Carly Gregg: Teenage killer gets life sentence for shooting her mother and injuring her stepfather

Teen killer Carly Gregg has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting her own mother and wounding her stepfather. The 15-year-old was found guilty on Friday of all charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence. The teen killer sobbed in court as she received her sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing her mother and 30 years for other charges.

Carly Gregg sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting her mother

Jurors reached their verdict two hours after viewing chilling security camera footage showing the Mississippi teenager clutching a gun behind her back in her Brandon home just minutes before she shot and killed her mother, Ashley Smylie, 40, a math teacher at Northwest Rankin High School.

Surveillance footage shows Gregg, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, storming into her mother's room. Moments later, three gunshots are heard, followed by a scream. She has also been charged with attempted murder of her stepfather, Heath Smylie, whom she tried to lure into the house by sending him text messages from her mother's phone.

“When are you coming home, honey?” read one of Gregg's texts to Heath. As soon as he got home, she shot him in the shoulder. However, her injured stepfather was able to wrest the gun from her. The shocking incident occurred just hours after her parents found out about her “secret life” of using drugs such as marijuana.

Gregg's lawyers pleaded insanity. A psychiatrist supported her claim that she had a mental health crisis on the day of the shooting. Dr. Andrew Clark explained that she heard voices and experienced dissociation. “And then her mother finds out she smokes marijuana,” Clark said during his testimony.

“For Carly in particular, her mother's recognition was so important that it was a crisis for her,” the psychiatrist added. Meanwhile, her stepfather also testified on her behalf, saying that “she was not herself that day,” according to the Daily Beast. Heath called her a “sweet little girl” and said, “I don't think she even recognized me,” adding that they still talk every day.