When a Child Breaks — The Tragedy of Carly Gregg and Ashley Smylie

 This is not an episode about a killer. This is an episode about a 14-year-old girl, a grieving family, a mother who will never come home, and a mental health system that failed everyone in that house on Ashton Way. Ashley Smylie was a dedicated teacher and a mother who loved her daughter. Carly Gregg was a child struggling with dissociation, auditory hallucinations, and medication changes that her family was desperately trying to manage. We are not here to excuse what happened. We are here to ask the harder question — what did we miss, who missed it, and what does justice actually look like when the perpetrator is a mentally ill child who cannot even remember committing the act? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thanks for recording again. Awesome. Tell me about your sickness.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Well, I don't know what it is at this point. Is it lone COVID? I don't know what it is, man. I had uh some kind of funk last week. Is it is the low com lone COVID a thing? I I don't know. Ask Dr. Fauci. So Tulsi Gabber dropped the hammer on him today. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

So the the COVID thing, my wife and kids never got a vaccine. Right. They all got COVID like once.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I got I was still in the reserve. I got vaccinated with the boosters, all the thing, and I got it. I got it four times.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Yeah. Yeah. I pretty sure I had it. Me and my buddy Hans had it for like from November to February that year. And we could not shake it. We were going to work down there at NASA. Man, we were like walking death. That first round was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah. But it seemed like after my wife and kids got the first round, they were like, okay then. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. I mean, but that first one, it was it knocked my wife, knocked her down pretty hard. Now the kids, they got it, and it was like they had a cold. They're like, okay. Yeah. You know? And I had it, and it was rough. It was like the longest cold I ever had in my life. It lasted for like 30 days. And then I got the shots. I just kept catching it.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

So yeah, we were lucky. We got it, and they said, we don't care if you have it, you're still coming to work.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

All right. NASA?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

All right. Hmm. I figured.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Because they had stuff to do, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah. That's when I was making the the tiles for the vehicle. Okay. Me and old Hans. Hans? Yeah. How long did you work for Knight's armament? Uh long because they suck.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Yeah. I remember I messaged you about some stuff. We're not getting into it here.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

You know, like, yeah, they suck.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So yeah. The weapons, if if you see how they're actually made, you you really wouldn't want to buy one.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

So if you can't if you have what's called a quote unquote sniper rifle.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, don't even call those that.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

And you cannot hold a group in one inch pieces, a one-inch square at 100 yards. That's not a sniper rifle. We benched, we even we got some of them. They were so busted up. We benched them in like you know what I mean. There was no human error and just pulled the trigger, and they would not hold a group.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Nope. And they won't.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah. Um, that's why I carried the M24.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

I was I was not impressed with the way they were made. I thought they were actually really good weapons, you know, state of the art, everything. Then I got there and seen how they were made. I'm like, oh man, I would not carry one in combat anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

It's a heavy piece of crap, is what it is. It is.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

It's it's good if you're going fishing and you got a John boat. Yeah, 10, 15 of them would be enough to anchor, and you'd be all right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah. Now we had the M24, you know, the army version of the 700. That thing was good. So well, it's a simple gun, you know. Yeah. I would carry it in a backpack, get up to my position, and carry an M4, and then get to my position and pull out the sniper rifle, you know. Yeah, but um, instead of carrying that the junk.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Oh, I'm telling you, Remington 700 bolt action, the Winchester Model 70s, any of the Springfields, Winchester 1917, Enfield P14, any of those bolt action rifles are awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah, they're simple.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, absolutely awesome, accurate. No moving parts. No.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I've never been a fan of somebody calling a gas gun a sniper rifle.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

It's a precision tactical weapon, but it's it's not a sniper rifle.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

I've shot them and I'm like, there's no way this can hold a candle to a bolt action. So no. Maybe I'm old school. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

No. When the bolt closes on that bolt action with the locking lugs, it locks in the exact same position.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

When it comes to those semi-automatics, they don't lock in every time in the exact same location. Right. They they do not do it.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

There's there's some uh play in there for a reason. Yeah. Right. Because it they get dirty and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

But yeah, too many moving parts on them.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

One thing I did find with the bolt are the gas guns, the dirtier they are, the more accurate they are. Yes. Don't clean it. Don't clean your gas. Don't clean it. You won't hit the gun. Which is crazy. Yeah. They never got them right and they ripped the government off for m billions of dollars for that weapon system.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

I don't see how they didn't get sued out of like the government and say, hey, this doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Well they've done it before. There's a lot of stuff came back the to Knights Armorament that didn't work that were rejected.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And they had to go talk to the man about Oh, yeah. But he's he's not a the owner's not a very nice guy. Really? Yeah. Was he a Navy SEAL? No. He was a nothing. And he's one of the most miserable people to work for. He has no respect for anybody that works for him.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Well. Alright, so today we're talking about more murder today. Yes. Murder. Yes. So the first one we're getting into on this section is Ashley Smiley. Sad story, but it's one of the craziest stories I've ever read. What about do you think it is?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah, that's the kid, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, this is the young girl who lost her marbles. Yeah. But how this goes down is one of the craziest stories. Yeah, it's insane. This wasn't that long ago, March 19th, 2024. Ashley Smiley was murdered at her home in Brandon, Mississippi, United States, it says. There's no other Mississippi. What's this article saying? That's crazy. Was it the United States?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

There's not a Brandon Mississippi in the Soviet Union?

unknown 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

In China. By her 14-year-old daughter, Carly Madison Gregg, through gunshots to the head. An hour later, Greg then shot her stepfather, Heath Smiley, in the shoulder, injuring him. In September of that year, Gregg was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and tampering with evidence. After being tried as an adult on a five-day trial within Rankin County, Mississippi, jury Gregg was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder of Ashley Smiley and attempted murder of Heath Smiley in ten years for tampering with the evidence. So Rankin County is right down there next to Tuscaloosa. Right. Not far from here. I mean, it won't take you long. I had to drive there while pretty quick. No, right? That little horse I got. That's where I got her and had to drive down there. Oh, the little one? Yeah. That's where we got her from. But we bought her with feet problems right out the gate. Anyway, that's animals for you, right? Right. Let's talk about the personal life of Ashley. She was a normal person. Right. I mean, I don't know what abnormal is. I'm abnormal. But she was a math teacher at the high school, had two daughters, Natalie, who was deceased, and Carly Madison Gregg, who was born October 23, 2009. Greg attended the high school where her mother worked. He's Smiley, husband of Ashley Smiley, and stepfather Carly Gregg, worked as a physical therapist five minutes from their home. So we had professionals here, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Probably the girl probably didn't want for anything. Oh no, probably not. I've seen the the little documentary. They had a night, they lived in a nice neighborhood. You know, it wasn't like she was being sexually assaulted, I don't believe. None of that stuff. Right. Now she claimed it, but they didn't prove it. Right. Let's talk about the background of the young girl. During the mid-afternoon of March 19th, 2024, Ashley Smiley was informed by a student of the high school and friend of Greg's that Greg had a large amount of marijuana concealed in her bedroom. Wah wah wah. Snitches. Snitches. She killed the wrong people, though.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Along with the cannabis, e-cigarettes and burner phones were also discovered. It was upon seeing this that Greg's friend decided to inform Smiley. Greg was said to be on medication during this time, which apparently contributed to symptoms of disassociation, auditory hallucinations, and mood swings. This girl's having some issues. Attempts have been made to ease Greg's symptoms through equine assisted therapy. Greg had previously bought a Swiss Army knife, brought one to school, causing her to be transferred. You can't bring a Swiss Army knife to school. No. We used to trade knives.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

So do we. We used to walk in the front door with our hunting rifles and stuff. Not now.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

I remember swapping knives with buddies like, hey, I like yours. You like mine? Oh, yeah. Case knives and stuff. There's a fly in here, Juice.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, I know. Luckily it's around you.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Greg had previously. Her history of drugs, according to He Smiley, may have been influenced by her biological father, Kevin Gregg,'s drug use. So she had the biological daddy who wasn't a good dude, it seemed like. Previous tensions between Greg and Ashley Smiley involved confiscation of her cell phone and punishment.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Teenage girls.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah. What what teenage girls not gonna have some issues that you gotta ground her?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

That's the worst thing now is taking their phone from my oldest daughter, when she was still in the house, she was mean, like smart aleck, and she would get in trouble. And we'd take her phone and she'd turn into an angel for two days.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

And then we started taking her car from her. That was even worse. So yeah. Later on. But yeah, um, I don't know. This phone, big deal now. Getting your phone taken from you. Yeah. You can have mine if you want it.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Well, you that's because yours rings every second of every day.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

But you gotta sell stuff to keep the business open. Yeah. You take it. It's your responsibility. It is. I'm glad it's yours and not mine. Let's talk about the murder. All right. Mom, Ashley Smiley. During the morning of March 19th, Ashley Smiley went to work at the school with her daughter, who was in the ninth grade there. They write whoever wrote this as they were having strokes during it or something. I don't know what it is. It was a ninth grader. He smiley then went to work himself. During the school day, Greg was described as being grumpy, irritable, unable to focus in the classroom, and having a memory blanket. At uh 3 54 p.m., Ashley, Smiley, and Greg returned home. Text message sent by Ashley DeHeath mentions plans to go to grocery shopping. Subsequent events involving Greg were captured on CCTV cameras in the garage and dining areas. At about 4 p.m., Greg entered her parents' bedroom and retrieved a 357 Magnum gun, which was owned by Ashley from underneath her mattress. She concealed the gun from the cameras by hiding the firearm behind her back. Following this, Greg confronted her mother, and the sound of three gunshots coupled with screaming could be heard on the camera footage. The shots impacted Ashley's skull, but they were not immediately fatal. Greg then returned to the kitchen with the gun, still concealed behind her back. During the following minutes, Ashley died as a result of her injuries sustained by the gunshots. In the kitchen, Greg used Ashley's cell phone to contact her stepfather, father pretending to be her mother, with a text message reading, Are you almost home, honey? During the interim period between the message being sent to Heath Smiley and his arrival home, Greg sent another message to a friend in an effort to invite them to her house, with the friend arriving not long after. She's going to kill three. Oh yeah. That's where they got her for tampering, was got her mom's phone and started sending messages right. So attempted murder of Heath. Greg's stepfather Heath arrived home about five, about an hour later, about 49 minutes after receiving the text message from Ashley's phone. Upon opening the front door, Heath was ambushed by Greg with several bullets coming from the 357 Magnum. One of those bullets impacted Heath's trapezius, less than six inches from his face, injuring his shoulder. Heath then disarmed Greg whilst the remaining bullets were fired. Heath described Greg as screaming, believe believed she was terrified, and that he may not have been her intended target. So you come into that, you're gonna be confused. Oh yeah. You're thinking, well, did somebody break in on him? Yeah, you won't, you don't know what's going on. But he got the gun from her, right? The seat, the uh camera footage which was recording in the garage film Greg running towards the street with an unidentified person in accompaniment. The person was later identified as the person that Greg, the girl invited to the house. So he was that she was ambushing everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She got mama. Daddy got it, clipped him. He got the gun from her.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Then Buddy shows up a few minutes later.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

She was gonna whack him, too.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Right. Crazy, man. What are your thoughts so far about this girl?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

She may have had mental health issues. Think so? Maybe one or two.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Mental health's a real thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

It is. And if if you have a child, I can't stress this enough. There's what they call a gene site report. If you have a child, anybody for that matter, and they're on any type of medication for anxiety, mental health, depression, I don't care what it is, have a gene site report done. It's a blood test. It will tell you, it'll just like a traffic light, you have red zone, yellow zone, and green zone for medications. Something as simple as singular for allergies could give your child suicidal thoughts. Right. So definitely get that report done. And I don't know what medication she was on, but I'll bet you she was on something.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Right. So I take medication from for certain things.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

And the well, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

So I s I take medicine for stuff, and something as simple as Benadryl makes you go off the deep end. Oh yeah. And this girl may have been going through something like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

And she may have gotten one of those meds that's on that report is in her red zone that altered her way of thinking. Right. I'm not saying it's an excuse for them to to act the way they do. Right. But if you notice changes and you get that report done, you'll know if what medications they need to be on and what you need to avoid. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Okay. Yeah. Let's get back to it here. The proceedings. State of Mississippi versus Carly Madison Greg began on September 16th, 2024. They had a ranking county jury, so local jury. On day two of the trial, he smiley told the court his version of the events. The courtroom was reportedly busy due to the publicity of the case. I'm sure it was. I remember this happened too, but I didn't follow it as much as I did the other cases we talked about. Greg Attorney Greg's attorney had previously filed for the trial to exclude the public in the media, stating that Greg would not get a fair chance at the trial. Judge Dewey Arthur. If I don't sound like a Mississippi judge, Dewey. Oh, Dewey and them. Responded by saying he would make sure the trial was open, public, and fair. Yeah, I'd put it out there, right? Yeah. I don't care. This is based on a specific Mississippi precedent that supported a media in court with the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling in favor of this in 2005. You know who don't like to put their courts on TV? Alabama. Yeah, they don't. Because they run them like a kangaroo court. They should, though. They clean up a lot.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I've been in those before, and it's like, I'm like, what's going on here? You know? I'm like, is this real?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Some of them remind me of my cousin Vinny, the courtroom scenes. The two youths.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

It's it's shameful when the lawyer is telling a judge how this should be going.

unknown 15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

You're like, judge, this is what's next. Yeah. It's the lawyer from you know, lawyer's been on the show.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

And I don't know who we're voting in. All the judges are voted in mostly.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah. Everybody really needs to look at who they're voting in.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

I've been in there, I was down at Calera, and the judge was lost. He was lost as in the sauce, man. And that there was a lawyer, he looked like he'd been around a while. He said, ma'am, this is kind of what goes next kind of thing. Getting the court today moving along. You know what I mean? So anyway, we people were laughing at her and stuff. I'm like, y'all voted to suck her in here, so you live with it, you know. Let's see here. What was her defense? Defense witnesses were heard by the jury on the day of the tri day three of the trial. These consisted of Heath Smiley, a minor. That's one of the that's her brother, I guess. Wait a minute. He smiley, that's the dad stepdad, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Okay, so the defense used them as well. Okay. Then a minor, all right. Ranking County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Tony Shack, and psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Clark. State experts gave rebuttals to the f the following day, including psychiatric nurse practitioner Olivia Lieber, mental health counselor Rebecca Kirk, and forensic psychiatry specialist Dr. Jason Pickett and Dr. Amanda Gugliano.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

The rebuttals provided by the state experts conflicted with the testimony given by Dr. Andrew Clark. The long-standing, long-established McNighton rules were used in conjunction with Mississippi's legal standards for testing insanity. Insanity is a legal term, it's not a medical term. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Okay. Determine whether Carly Gregg met the criteria for such a defense. Greg's psychiatrist, Dr. Clark, conducted cross-examination with attorney Michael Smith. Despite Clark meeting the making the court aware of Greg's depression and auditory hallucinations, he concurred that Greg had knowingly attempted to cover up the murder when asked by Smith. Alright, so she went and got the she planned this out. Oh yeah. And then planned the cover-up. So she was she knew what she was doing. Yeah. That's the whole thing of insanity, right? So they later said that she had disruptive thoughts, anger issues, and difficulty sleeping. I've had that.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Okay, so we all have that.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I've had that since the mid-90s.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

You don't go kill people, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I got that from my first marriage.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

You're always grumpy, Juice. Yeah, I am. I haven't slept good since I was like 23. You know, I don't know. Yeah. I yeah. Since pain in my body started. That was kind of let's see here. Let's see what happened. The verdict on September 20, 2024, after a two-hour deliberation. So they went and had a sandwich. Came back with coffee. Said, yep, she's guilty. It takes that long to have lunch in the courtroom, right? The Rankin County jury found Carly Gregg guilty of the murder of Ashley Smiley, attempted murder of Free Smiley and tampering with evidence. After a further hour of jury deliberation, Greg was sentenced to life in prison. And then she had a bunch of other stuff for the other ones, but the big one was the life in prison. She had been offered a plea deal where she buy she would only serve 40-year sentence. She should have taken it.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

I don't think she wanted it.

unknown 18:18

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

You know, I know people get mad at people and you kill one another and stab each other. Yeah. There's some consequences for doing it. There are. As of September 20, 2024, Greg is imprisoned at the UFO Fender Unit in Central Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, just getting mad at somebody. You know, screaming and yelling's good, but going that far, no.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Right. She got a she had an appeal for a new trial. Her defense team consists of attorneys Bridget Todd and Kevin Kemp filed an appeal in 2024. Assistant DA with the state was there. Responded to the appeal after this. Greg received the new legal counsel. It was unknown when the Mississippi Supreme Court would hear the case with estimates that it could take another 18 months to finalize a decision. On July 30th, 2025, this guy named Murphy requested a 30-day extension for preparation of the appeal brief. April 2026, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a statement announcing that it grants the presentation on March 27, 2026, of oral arguments by Greg's defense in support of her appeal. Hmm. Okay. So the Supreme Court's going to hear it, right? Yeah. I'm guessing this is me. You know, I'm a brilliant legal mind juice. Right, right. You're a prodigy. They're going to look at the age of the defendant.

unknown 19:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

That's what they're looking at. And they may say, hey, give her 50 years and another chance when she's an adult. Right. Yeah. That may be what they're looking at. But you got Carly's Warriors group set up and run by Greg's maternal grandparents as well as by other members of her mother's family. Uh was registered with the Mississippi Secretary of State. The group claims that Greg's sentence was disproportionate to the crime and unfair, given Greg's age and influence of her change in medication. Still can't kill people. No, you can't. Can't shoot a can't go off with a gun and do things.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

And again, I'm not saying it's right, but that gene site report is very important. If, in my opinion, if you have mental health issues or your child or your wife or husband have mental health issues, that gene site report is vital to making sure they get the right medications.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

So I had that done. I'll talk about it. Last year, I don't know if you remember, I was going through some things. They changed my medicine around and then they did the gene site report and they said, Hey, you cannot take this. Yeah. I was like hearing things and stuff. Yeah, it's like this ain't right. You know what I mean? So they got me set up right, and then things have been great ever since. But that was they look, they did they tested the blood, and then he threw a swab, and then he came back in a few days. They said, These are things you can't take. Yeah. And you can't take this with and it's it's easy to follow, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

It's got a green, yellow, and red column.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yeah. And they even had some foods on there not to eat. Yeah. Because it was like herbal and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

So yeah. It that report, knowing what I know now, I wish I would have had that report, you know, 10 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

We had insurance, but I think the total price was $25. Yeah. Even if I paid out of pocket, it'd been $25. Yeah. Which was wonderful. It did wonders for me. They did it. The VA did not do it, but I went to my local doctor, had it done, and took it to the VA, and then they ingested my medication.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Because the VA makes more money if they just prescribe pill after pill after pill.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yeah. I like how the VA always asks me if I have insurance.

unknown 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

What does it matter to you? You're my insurance right now. All the time. You're my insurance, right? Like they're going to file it. So anyway. All right, Juice, anything else on uh well, this is a big mental health one. And we have some fiber in there.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Just I I hope we hit it home on that gene gene site report. That's it's a very valuable tool to have.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

It is. And I liked it. It worked for me. So I'm gonna get off here. We'll be back with another episode in just a bit. So go ahead and say bye, Juice. Bye, juice.