t even assume she acknowledged me,” he stated. “One thing was off.”
Jurors noticed surveillance video of Gregg with a gun behind her again strolling into her mom’s bed room, the place the sound of pictures and screams could possibly be heard. The teenager hid the footage after the capturing, in keeping with prosecutors.
After the capturing, Gregg invited a buddy over to see the physique. “Are you squeamish round lifeless our bodies?” the buddy, recognized in court docket paperwork as B.W. as a result of their minor standing, remembers Gregg asking.
The capturing occured after a buddy had instructed Gregg’s mother and father that she was utilizing marijuana.
A lot of the trial revolved round assessing the teenager’s psychological state on the time of the capturing, and her attorneys argued an madness protection.
Dr. Andrew Clark, a baby psychologist, testified that Gregg had lengthy suffered with melancholy and anxiousness, and had a worsened psychological state after her sister died when she was 4. Gregg appeared to have signs in line with post-traumatic stress dysfunction and had beforehand engaged in self-harm, Dr Clark stated.
He learn jurors a March 12 journal entry, every week earlier than the capturing, the place the teenager described having what she stated was a “psychotic break” the place she “truly spoke with one of many voices in my head.”
Witnesses for the prosecution testified that Gregg was competent to face trial, and hadn’t indicated listening to voices in psychological well being check-ups as just lately as January 2024.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jason Pickett stated that Gregg didn’t meet the authorized commonplace of madness, and cited a February textual content message the place Gregg instructed a buddy: “You don’t perceive how (expletive) psycho I used to be that day, I nearly murdered my mother and father.”
Pickett stated: “My opinion is that Carly doesn’t meet Mississippi’s commonplace for madness on the time of the offense and that she knew the character, high quality and wrongfulness of her actions throughout that day.”