Carly Gregg, 15, is discovered GUILTY of murdering her mother in Mississippi
Carly Gregg has been found guilty of murdering her mom and trying to kill her stepdad.
The 15-year-old sobbed as the verdict was handed down by the jury on Friday, just two hours after they broke for deliberation.
She earlier rejected a 40-year plea deal offered by Mississippi state prosecutors after they charged her with shooting dead her mom, Ashley, inside their home on March 19.
Her legal team attempted to argue that she was not guilty due to insanity.
The jury deliberated for just 30 minutes on whether she should spend the rest of her life behind bars, without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutor Katherine Newman said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen she is dangerous. She may look like a little girl, they may have said she is sweet little Carly, but unfortunatley that is not true.
‘We ask you sentence Ms Gregg to life in prison without the possibility of parole.’
Gregg’s legal team attempted to argue that she was not guilty due to insanity
The 15-year-old sobbed as the verdict was handed down by the jury on Friday, just two hours after they broke for deliberation
Gregg sobbed as the verdict was handed down
Gregg was comforted by her lawyer as she burst into tears when the verdict was handed down
The court heard Gregg, then 14, kept a journal in which she wrote five ‘beliefs’ she held, including: ‘there is no God’, ‘heaven and hell are false’ and ‘writing your own destiny’
Ms Newman told the jury that it was ‘scarier’ for her to ‘not know why’ Gregg committed the crimes, noting that ‘if we don’t know why, what’s to say it won’t happen again?’
Gregg sobbed as Ms Newman posed that question, shaking her head and mouthing the word ‘no.’
Earlier, her lawyer was seen comforting her and telling her ‘it’s going to be okay’, to which she responded ‘no, it’s not.’
The court heard Gregg, then 14, kept a journal in which she wrote five ‘beliefs’ she held, including: ‘there is no God’, ‘heaven and hell are false’ and ‘writing your own destiny.’
Ms Newman on Friday drew the jury’s attention to the final two ‘beliefs’ Gregg had listed in her journal.
‘These two stand out to me ladies and gentlemen, she told us what her intent was,’ Newman said, holding a piece of paper as she read the final notes.
‘You don’t need family, and it’s okay to be evil.’
When audio was played of her stepdad’s frantic call to police after he was shot, Gregg covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes closed
The defense said in closing arguments it was undisputed across five days of the trial that Carly Gregg loved her mom (pictured together)
Gregg was visibly shaken by the verdict on Friday
Elsewhere in the journal, Gregg wrote: ‘I choose fire. It is powerful, beautiful and deadly. These are the traits I desire, so I choose fire.’
Gregg’s defense argued that the journals paint a picture of a mentally unwell child who had repeatedly detailed just how much she was struggling.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jason Pickett told the jury he had a different reading of the journals in a key expert testimony which annihilated the defense.
He questioned whether ‘this is a personal journal where somebody puts things they’re really trying to keep secret, or is this a budding, articulate author that describes things for theatrical reasons?’
Carly was repeatedly described by witnesses as ‘gifted,’ bright and intelligent.
Dr. Pickett read an entry Gregg had written about hearing voices – a complaint the teen hadn’t previously raised with her mental health professionals – and said he was ‘highly skeptical of that.’
‘It seemed more theatrical and making light of something. Patients who really suffer this, they are haunted by it, it is quite torturous to them. They do not trivialize it.’
Carly Gregg was a bright and gifted student who ‘loved learning’, the court heard
Gregg kept her head bowed on Friday before proceedings officially got underway. Some of her relatives are seen in the background, there to offer support
Gregg’s legal team have hinged its defense on the claim that the teenager was so haunted by voices, trauma and mental health issues that she disassociated and blacked out for the period of time when the crimes were committed.
In closing arguments on Friday, her lawyers said there was no disputing the fact that Gregg loved her mother and stepfather.
The defense also noted that Gregg had no violent history, and that her actions on March 19 came as a shock to all who knew and treated her.
Her maternal grandparents have stood by her in the courtroom every day of the trial this week, and her stepfather has also not abandoned her. They all appeared stunned as the verdict was handed down.
When audio was played of her stepdad’s frantic call to police after he was shot, Gregg covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes closed.
Gregg’s mother, 40-year-old math teacher Ashley Smylie was fatally shot in the face
Defense attorney Bridget Todd said Gregg believed her father had both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and she had developed a paralyzing fear of turning into him.
‘Carly worried about that all the time, because that’s something her mom worried about all the time,’ the jury heard.
‘Her mom frequently worried that Carly was going to end up with the same mental illnesses her dad had, because they’re hereditary.’
Experts for the state have questioned whether her dad did have those mental illnesses, or if he had symptoms that presented as such due to his drug addictions.
Both sides described Ashley as a ‘loving mother’ whose world ‘revolved around Carly.’
‘Carly was the love of her mother’s life,’ they both said.
But Todd said Ashley was also overprotective, in large part because she’d already lost one child – a daughter who died from a health condition years prior.
‘Do you honestly believe that loving, overprotective mother would… put her child on antidepressant medication when she herself had had horrible side affects?
‘You can’t tell me that Ashley Smylie, as loving and protective as she was, would’ve taken that risk with Carly if it wasn’t required.
‘This was not a bad kid. This was not a kid who was enraged. This is not a kid who had hatred in her heart for her mother or her stepfather, in fact, it was the exact opposite. This was a kid who was experiencing significant mental health issues. The same mental health issues that ran in her family that we know are hereditary,’ she said.
‘This is a kid who was compliant with the medication she was put on, however, that medication… caused her symptoms to worsen. And while she was having a state of psychosis in an episode of acute stress on March 19, she lost herself in what was the perfect storm.’
Gregg, who turned 15 in prison but was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, was smiling and giggling beside her lawyer on Thursday morning ahead of the state’s rebuttal, but within nine hours her entire demeanor had changed.
Gregg giggled and tried to cover her mouth as day four of proceedings got underway on Thursday
She was seen actively fighting back tears on Thursday afternoon, following the testimony of Dr. Pickett.
Dr. Pickett was the prosecution’s closing witness, who attempted to systemically dismantle the defense case, one argument at a time.
He told the court he does not believe Gregg has bipolar disorder, and he said his professional opinion was that she was sane at the time of her mom’s death.
Dr. Pickett said Gregg had ‘some psychopathic traits’ – a statement he ‘does not take lightly.’
‘She is charming and very likeable,’ he said. ‘I liked her when I did the interview. I don’t like saying these things,’ he said.
The statements were all disputed by the defense’s psychiatrist, Dr. Andrew Clark, who had earlier said he diagnosed her with bipolar two disorder.
He said he did not think Gregg was ‘able to understand the nature of her conduct and appreciate the difference between right and wrong’ at the time of the incident.
