Law&Crime
Security video shows the teen walk past the camera with her hands behind her back, before a shot, scream and two more shots are heard; she then invited a friend over and allegedly asked, "Have you ever seen a dead body?" -- before attempting to kill her stepdad.
As the trial for a 15-year-old Mississippi girl accused of murdering her own mother continues, chilling video has been revealed showing the teen's behavior before and after what prosecutors say were the fatal gunshots which claimed her mom's life.
Carly Gregg of Brandon, MS was 14 when the March 2024 shooting went down earlier this year. Her mother, Ashley Smylie, was killed -- before her stepfather, Heath Smylie, was also shot at before Gregg allegedly ran from the scene.
According to assistant district attorney Kathryn Newman, one of the teen's friends was "so worried about Carly's use of smoking marijuana," and the girl using burner phones, "that he felt compelled to tell Miss Ashley Smylie that day." Smylie was a teacher at Northwest Rankin High School, where her daughter was a student.
Per prosecutors, Smylie began searching her daughter's room when they returned home from school that day and found vape pens. According to Newman, that's when the teen went into her parents' bedroom and grabbed a Magnum pistol from beneath the mattress.
Security video, meanwhile, appears to show Gregg walk from her parents' room to her own bedroom -- hiding something, believed to be the gun, behind her back. Audio then catches what sounds like a gunshot, followed by a scream and two more gunshots. Gregg is then seen going into the kitchen, where she immediately begins using a phone while also singing to the family dogs.
According to prosecutors, the teen's stepfather began receiving messages from Ashley's phone, asking, "When will you be home, honey?" -- alleging Gregg is the one who sent those messages. The teen is also accused of reaching out to a number of friends, asking for help. One of them did respond to her pleas, and was allegedly asked if "she had ever seen a dead body before," as well as whether the friend was "squeamish around dead bodies?"
Per prosecutors, Gregg then showed the witness the victim's body -- and claimed her stepfather was next -- saying, "I put three in my mom and I got three more waiting for my stepdad when he gets home." The friend allegedly was told to wait in the backyard, before she heard gunshots and saw Gregg running.
When Heath Smylie took the stand on Tuesday, he testified that when he opened the door to the kitchen of the home, "the gun went off in my face before the door was even 3 to 4 inches wide open, and everything kind of went pretty fast from there."
"The gun flashed in my face. It went off two more times, but my hand was on the gun after the first shot, and I twisted it from Carly," he claimed.
Video from another camera shows him arriving home, before screaming from inside the house can be heard, including him shouting, "Carly!" Gregg is then seen running from the home, with Heath on her tail. "It looked like she was terrified ... she was screaming out of her mind, scared, like she had seen a demon, or something," he testified.
Gregg was apprehended after Heath called 9-1-1, with dramatic bodycam footage showing the chaos when first responders arrived on the scene. She was seen crying in the courtroom as the video played.
The teen was charged as an adult with murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence. She reportedly rejected a 40-year prison sentence plea deal, with her defense team pleading insanity. In court on Tuesday, one of her friends reportedly testified Gregg heard voices in her head both before and after her arrest.
The trial is ongoing.
