The Horrific Crimes of Carly Gregg [True Crime Documentary]

on Tuesday the 19th of March 2024 40-year-old Ashley Smiley was murdered in her home in the 200 block of Ashton Way in Brandon Mississippi she was shot to death not by an intruder or an abusive partner but by her own daughter 14-year-old Kari Greg with the sounds of the murder being caught on the home surveillance system Carly then calmly sat down and invited a friend over to see her mother's body before lying and wait for her stepfather to return and after shooting him she fled the scene in court it was argued that Karli Greg was deeply troubled mentally ill young lady who had no control over her actions but was this true or was she a cold blooded calculating killer I'll let you be the judge welcome evil Among [Music] Us Cari Madison Greg was born on April the 23rd 2009 in the city of Brandon in the state of Mississippi which lies in the American Southeast she was the daughter of Ashley and Kevin Greg there have been some details published about Kevin which have not been verified but if they're true they give us an insight into the troubled household that characterized Carly's early life it's been reported that Kevin had a long criminal record mly revolving around drugs and that when living with Carly and Ashley he would frequently be under the influence and take drugs in front of them there was inevitably domestic violence in the property this was indicated both verbally by Carly but also in Ashley's actions during the court proceedings in 2024 Carly told a psychiatrist that while she didn't recall seeing any violence she rememb seeing bruises on her mother's arms and the pair happened to flee in the middle of the night with regards to Ashley she took to sleeping within Arms Reach for a loaded gun apparently due to fear that Kevin would return into their lives when Karly was around 3 or 4 years old Ashley and Kevin divorced it was also around this same time that her baby sister died call did have contact with her father after this point but she told the psychiatrist involved in her court case that her father was angry when he was around her and this was on the times he actually bothered to pick her up he'd apparently not allow her to eat or drink anything and would drive like a maniac when they were both in the car together car had apparently not had contact with Kevin for around a year before she murdered her mother Carly was a very bright student she consistently got good grades and test scores and had skipped the fourth grade so when she was between 9 and 10 years old however by this point according to her things were already starting to unravel with her state that she began to experience signs of significant mental illness this began when she was between 6 and 9 years old where she reported hearing a male voice pretend she have fathers telling her quote you're better than them at around the age of 11 years old Carly started to suffer from serious issues with depression and began self Haring by cutting herself she managed to keep her issues from mother Ley who around this same time remarried a man called Heath Smiley Heath in contrast to karly's biological father Kevin was not abusive however despite now appearing to have a stable home life Karly continued to spiral and began showing concerning indicators of what she were gone to do just a few years later in seventh grade when car was 12 she bought a knife into school she was caught and referred to a psychotherapist who believed the school were quote blowing everything out of proportion and there she was no threat to anyone in 2023 when Karli was 13 years old she began to actively defy her mother and stepfather this included usual teenage rebellion including sneaking out at night staying out past curfew she even had her nipple pierced specifically after Ashia told her that she wouldn't be allowed any piercings Karly also had a boyfriend and when her mother found out she was forced to break up with him but to see him behind her mother's back using burn her phones to communicate with him nothing about this teenage Behavior was unusual but Carly's response was extreme she began telling school friends that she wanted to kill her mother and hated her these were not just thway comment kli would say this on a daily basis and she meant it there was a self- perpetuating cycle in the family home the more Karlie rebelled the more her mother tried to punish her and the worse the relationship became this would then trigger a deterioration in Carly's mood increasing the frequency of her expressing her hatred towards Ashley and her intention to kill her Karli also began to tell classmates that she was being abused by Ashley and Heath there's no evidence this was true however it's clear that she was trying to demonize them as much as possible and make herself seem like the victim in around December 2023 as she found out about Kari self Haring and how despondent she was feeling and immediately got her help from January 2024 Karly saw two therapists on a weekly basis she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and put on Zoloft known as surgery in the UK and the dosage of this was quickly increased and Karlie said it wasn't having an effect this was then switched to another anti-depressant Lexapro Carly filled in various questionnaires as part of for therapy and next to one question which read quote in the past month have you been bothered by intrusive or distressing thoughts she marked yes looking back it appears clear now that the intrusive thoughts related to her killing her mother and stepfather however Carly was an expert at hiding her dark thoughts which becoming more nihilistic essentially everything was pointless after her arrest the journal was found which kie had been keeping since around January 2024 and her entry showed her unraveling and her progression towards murder with in this journal Karli wrote five beliefs including quote there is no God Heaven and Hell a false writing your own destiny it's okay to be evil and you don't need family elsewhere in the journal she wrote a choose fire it's powerful beautiful and deadly these are the traits I desire so I choose fire car saw entries claiming that she was hearing voices with one entry written on March the 12th a we before the murder stating quote I think I had a psychotic break earlier the whole ordeal was quite silly really I spoke with one of the voices in my head my particular friend and I were screaming bloodthirstiest to fur the entry is read anywh who I don't think I'll make it any longer and please help me please help me Carly had a Tumblr account with no posts but wrote quote cheit and heinous war crimes in the about section Carly was also sending concerning messages to her friends a few weeks before the murder she had an argument with her mother and stepfather and she texts a friend quote you don't understand how [ __ ] psycho I was that day I almost murdered my parents around this same time Carly told her therapist that she was interested in Reading crime and punishment she didn't actually read it the theme gives an insight into ki's mindset this novel follows a character who comes to the conclusion that extraordinary people are entitled to kill others for the good of society and kills a p broker with an axe in February 2024 Karly began smoking cannabis it appears this was using cannabis oal vape pens she would use the Vapes before school meaning she was often higher when she was in class as she had no idea that her daughter started using drugs but when she did find out this would trigger a sequence of events which would cost her a life Tuesday the 19th of March 2024 started like any other day with mother and daughter leaving the house to go to Northwest rank in high school where cardi was a student and Ashley was a math teacher Heath left to go to his workplace as a physical therapist less than 5 miles from the family home and had no idea that this was the last time they would see his wife alive that before the end of the day his stepdaughter would try to kill him mother and daughter parted ways at the school gate Carly went to hang out with her friends before class she smoked her cannabis vake pen and so was high before the school day started that morning Carly got into an altercation with a friend and her behavior reported as having been very aggressive including swearing and threatening this boy he then got another friend to distract Carly whilst he went to tell Ashley about her daughter's eratic Behavior but also about her use of cannabis and how she was taking it but also about the burner phone she was using at 3:30 p. m. Ashley and Karly left the school and drove home joining the short trip it's likely that Ashley confronted Cari about what she' been told the pair returned home at 3:54 p.

m. and soon after this Carly went outside with one of the dogs a hidden surveillance camera on the fridge captured Ashley craning her neck to check that her daugh was outside and out of the way to enable her to go through Carly's room looking for a vape pens and the Cannabis she was using the same camera captured Carly re-entering the property at 4:13 p. m.

and approaching the hallway hearing and then seeing her mother going through her room Carly then walked straight to her mother and stepfather's room and retrieved a 357 magma revolver which was was apparently kept unsecured and fully loaded in a cubby hole underneath Ashley's side of the bed with her keeping it there due to fear that her ex-husband Kevin Carly's biological father would turn up at the property Carly knew exactly where the gun was and retrieved it in seconds then hiding it behind her back she walked towards her own room where her mother Ashley was still searching through her things the camera captured the sounds of what happened next for two of the shots you heard were fired directly into Ashley's face the third entered under her chin she died almost instantly then while still holding the gun behind her back Ashley sat down and grabbed her mother's phone and text her stepfather Heath the following quote are you're almost home honey after this point Carly took down the surveillance camera and placed it in the refrigerator she then got her own phone and texted a friend of hers who in court was referred to as BW but recall her Bianca the ease of telling the story Bianca was told that she needed to cther urgently as there was an emergency but Carly couldn't tell her what it was over the phone Bianca's father drove her to the property and she arrived there at 4:58 p. m. when she walked in Karly asked Bianca if she'd ever seen the dead body before bian was then led into the bedroom to see Ashley's body which had been posed with a cloth over her face and her arms crossed over her chest Bianca later testified in court that Carly told her that she shot her mother three times and that she had quote three more for Heath Ashley asked Bianca if she wanted to go outside while she killed her stepfather this is what Bianca did with her hiding out of the way behind a car in the driveway within minutes at 5:03 p.

m. Heath Smiley pulled up in his car and walked towards the house what happened next was not captur on camera but he described it in court quote everything seemed pretty normal I came on in when I opened the door to the kitchen the gun went off in my face before the door was 3 or 4 in 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 from Carly Heath had been shot in the shoulder but managed to disarm Carly at which point she ran out of the house followed by Bianca before scaling a fence and running off he then checked the house and found Ashley's lifeless body he then called 911 I'll play past this call the audio very difficult to hear but you can clearly pick up the distress in Heath's [Music] voice me your daughter tried to shoot you no shooting at me where she at how old is she 14 14 okay ma'am stay on the ma'am stay on the phone with me just calm down what's your name sming okay calm down for me give me your name again Smiley he Smiley yes sir all right sir what's your what's your phone number you calling me from did she hit you yeah I got hit in the neck a little bit okay so did gra your neck yes sir all right and what's her name Carly Greg Carly Greg does she still have a gun H her I took it from her she ran you took it from her and she ran yes sir she was shaming something at me I couldn't understand I locked the door she's outside I don't know what's going on which way did she run off to she ran into the backyard went over a ran into the backyard and went over your [Music] F what is she uh what is she wearing oh t-shirt gray shirt and some jeans gray shirt and jeans about how tall is she uh 5'2 about 5'2 What color hair brownish brownish short hair me and was just SC okay just calm down for killed her mom she killed her mom yeah I screaming where's the to kill [Music] me where's [Music] theom s sir sir sir [Music] my [Music] God sir sir okay your address is 215 correct 214 214 his address is 214 okay sir where is your where is your wife she's de on the floor of my daughter stepdaughter's room she's on the floor in your stepdaughter's room what's your wife's name Ashley Smiley Ashley Smiley was any problem you sir sir I need you to speak with me okay can you go out can you go outside the house and speak to [Music] me [Music] [Music] okay okay now was there any problems going on with your is it your stepdaughter or police and paramedics raced to the scene this is part of their body war footage from when they arrived finding Heath lying on the front porch a bullet to his shoulder I need to talk to me what is your wearing was grayish t-shirt she's got short brownish hair so jeans a gray t-shirt short brown hair she ran into the back paramedics checked Ashley but there were no signs of life and she was declared dead at the scene the hunt was then on for Karly Greg but she hadn't gone far and was found sitting in a field half a mile away where she was arrested within 30 minutes of the 911 call I'll show you a video of her in cuffs and the police doing a gun residue test on her hands a news article I've read said that Karly was shaking when she was arrested I've watched this clip I don't personally see it she seems remarkably calm for a girl who's just murdered her mother and tried to kill her stepfather got her hand me step out real quick for me so what I'm going to do is I'm going move them around to the front of you okay I'm going to move the handcuffs around to the front of you okay all right all right so what we're going to do here is we're going to swab your hands okay yeah right I ask you a bunch of questions but obviously you fired with a pistol correct yes okay all right look I need you hold your hand up like this I'm going do your right hand first okay up here this so GSR which hand did you shoot with which hand would you shoot with FL the hand turn the hand over turn over rub on the outside part around the knuckles what do you want what do you want I guess you can put it in my vehicle with myy all right go ahead and all right that okay I don't know baby I can't talk to you about it's not clear whether Cari spoke during her police interview but it didn't matter it jury decided there was sufficient evidence to indictor on charges of murder attempted murder and tampering with evidence related to a removing the camera which had caught the audio of her ending her mother's life cardi was reminded into the rank King County Adult Detention Center and catch in solitary confinement to await her fate prosecutors offered kly Greg a plea deal in exchange for guilty Poli will charge which included murdering her mother Ashley and the attempted murder of her stepfather Heath she would be given a sentence of 40 years in prison so there was potential that she would one day be released but she would have to stand in court and admit what she had done she refused the plea offer and pleaded not guilty to all charges Carly's defense have motioned to have the case heard in Youth Court but this was refused and Karly was tried in adult court with her trial beginning on Tuesday the 7 of September 2024 at ranking County Circuit Court part of the defensive strategy was obvious before n had opened their mouths Cy attended each day of Court dressed akin to a school girl no doubt a highlight of the jury her age with her being just 14 when she murdered her mother and just shy 15 and a half was on trial for her murder positions of the two sides were outlined in the opening statements the prosecution argued that kly was a cold calculating killer who murdered her mother and attempted to kill her stepfather because they were getting in the way of what she wanted to do she was not a girl who knew the meaning of the word no when her mother was dead she felt No Remorse no regret and instead invited a friend of hers over to look at the body however the defense painted a very different picture they were going to blame mental illness as shown by their opening statement which I'll play for you you the defense will go ahead opening statement by the defense good afternoon I know it's been a long morning for you all so I try to do this as briefly as possible this is not a who done it case we know who took action on March 19th to bring about the death of Ashley Smiley and the injuries to Heath Smiley however this is a why case why did it happen why did this exceptional child with no History of Violence who was loved by her friends her teachers her parents who had a good home life who loved her mother why did she shoot her mom why did she shoot at her stepfather the state would like you to believe the answer to those questions don't matter but we know better than that the answers to those questions is why we're here today and it's what you're here to do we believe the evidence will show that there were three victims on March 19th Ashley Smiley Heath Smiley and Carly Smiley and Carly Greg that they were all three victims we believe the evidence will show that Carly had been suffering from a mental illness that Carly was not aware on March 19th that she had a mental illness we believe the evidence will show that Carly's parents who lived with her were not aware that Carly was suffering from a mental illness we believe the evidence will show that Carly's close friends who saw her at school every day were not aware that Carly was suffering from a mental illness because it's hard to look at a person and understand that they have a mental illness it's hard to look at a person and know that they have a mental illness that's why it's often referred to as the invisible disease a person can exhibit symptoms of a mental illness without people necessarily kn knowing that they have one or other people necessarily knowing that's what another person has while the events on March 19th were tragic the events on March 19th were not intentional the evidence will show and the testimony will show that Carly Greg loved her mother that Carly Greg and her mother had a loving close relationship Carly Greg's mom loved her in fact her life revolved around Carly as parents lives often do revolve around their children Carly very much wanted to please her mother Carly was an exceptional student made a 30 on the act when she was 13 years old she was the Apple of her mother and her stepfather's eye and you will understand by the conclusion of this hearing why Carly's stepfather is still supporting her and standing behind her because he knows on March 19th there were three victims Ashley Heath and Carly the state will ask you to take your good judgment to take your common sense and to put it in a bucket to put the lid on the bucket and to toss the bucket out of this courtroom we implore you not to do that to retain your common sense to retain your good judgment and to make sure that you are listening to the evidence as it's presented because it doesn't matter how many witnesses the state puts on their story is filled with inconsistencies because they're not telling the whole story the evidence will not show that Carly was ever deemed Dangerous by anyone the evidence will not show that Carly ever had any desire to hurt her mother the evidence will not show that Carly ever had any desire to hurt any person the evidence will not show that Carly invited people over to her house to view her mom's body what it will show is that on March 19th a hysterical Carly called her closest friends begging them for help begging them to help her the evidence will show that Carly did not recognize Smiley when he got home that day you'll hear that from him himself the evidence will show that Carly was so terrified when Heath Smiley got home on March 19th that even after Carly left the house Heath walked around the house with the handgun in his hand looking for an intruder because he was convinced by Carly by how she appeared by how she acted by what she did that day by the child he had known for years that he was seeing on that day that she was terrified something horrible would happened and that there must have been someone else in that house to cause that kind of Terror in Carly what the evidence will not show is that Carly had a drug problem what the evidence will not show is that Carly and her mother had any argument on March 19th what the evidence will not show is that Carly had any desire to hurt her stepfather what the evidence will not show is that Ashley Smiley was angry when she left school that day or that Ashley Smiley was upset with Carly when she left school that day or that after they got home on March 19th Ashley and Carly engaged in an argument the evidence will not show that Ashley Smiley found anything in Carly's bedroom that would have caused an argument the evidence will not show that Carly intended to hurt anyone the evidence will not show that Carly has not grieved her mother's loss the evidence will not show that law enforcement did their due diligence in investigating this matter the evidence will not show that Carly was abusing or misusing prescription prescription medication the evidence will not show that Carly had a secret life but rather was just a teenager who had a life that her parents didn't know everything about that's called having a teenager and being a parent the evidence will not show that Carly had ever tried to harm another person had ever had a desire to hurt another person the evidence will not show that Carly is a monster that Carly was a difficult child a troubled child or a deranged child the evidence will not show that Carly Greg does not deserve you to return a virt of not guilty now the evidence will show that Carly had a family history of mental illness in fact it was well documented the evidence will show that Carly was concerned that something was wrong with her she wrote journal entries about it the evidence will show that Carly was afraid she had the same mental illness that her father had Carly the evidence will show that Carly's mother had worried for years about Carly having the same mental illness that her father had the evidence will show that Carly was very emotionally tied into to her mother's emotions and that Carly never wanted her mother to worry about her the evidence will show that Carly was scared of how her mother would react to the knowledge that if Carly had if Cari had the same mental illness that her father had that doesn't sound like a child that doesn't love her mom and that doesn't sound like a child who has any intention of hurting her mother the state would like you to believe that it's normal for a child to go home from school one day with their mother who they love and shooter but nothing's wrong it was just marijuana or because she was on social media and her mom didn't want her on social media but again we ask you to retain your common sense and to retain your good judgment because we know that just doesn't make sense and at the end of this trial if the state's case still leaves you feeling like their version of events just doesn't make sense then you must return a verdict of not guilty state may call its first witness elaborating on this as the trial progressed the defense claimed that Karlie couldn't remember killing our mother or shooting Heath she apparently had no memory from the moment she came back in with the dog a minute before the shooting till after she ran out of the house I was arrested Ed by the police to back up their claim the defense called DrAndrew Clark a child psychiatrist who had interviewed Carly who as well as claiming she couldn't remember her actions stated that in the weeks prior to the crimes she was hearing voices he outlined his belief that Karly suffered from bipolar disorder this is a mental health condition characterized by extreme fluctuations in mood with the sufferer experiencing both depressive and manic episodes so essentially extreme and extreme lows of emotions although bipolar disorder involves elements of depression it's a different disorder with a separate treatment regime and taking anti-depressants can actually make the condition worse that was DrClark's argument that cly being on anti-depressants and having the dosage increased exacerbated the severity of her underlying bipolar disorder to the point where she was hearing voices on Tuesday the 19th of March her condition of deteriorated to the point where she had a complete psychotic break I. E a disconnect from reality and it killed her mother and tried to kill her stepfather during this time as she was psychotic she was not fully in control of her actions did know right from wrong and could not form an intention to kill therefore she was not guilty of murder or attempted murder the defense also pointed to car's journal entries to give Credence to their claims the prosecution pushed back pointing how Carly was hiding the gun behind her back in the moments before and after she killed her mother clearly to hide it from the camera which she then removed after the murder also they pointed out how purposeful her actions were she took the gun killed her mother then text her stepfather to find out where he was and then she L and wait to kill him too Rebecca Kirk Kylee Grace counselor who had seen her nine times including the 18th of March 2024 the day before the shootings testified that Carly made no mention of hearing voices at any point and was emotionally stable just 24 hours before the murder her psychiatrist DrOlivia Leber also stated that kly had made no mention of hearing voices during their interactions most damning of all was the testimony of forensic psychiatrist DrJason picket who after interviewing Carly formed the opinion that she was not suffering from bipolar disorder and in instead had quote some Psychopathic traits Drpicket stated the journal entries without hearing voices appeared almost theatrical someone writing who had vivid imagination the jury began their deliberations at around 10:30 a.

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