Carly Gregg, a now 15-year-old who fatally shot her mom and attempted to kill her stepfather, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On March 19th, 2024 14-year-old Carly Gregg shot her mother Ashley Smylie. Ashley was a 40-year-old math teacher who worked at Northwest Rankin High School in Mississippi. She had worked at that district for 3 years and was loved and cherished by staff and students. 

The encounter was caught on surveillance and shown in court. The footage showed Gregg who had a very calm attitude walking around the house with a .357 magnum handgun behind her back. Although you couldn’t see the gun, the audio was heard in the video. The sound of 3 gunshots and what seemed to be her mom’s screams were heard. During the trial, Gregg’s District Attorney did not deny the fact that she had killed her mom but attempted to prove that she was suffering from a mental health disorder and did not remember the shooting.

She invited her friend over and asked “Have you ever seen a dead body?” before showing them her mother dead on the floor. Nearly an hour after killing her mom Carly then lured her stepdad Heath Smylie home. She texted him pretending to be her mom saying “When will you be home honey.” When he arrived home she then shot him in the shoulder. Footage from the garage shows her running away after she shot him and they had a struggle over the gun. Carly was found guilty on all counts and charged as an adult with murder and aggravated assault as well as tampering with evidence. In the closing statement, State Attorney Michael Smith said Carly “knew the difference between right and wrong.”

“We would ask that you go back there and find her guilty of all three because she was not insane at the time that this happened. She knew exactly what she was doing and the difference between right and wrong.”