15-year-old Carly Gregg was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of her mother, Ashley Smylie, and the attempted murder of her stepfather, Heath Smylie. The tragic events, which unfolded in March 2023, shocked the quiet Mississippi town where Carly lived, transforming what was once seen as the life of an ordinary teenager into a dark and deeply troubling case that laid bare the intersections of mental health struggles, drug use, and a broken family dynamic.
On that fateful day, Carly returned home from school as she had countless times before. Yet within minutes of her arrival, she did the unthinkable: taking a .357 Magnum, she shot her mother in cold blood, then texted a friend to come over, claiming there was an “emergency.” When the friend arrived, she was met with Carly asking, “Have you ever seen a dead body?”
As the trial unfolded, the prosecution meticulously pieced together the events leading up to the murder, painting a disturbing portrait of Carly’s descent into drug use and mental health issues, all of which had been hidden beneath a veneer of teenage normalcy. Burner phones, marijuana-laced vape pens, cheating in school, and self-harm were just the beginning of Carly’s troubled double life, a reality that her mother had only uncovered mere hours before the fatal confrontation. The prosecution argued that when Ashley Smylie discovered her daughter’s drug use, a confrontation ensued that ultimately escalated into deadly violence. In the midst of the chaos, Carly impersonated her mother, texting her stepfather as if nothing had happened, asking, “When will you be home honey?”
Heath Smylie, upon his return home that evening, was met not with the warmth of his family but with a bullet aimed squarely at him. Though wounded in the shoulder, he managed to subdue Carly before she could finish what she had started. The courtroom later heard how Heath, despite the life-altering trauma, maintained a relationship with Carly, speaking to her regularly from behind bars.
In its bid to spare Carly from a life sentence, the defense framed the teenager as a victim of her own unraveling mind, citing severe mood swings, auditory hallucinations, and a dissociative mental state that had only worsened in the days leading up to the murder. Psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark, who examined Carly, testified that her actions were not born of malice but of a child overwhelmed by mental health crises and a profound desperation for her mother’s approval. “This was a girl in crisis,” Dr. Clark told the court. “She loved her mother. What happened in that house was a result of mental illness.”
The defense further argued that Carly had recently been prescribed new medications, only a few days before the shooting, and that her condition had rapidly deteriorated under their influence. Carly, they contended, had become disconnected from reality in those crucial moments, unable to comprehend the gravity of her actions. Defense attorney Bridget Todd emphasized that Carly, despite her tragic actions, was not a bad person, but rather a child who had been suffering in silence for far too long.
However, the prosecution was unyielding in its portrayal of Carly as fully aware of her actions. Assistant District Attorney Michael Smith methodically presented evidence that demonstrated premeditation, including security footage from the Gregg home. The chilling footage showed Carly concealing the .357 Magnum behind her back as she walked through the house, moments before the gunshot rang out. The prosecutors underscored the fact that after the murder, Carly acted with calculated composure, texting her friend and stepfather, hiding the weapon behind her, and sitting calmly in the kitchen as if nothing had happened. To the prosecution, these actions left little doubt that Carly knew exactly what she was doing.
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman addressed the jury with a sobering reminder of the devastating loss suffered by those who loved Ashley Smylie. “She was a mother, a teacher, a wife,” Newman said. “And her life was ended by the very person she loved most in this world. Carly Madison Gregg knew what she was doing when she pulled that trigger.”
After just two hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict. Carly, who had maintained a stoic expression throughout much of the trial, broke down in tears as the reality of her life sentence without parole sank in. The courtroom was heavy with the weight of the tragedy, as Heath Smylie testified once more, this time recalling the moment his stepdaughter shot him and how, despite it all, he remained in contact with her. “She wasn’t herself,” he said. “I don’t believe she even recognized me that night.”
