A Mississippi teen who sat in her kitchen alongside her two dogs moments after she allegedly killed her mother is accused of texting her friend that she had an “emergency” and trying to lure her stepfather back to the home.
Carly Gregg, 15, is accused of murdering her mom, high school teacher Ashley Smylie, inside their Brandon, Miss., home March 19 when Smylie discovered her daughter’s “secret life.”
Gregg, wearing a Nirvana band shirt, awkwardly shuffled around the house holding something behind her back, later identified as a .357 Magnum handgun, and facing the camera so it could not detect the weapon, according to footage shown in a Rankin County courtroom on Tuesday.
The teen walked across the house and disappeared behind a wall into her mother’s bedroom when a loud bang, presumably a gunshot, goes off and Smylie’s scream is detected by the camera, footage obtained by Law & Crime showed.
Two more shots were fired.
Gregg returned to the kitchen 10 seconds after the alleged shooting, again hiding the weapon, as she grabbed her mother’s phone off the counter and sat on a stool as the two dogs stood beside her.
Prosecutors allege that Gregg was trying to lure her stepfather, Heath Smylie, back to the home.
“When will you be home honey?” a text message read, according to the outlet.
When Heath Smylie returned to the house, Gregg shot him in the shoulder, before the stepfather overpowered the teen and wrested the gun from her.
The mom and daughter had just returned home from school when the teen let the dogs out as Ashley Smylie searched Gregg’s room and discovered vape pens, according to WLBT.
The Northwest Rankin High School math teacher was tipped off earlier in the day that Gregg had been using drugs.
The then-14-year-old was captured on home surveillance cameras walking around the house before allegedly firing three shots at Smylie.
Prosecutors accuse the teen of killing her mom because a friend had told her about Gregg’s “secret life” with drugs, on the day of the shooting.
“From the testimony of a friend, 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, that [Carly’s] mom didn’t know about, that he felt compelled to tell Miss Ashley Smylie that day,” Rankin County Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman said Monday.
Gregg allegedly texted a friend asking him to come over, claiming there was an “emergency” before revealing the horrifying situation.
“Have you ever seen a dead body? My mom is in there,” the friend claimed Gregg asked her, according to WLBT.
Ashley Smylie, 40, was pronounced dead from a gunshot to the face.
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Gregg broke down in tears on Monday when the courtroom was shown bodycam footage from the sheriff’s office arriving at the home and discovering a crying Heath Smylie saying his wife was dead inside.
Psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark testified that the teen was facing a mental health crisis that day, having significant mood swings made worse by her medications as she was hearing voices and having dissociative problems.
“And then, her mother finds out she’s smoking marijuana,” Clark said in court, according to WAPT. “For Carly, in particular, she so cared about her mother’s approval, so for her, this was a crisis.”
Clark and Heath Smylie both said in court that Gregg had no recollection of the shooting.
“I never seen anybody like that, even in movies, she was not herself and I do not believe she even recognized me,” Smylie said during his stepdaughter’s trial.
He added that he and Gregg still talk daily and their relationship is “good.”
Gregg has been charged with murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence.
She turned down a plea deal and faces up to life in prison for the murder charge, plus 30 years to life for the other charges if found guilty.
