A Mississippi teenager lured her stepfather home to be shot after killing her mother and impersonating her in text messages, prosecutors alleged in the opening statements of a murder trial on Monday.
The New York Post reported Carly Gregg, 15, allegedly texted her stepfather, “When will you be home honey,” moments after she arrived home from school with her mother, Ashley Smylie, and shot her to death with a .357 magnum. Smylie, 40, was a math teacher at Gregg’s school, Northwest Rankin High School.
Gregg was charged with murder, attempted murder, and tampering with evidence, and she was caught on home surveillance cameras pacing around her house moments after allegedly hitting her mother with three shots.
When her stepfather Heath Smylie arrived home, Gregg shot him in the shoulder before he managed to wrestle the gun away from her.
“We believe the testimony will show that she peeks her head around the kitchen to make sure that her mom hasn’t come out of her bedroom,” assistant district attorney Kathryn Newman told a Rankin County jury. “We believe the evidence will then show that she walked with that .357 magnum behind her back, walked into her own bedroom, and then fired three shots into her mother, killing her.”
Prosecutors said that Gregg’s mother had recently found out about her “secret life.” A friend of Gregg’s told her that she had been using drugs and getting high on marijuana. WLBT reported that Ashley found vape pens in Gregg’s room when they got back home from school.
Video footage captured two dogs running in a state of panic in the kitchen before Gregg returns in the frame, hiding the gun from surveillance camera, and picks up a phone. Her mother was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering a gunshot to her face.
Police body camera footage from the sheriff’s office which was also shown in court proceedings, showed Gregg reportedly breaking down in tears upon seeing cops arrive to discover her mother dead.
Gregg also texted a friend asking him to come over for an “emergency,” prosecutors alleged.
“Have you ever seen a dead body? My mom is in there,” Gregg reportedly told the friend.
Psychiatrist Andrew Clark, who provided a court testimony, said that the teen had a mental health crisis and was hearing voices.
“For Carly, in particular, she so cared about her mother’s approval, so for her, this was a crisis,” Clark said in court. He added that Gregg had lost all memory of the shooting.
Her stepfather Heath said he still had a “good” relationship with Gregg.
“I never seen anybody like that, even in movies, she was not herself, and I do not believe she even recognized me,” her stepfather said in court, according to WLBT.
Gregg could spend the rest of her life in prison for the murder if she is found guilty.
