Girl, 15, accused of shooting her mum in the face giggles in court
A teenage girl who has been accused of murdering her own mum and attempted to kill her stepdad had to stifle her giggles as the court heard evidence.
Carly Gregg, now 15, has been charged with shooting her mum Ashley Smylie in the face inside the family home in Mississippi on March 19 when she was just 14-years-old.
She is alleged to have then lured her step-father Heath Smylie into coming home before shooting him twice.
Police say she asked her friend ‘if she had ever seen a dead body’ before inviting her over and leading them to the bodies.
Carly’s legal team is pursuing an insanity defence after she turned down a plea deal of 40 years in prison, MailOnline reports.
She has been charged with murder, attempted murder and evidence tampering, and faces a life sentence if anyone were to find out.
On day four of the trial she was caught in a giggling fit as she watched her legal team write something down.
She tried to suppress her laughter by covering her mouth with her hand, but the moment was caught clearly on livestream.
Counsellor Rebecca Kirk said weeks before the shooting Carly told her she wanted to read Crime and Punishment.
The 1886 Fyodor Dostoevsky novel follows a Russian nihilist who concludes plans to murder woman, and believes extraordinary people are entitled to kill others.
Ms Kirk said Carly was a highly gifted student who ‘had been affirmed a lot in her life for being intelligent’.
She told the court: ‘She was gifted, that’s a clear fact. Sometimes when you’re so gifted and different from others, you might feel lonely and a little bit more isolated.’
Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Clark said he believes Carly ‘blacked out’ for up to 90 minutes before the alleged offence.
But he added Carly does have the motive to ‘fake’ mental illness.
Carly had told me she had started smoking marijuana and was worried her mother would find out.
She was also prescribed Lexapro and Zoloft, which are medications for mood disorders.
Carly’s stepfather who survived the attack told the court he had seen his wife coverein in blood when he got home.
He said his stepdaughter had once been a ‘sweet little girl’ but ‘looked like a demon’ the day of the attack.
He said: ‘When I opened the door to the kitchen, the gun went off in my face before the door was three or four inches wide open.
‘The gun flashed in my face. It went off two more times, but my hand was on the gun after the first shot, and I twisted it from Carly.’
The trial continues.
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