John Jefferson
Left inset: Carly Gregg (Mississippi Department of Corrections). Right inset: Ashley Smylie (Northwest Rankin High School). Main: Kevin Gregg speaks in an interview aired on the local news in September 2024 (WLBT).
Convicted and incarcerated 15-year-old killer Carly Gregg failed Monday to get a new trial for shooting her mother in the face at home as the judge that sentenced her to life without parole declined to disturb the Rankin County, Mississippi, jury’s murder and attempted murder guilty verdicts.
On Sept. 20, Gregg was convicted of murdering 40-year-old math teacher and mother Ashley Smylie and attempting to murder stepfather Heath Smylie in March, when Gregg was 14 years old. The result was not a surprise considering just how much of evidence there was, whether chilling video evidence, witness accounts, DNA, or Gregg’s own words.
After Gregg conceded that she carried out the shooting and turned down the state’s plea offer of a 40-year punishment, the question jurors had to answer was whether or not the teen was sane at the time of the crimes.
Hours after rejecting Gregg’s insanity defense and finding her guilty, the jury determined that life in prison without parole was the appropriate sentence, and that is the sentence that Judge Dewey Arthur imposed.
Days later, the defense pursued a new trial based on an interview of Gregg’s biological father Kevin Gregg that local Fox affiliate WLBT aired on Sept. 26. During an “unaired portion” of that interview, the defense claimed, Kevin said that Carly had been treated with horse therapy after hearing voices.
“On Wednesday, September 26th, 2024, a reporter for Fox 40/WLBT informed defense counsel that Kevin Gregg, Carly’s biological father, had given an interview, part of which would be aired later that night,” the defense motion said. “In an unaired portion of his interview, Kevin Gregg disclosed that Carly was placed in equestrian therapy as a young child due to experiencing auditory hallucinations.”
Of note, a portion of the interview that WLBT did air shows Kevin Gregg criticizing the insanity defense strategy as “very dumb.”
“That girl knew right from wrong. That girl is not insane, that was a very dumb defense if you ask me. But I wasn’t involved. Nobody ever called me,” he said.
Gregg’s defense further claimed that grandmother Vicki Breeland and uncle James Daniel Floyd were “improperly excluded from testifying at the trial.”
On Monday, Judge Arthur did not see how the biological father’s interview would have changed anything and said the motion for a new trial “must be denied.”
“This Court specifically finds that no new and material [sic] has been discovered which probably would produce a different result at trial and, by reasonable diligence, this evidence could not have been discovered sooner,” he concluded. “Defendant points to alleged statements by Kevin Gregg. The Court reviewed the statements and finds these statements would not have probably produced a different result at trial.”
The judge also made clear that not allowing the testimony of Breeland and Floyd into evidence had to do with belated sharing of discovery.
“The Court allowed the Defendant to present a significant amount of testimony that was not turned over promptly. The Court found and believed that most, if not all, of the reciprocal discovery was not promptly turned over to obtain a tactical advantage,” he said. “However, letting a Defendant tell that Court that it may prejudice her case before the Jury to provide the substance of the witnesses’ testimony is a bridge too far.”
“Trial by ambush must remain in the grave,” Arthur added.
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