A teenage girl, accused of fatally shooting her mother and attempting to kill her stepfather, was captured on video calmly using her phone just moments after the gunshots. The chilling footage was shown to the court as part of Carly Gregg’s murder trial in Mississippi.
The girl, now 15, was only 14 when the incident occurred on March 19. Prosecutors allege she shot her mother, Ashley Smylie, in their home. Despite being offered a 40-year plea deal, Gregg’s legal team is pursuing an insanity defense.
In the courtroom, a video played, showing Gregg walking into the kitchen wearing a Nirvana t-shirt, pacing back and forth in the hallway. At one point, she briefly disappeared off camera, holding something behind her back before returning and peering into the kitchen.
Video footage of shooting from ongoing trial (Warning: Graphic)
Shortly after, Gregg walked out of the camera’s view again. It was then that three gunshots were heard. After the first shot, a woman’s scream pierced the silence, but soon, the room fell quiet.
Soon after, Gregg reappeared on camera, casually sitting on a stool by the kitchen bench and texting on her phone while her two dogs were in the room.
Her mother, 40-year-old Ashley Smylie, a math teacher, had been shot in the face. Prosecutors claim Gregg then used her mother’s phone to send a message to her stepfather, Heath, in an attempt to lure him home. The message read: “When will you be home honey?”
When Heath returned home, police allege Gregg fired at him, hitting him in the shoulder. According to testimony, Heath managed to wrestle the gun away from Gregg before she could fire again, and she fled the scene.
Authorities say that while fleeing, Gregg texted a friend, referred to in court as B.W., urging them to come to the house due to an “emergency.” When the friend arrived, Gregg allegedly asked if they had ever seen a dead body before, leading them to her mother’s body.
Heath, testifying in court, described the horrific moment he found his wife’s lifeless body. “I knew she had been shot, there was blood… it was on the right side of her face,” he said. He recalled how Gregg, once a “sweet little girl,” appeared dramatically different that day, claiming she “looked like she had seen a demon.”
He also recounted the moment he came face-to-face with Gregg and how she fired at him. “When I opened the kitchen door, the gun went off in my face before the door was even fully open,” he said. He described grabbing the gun after the first shot and managing to twist it out of her hands.
During the trial, psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark testified that Gregg may have “blacked out” for up to 90 minutes during the alleged events. However, he acknowledged that someone in her situation could have the motive to fake a mental illness.
Dr. Clark also revealed that Gregg had reported experiencing “auditory hallucinations” for years, though the voices had never commanded her to act. Gregg confided that she had begun smoking marijuana several times a week and was worried her mother would find out. It was noted that she had smoked marijuana up until the day before the incident. Additionally, she had been prescribed Lexapro and Zoloft, medications for mood disorders.
Gregg now faces charges of murder, attempted murder, and evidence tampering. If convicted, she could receive a life sentence.
