Girl accused of murdering math teacher mom at 14 and ambushing stepdad rolls the dice and turns down 40-year punishment

Carly Gregg turns down plea deal and opts for trial in mom

Carly Gregg turns down plea deal and opts for trial in mom’s murder case on Aug. 27, 2024 (WJTV).

A now 15-year-old Mississippi girl who in March, at the age of 14, allegedly shot her math teacher mother twice in the face and murdered her at home, showed a friend the victim’s body, and then ambushed her stepfather when he arrived that afternoon appeared in court Tuesday and confirmed that she would rather head to trial in September and face two possible life sentences than accept a plea deal from the state that could have meant four decades in prison.

“For the record, what was the last recommendation of the State of Mississippi?” Rankin County Circuit Court Judge Dewey Arthur said at the start of the pretrial conference aired live by WJTV, after Carly Gregg got out of her chair and walked to the podium with a defense lawyer.

“The state recommended 40 years […] in the Mississippi Department of Corrections and agreed to nolle pros counts 2 and 3 of the indictment,” an off-camera voice said of the prosecution’s position, if Gregg had agreed to admit to murdering her 40-year-old mother Ashley Smylie, a Northwest Rankin High School teacher once honored as “Teacher of the Month,” on March 19.