Attorneys for a Mississippi teen convicted of killing her math teacher mother are seeking a new trial or alternative judgement following her conviction for first-degree murder.
According to court documents filed Thursday, 15-year-old Carly Gregg’s attorneys stated that her father, Kevin Gregg, gave an interview to WBLT 3, claiming that she was in equestrian therapy when she was younger, to help with auditory hallucinations.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a Rankin County judge gave Gregg two life sentences and an additional 10 years for hiding a security camera inside her home after the shooting. A judge ordered the sentences will run concurrently.
Gregg, who was 14 when she shot and killer her mother, Ashley Smylie, and shot and injured her stepfather, Heath Smylie, on March 19, previously rejected a plea deal that would have seen her serving 40 years in prison.
”I love Carly,” Kevin Gregg said, “And I would love to have tried to help her the best I could. I kept screaming in my head, you know, Why couldn’t you just have called me?”
According to the motion, the information emerged after Kevin Gregg “refused to cooperate in Carly’s defense, refused to talk to the State, refused to talk to the mental health professionals evaluating Carly and refused to come to any pretrial hearings or a single day of Carly’s criminal trial.”
However, his comment about his daughter having auditory hallucinations coincided with statements made by psychiatrist Andrew Clark, who took the stand during the trial for the defense.
Clark testified that Gregg had a mental health crisis and didn’t remember shooting her mother. Clark said Gregg likely “blacked out” for over an hour on the day in question.
Gregg also allegedly admitted to using marijuana up until the day before the shooting, while taking prescribed medications, Lexapro and Zoloft, for mood disorders.
“‘She was having mood issues, eating disorder issues, cutting herself, hearing voices and sleeping difficulty all leading up to January of 2024,” Clark testified.
Clark added that Smylie confronted the teen about her marijuana use on the day she was killed, adding that Gregg began using marijuana six weeks before the shooting and had difficulties adjusting to new medications.
‘And then, her mother finds out she’s smoking marijuana, For Carly, in particular, she so cared about her mother’s approval, so for her, this was a crisis,” Clark continued.
When asked if he thought Gregg understood the impact of her actions, Clark said, “I don’t think so,” the Clarion Ledger reports.
Clark then read to the court a journal entry from Gregg, written a week before the shooting.
“I think I had a psychotic break earlier. The whole ordeal is quite silly. I actually spoke with one of the voices in my head. Well, I didn’t hear them until earlier today, but I only do then. My particular friend and I were practically screaming bloodthirstily and ravenously. Thank God — physical confrontation was not possible. I sound crazy.”
The motion also challenged a statement made by Dr. Rebecca Kirk, Carly’s former counselor and a prosecution witness. Prosecutors questioned Kirk about her notes, highlighting Carly’s interest in reading Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”
Todd argued that the book was irrelevant to the case and was only mentioned to sway the jury.
Read the full motion below.
Carly Gregg Alt Judgement o… by
During the trial, Mississippi state prosecutor Kathryn White Newman said that after Gregg killed her mother, she messaged a friend to come over for an “emergency.”
“Are you squeamish around dead bodies?” Gregg asked the friend, then led her to her mother’s body, who had died on a bedroom floor after being shot three times.
Rankin County investigator Zachary Cotton told the court Tuesday that Gregg told her friend that there were three shots, “two for the head, one for the chest.”
Gregg then used her mother’s phone to lure Heath to the house, pretending to be her mother, the prosecution said. She then allegedly shot him, as Heath fought back and grabbed the gun.
Police tracked the teen by helicopter and arrested her shortly after.
As of Monday, a court hearing date has not been scheduled for the motion, COURT TV reports.
Check back for updates.
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[Featured image: Carly Gregg/Instagram; Ashley Smylie/Rankin County School District]
