Teenager smiles in court, thinking she’s going home – then the video is played.
She sits in a Mississippi courtroom, smiling, not nervous, not frightened, [music] simply calm, as if waiting to be called from class, not to find out if she’ll spend the rest of her life in prison. Carly Greg had convinced herself that the jury would believe her. Her lawyers said she was ill, a child whose mind had slipped.
They told the court she had suffered a nervous breakdown, that voices had taken control of her thoughts that terrible day. And for a while, the defense worked. The jurors listened. People began to wonder if a 14-year-old could really plan something like that. Then the prosecutor pressed play, and everything changed.
“Did your daughter try to shoot you?”
“Yes. She shot at me to kill her mother, but I tried to kill myself.”
“What’s your name?”
„Carly Greg.“
[clears throat]
“Hey, I need you to talk to me. What is your son wearing?”
“She was wearing jeans and a grayish T-shirt. She has short brownish hair. She ran into the backyard. I tried to follow her. She jumped over his fence and ran. She shot into my face.”
What you are about to see is the moment Carly Greg realized the jury would never believe her story again. The moment she understood she wasn’t going home. Not that day. Not for decades. Her mother was dead. Her stepfather was bleeding on the kitchen floor. And the evidence of what really happened was captured on a camera Carly didn’t even know was recording.
This is the chilling case of a model student who turned a .357 Magnum into an execution weapon in her own home. If you’ve never heard this story before, prepare yourself, because what happened on March 19, 2024, in Brandon, Mississippi, will challenge everything you think you know about teen mental health, premeditated murder, and how a simple home security camera can expose even the most carefully constructed lie.
Before we can understand what happened on March 19, 2024, we need to understand who Carly Greg was. At 14, Carly seemed like any other high-achieving teenager. She was bright, confident, and funny. A tenth grader at Northwest Ranken High School in Brandon, Mississippi, where her mother, Ashley Smiley, taught math.
Teachers described Carly as polite and intelligent. Her friends said she was friendly, witty, and easy to talk to. On the surface, she seemed like a happy, responsible girl with a promising future. Carly’s mother, Ashley Smiley, was 40 years old. A math teacher, she was loved by her students and respected by her colleagues. Friends described her as warm, patient, and deeply dedicated, both in her classroom and at home.
Ashley had previously been married to Kevin Greg, Carly’s biological father. Kevin struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse for years. After their divorce, Ashley raised Carly largely on her own. In 2020, Ashley married Heath Smiley, a man known for his calm and gentle personality. Initially, Heath and Carly got along well.
He cared for her, supported her, and tried to make her feel understood. But by early 2024, things had changed in their home. Carly seemed distant, quieter, more withdrawn, and no one could quite figure out why. From the outside, her life looked stable and loving. But behind this image lay a growing unease that Ashley and Heath sensed but couldn’t fully comprehend.
As the months passed, small cracks began to appear. Carly developed trouble sleeping. Some days she was cheerful and engaged. Other days she was quiet, withdrawn, and anxious. At first, her parents thought it was just normal teenage behavior. But soon things seemed to be getting more serious. Heath later testified that he discovered Carly had been cutting herself.
The cuts were hidden under her clothes on her thighs, where no one could see them. They were superficial, but deliberate. Carly used pain to cope with emotions she couldn’t express. Then other disturbing signs appeared. Her parents discovered that Carly was secretly using second cell phones, vaping marijuana, and talking behind closed doors to an older male friend.
She led two lives: one as the cheerful, high-achieving student everyone knew, and another as a troubled teenager hiding her pain. When confronted about it, Carly often became defensive or angry. She didn’t want to open up or talk about what was going on, but deep down, she was struggling with something even more complicated.
Carly’s therapist later explained that she often felt responsible for her mother’s happiness. She wanted to be perfect for Ashley and couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing her. By December 2023, Ashley and Heath decided to seek professional help for her. They found a therapist, and in January 2024, Carly was prescribed Zoloft, a medication commonly used to treat depression and anxiety in teenagers.
For a brief period, things seemed to calm down. But inside, Carly began to break down in a way no one could notice. She started hearing voices that weren’t really there. She felt like the world around her wasn’t real and had frightening thoughts she couldn’t stop. She wrote about it in her diary, but kept those pages secret.
On March 12, 2024, exactly one week before the tragedy, Carly wrote: “I think I had a psychotic episode earlier. The whole ordeal is pretty silly. I actually talked to one of the voices in my head. Well, I only heard it earlier today, but that’s the only time I do that. My special friend and I were practically screaming bloodthirsty and ravenous.”
“Thank God a physical confrontation wasn’t possible. I sound crazy.” This diary entry later became very important in court. Some people thought it showed that Carly was genuinely struggling with her mental health, but others believed she was writing it intentionally to create an excuse for what she planned to do next.
The next day, Carly went back to her nurse for a medication check. She said that the Zoloft was making her feel numb and shut down, so her prescription was changed to Lexapro, another antidepressant. This change occurred just six days before the shooting. No one realized it at the time, but something inside Carly was spiraling out of control.
March 19, 2024, began as an ordinary Tuesday in Brandon, Mississippi. Ashley Smiley went to work at Northwest Ranken High School, where she taught and where her 14-year-old daughter, Carly Madison Greg, was a ninth-grade student. Her husband, Heath Smiley, left for work shortly afterward. Around mid-morning, something happened that would set in motion the events of that afternoon.
A friend of Carly’s, concerned about her behavior, approached Ashley at school. He told her that Carly regularly vaped marijuana, that she had second cell phones, and that she had spoken to boys Ashley didn’t know about. Those who spoke to Ashley later said she wasn’t angry, but concerned; more worried about her daughter’s well-being than angry about the rule violation itself. The school day ended.
Ashley and Carly drove home together. This is where the surveillance cameras recorded the events. Around 3:54 p.m., Ashley’s car pulled into the garage. She and Carly got out, entered the house together, and brought in the family’s two dogs. Nothing in the footage indicated any argument or tension.
The floor plan of the Smileys’ house is important to understand what happened next. The garage is connected to a small laundry room that opens into the kitchen. To the right of the kitchen is Carly’s bedroom. To the left, further down a hallway, is the master bedroom where Ashley and Heath sleep. Surveillance cameras covered several areas of the house.
The garage, the kitchen, the laundry room. They recorded continuously and uploaded the footage to the cloud in real time. Ashley goes to Carly’s bedroom. That makes sense, considering what she’d learned at school that day. She wanted to look for the vape pens and marijuana cartridges to take away from Carly.
Carly takes the dogs out into the backyard. For a few minutes, all is quiet. Ashley is in Carly’s room searching. Carly is outside with the dogs. Then Carly comes back in. The footage shows Carly walking slowly through the kitchen. She isn’t rushed or panicked. She moves purposefully, looking toward her bedroom, where she knows her mother is going through her things.
Then she turned and walked in the opposite direction to the master bedroom. Around 4:00 p.m., Carly entered her parents’ bedroom and retrieved her mother’s .357 Magnum handgun from under the mattress. She concealed the weapon behind her back as she moved through the house.
Less than a minute later, Carly returned through the house. She walked carefully now, her right arm awkwardly clasped behind her back. As she passed the kitchen doorway, she paused and glanced inside to make sure Ashley hadn’t left the bedroom. Carly went into her bedroom. Three gunshots rang out.
Ashley was shot multiple times in the head and torso. Although she lived for a brief moment after being shot, the wounds proved fatal within minutes. The medical examiner would later testify about the trajectory and effect of the three bullets. The first shot struck Ashley in the shoulder. The second hit her in the neck.
Any one of those wounds could have been fatal, but the third shot sealed Ashley’s fate. It was fired from less than three feet away, directly into her face, just above her right eye. And then, in the moments after she took her mother’s life, Carly Greg did something that would become the most controversial and analyzed aspect of the entire case.
She calmly went back into the kitchen and sat down. The timestamp on the surveillance footage is crucial here. Ashley was shot sometime between 4:43 p.m. and 4:47 p.m. Based on audio analysis, Carly didn’t contact 911 until 4:57 p.m. This means there were approximately 10 to 13 minutes that Carly was alone in the house with her mother’s body.
During those minutes, she didn’t try to help her mother. She didn’t call for help. Instead, what she did next became central to the prosecution’s argument that this wasn’t a psychotic episode or a moment of temporary insanity, but a calculated, deliberate act, followed by attempts to cover it up and continue the violence. The kitchen camera shows Carly sitting at the counter.
She still holds the gun behind her back, out of the camera’s view. She picks up her mother’s iPhone from where Ashley had left it on the counter. Carly knows her mother’s passcode. She unlocks the phone and opens the messaging app. She texts Heath Smiley: “When are you coming home, honey?” The choice of words was deliberate.
“Honey” is what Ashley calls Heath. Carly pretended to be her mother and tried to convince Heath that everything was normal at home and persuade him to come back. Heath replied that he would be leaving work soon and would probably be home in about an hour. Carly sent a thumbs-up emoji back.
Then she started calling her friends. She made FaceTime calls to several people in the minutes after she killed her mother. She told them she’d really messed up, that she’d done something terrible. She was crying, upset, but not completely incoherent. When a friend asked if they should call 911, Carly said, “No, don’t. Don’t call anyone.” Instead, she invited one particular friend over.
When this friend arrived, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Carly opened the door and asked, “Do corpses make you squeamish?” Carly took her friend inside and showed her Ashley’s body, which was lying on the floor of Carly’s bedroom. The friend testified that she was terrified and numb, not knowing what to do or how to process what she had seen.
But Carly wasn’t finished with her explanations. She told her friend, “I gave my mother three. I gave my stepfather three more. He’s on his way home now.” Then Carly told her friend to hide in the backyard. When Heath came home, Carly planned to finish what she had started. Before he arrived, Carly did something that investigators would later describe as deeply disturbing.
She repositioned her mother’s body and folded Ashley’s hands over her stomach, as if placing her in a coffin. Then she draped a red towel over her mother’s face, covering the gunshot wound. And as the minutes ticked by, the kitchen camera captured something else. Carly hummed and sang softly to herself while her mother’s body lay in the next room.
Heath Smiley left work around 5:00 PM. He had received a message from the person he believed to be his wife, asking when he would be home. Everything seemed normal. He had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. When Heath arrived home, he got out of his car and went to the door that led to the laundry room and the kitchen.
When Heath opened the door, Carly was already waiting for him with a gun. As soon as he entered, she fired several shots. One of the bullets hit Heath in the shoulder, very close to his face. Despite the pain, Heath reacted without thinking. Being much bigger and stronger, he charged at Carly and tried to wrest the gun from her to stop her.
More shots rang out during the struggle. Heath later said he wasn’t sure who fired those last bullets, and all he could think about was taking the gun away from Carly. All the while, Carly screamed without saying a word; she just screamed. Heath later said the sound was wild and terrifying, completely unlike anything he had ever heard her do before.
Finally, he wrested the gun from her hands. The moment he did, Carly ran out the back door and down the street, with her friend chasing after her. [Screaming] Heath, still in shock and bleeding, began searching the house for an intruder. At first, he couldn’t believe what had happened. He thought someone else must have attacked Carly, and she had only been trying to defend herself.
Then he entered Carly’s bedroom. There he found Ashley. He immediately grabbed his phone to dial 911, even though he was still bleeding.
“What happened? What’s going on? Your daughter tried to shoot you.”
“They laughed when they shot at me.”
“Where is she?”
“How old is she?”
“14.” [clears throat]
„14.“
“Okay, ma’am. Stay on the phone with… ma’am, stay on the phone with me. Just calm down. What’s your name? Throw it.”
“Are you smiling?”
“Yes, sir. Yes, did she meet you?”
“Yes, I was hit a little in the neck. It wasn’t me.”
“Okay. So, did it brush against your neck?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“All right. And what is your name?”
„Carly Greg.“
“Carly Greg. Does she still have a gun on her?”
“I took it away from her. She ran away.”
“They took it away from her and she ran away.”
“Yes, sir. She was shouting at me about something. I couldn’t understand it. I locked the door. She’s outside. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Which direction did she run away in? She ran into the backyard over a… ran into the backyard and jumped over your fence.”
“What is she? Uh…”
“What is she wearing?”
“Uh, a T-shirt, a grey shirt and some jeans.”
“Grey shirt and jeans. Approximately how tall is she?” [clears throat] “Uh, 5’2”.
“Approximately 5’2″. What hair color?”
“Light brown. Sorry, sort of brownish. Just short hair. Fired at me. And we just screamed.” [clears throat]
“Okay, just calm down for me. Oh my God. We all hated her mother.”
“You what?”
“She killed her mother.”
“She killed her mother.”
“Yes. Shout about it: Where is the mother? When I did that, she tried to kill me.”
“Where is the mother?”
„Sir. Sir, Sir. Sir…“
“Sir. Your wife.”
“Where is your wife?”
“She is dead on the floor of my daughter’s… stepdaughter’s room.”
“She’s on the floor in your stepdaughter’s room. Stepdaughter and her mother. I don’t know what’s going on. The footsteps were there for a little while, trying to find out…”
Paramedics and police arrived within minutes. The quiet street on Ashton Way in Brandon, Mississippi, was flooded with emergency vehicles.
“Hey, where… what is your son wearing? Hey, can you… can you tell me what your son is wearing? Hey, I need you to talk to me. What is your son wearing?”
“She was wearing jeans and a greyish T-shirt. She has short brownish hair.”
“So, jeans, a grey T-shirt, short brown hair.”
“She ran into the backyard. I tried to follow her. She jumped over a fence and ran away. She shot me in the back.”
“That’s okay. I think…”
“Does she still have the weapon?”
“It’s lying on the kitchen counter. I think there’s still a live round in it. I opened the cylinder. I went in through the back door and she tried to shoot me.”
“What’s your name, buddy?”
„Carly Greg.“
„Carly Greg. Ja.“
“How old is she?”
“14. She will be 15 next month.”
„Okay.“
While first responders treated Heath and secured the house, other officers began searching the neighborhood for Carly. She had fled on foot, jumping fences and taking shortcuts through backyards, leaving everyone unsure of her whereabouts. A deputy patrolling Farmington Boulevard, just a few blocks from the Smileys’ home, noticed a young girl standing near a drainage ditch. She seemed small for her age, disoriented, and frightened. It was Carly.
The deputy stopped his vehicle and cautiously approached her. She admitted to being involved in the incident. Carly was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car. While in the police car, Carly repeatedly asked if Heath was okay and if he would survive his injuries. The car later stopped so officers could perform a gunshot residue test on her hands to determine which hand she had used to fire the weapon.
“Is that ok?”
“I don’t know, baby. I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Back at the house, however, investigators were met with a shocking scene. Evidence was everywhere: surveillance footage from multiple cameras, text messages, phone logs, and physical traces left behind. When they pieced it all together, it clearly showed what had happened that day.
But what investigators couldn’t determine, and what the trial would later focus on, wasn’t what happened, but why it happened. Everyone knew what Carly had done. The real question was whether she had acted during a nervous breakdown or whether she knew exactly what she was doing. The question was why, and more importantly, whether Carly was legally responsible for her actions.
Carly Madison Greg was initially placed in a juvenile detention center, but that didn’t last long. Given the seriousness of the charges and the nature of the crime, prosecutors decided to charge her as an adult. She faced three charges: first-degree murder for the killing of Ashley Smiley, attempted murder for shooting Heath Smiley, and tampering with evidence for hiding the kitchen security camera.
Under Mississippi law, first-degree murder carries only two possible sentences: life imprisonment with the possibility of parole or life imprisonment without parole. Since Carly was a juvenile, the death penalty was not an option. The Supreme Court had ruled years earlier that executing someone for a crime committed as a minor was unconstitutional.
Being charged as an adult meant Carly would be placed in an adult facility, but because she was still a minor, she had to be kept separate from adult inmates. In practice, this meant solitary confinement. For the next six months, from March 2024 until her trial in September, Carly Greg spent 23 to 24 hours a day alone in a cell.
She had no contact with other inmates and limited contact with the guards. Her only regular visitors were her lawyers. The isolation was extremely difficult for everyone, but especially for a 14-year-old who already struggled with mental health issues. Her defense team argued that keeping her in these conditions worsened her condition, exacerbated her symptoms, and violated her rights as a minor.
But the judge ruled there was no alternative. Mississippi law stipulated that juvenile offenders tried as adults must be kept separate from the adult population. If that meant solitary confinement, so be it. Meanwhile, both sides prepared for trial, constructing diametrically opposed narratives about who Carly Greg was and what happened on March 19.
The prosecution’s version of events was simple. Carly Greg was a teenager leading a double life, using drugs, talking to boys, and hiding second cell phones from her parents. When her mother found out and began searching her room, Carly made a cold, calculated decision to end her mother’s life. The composure seen in the surveillance footage showed that she knew she had done something wrong.
The text messages to Heath revealed planning and dishonesty. The way the body was positioned showed a disturbing lack of remorse. And the attempt to hurt Heath showed that this wasn’t just a moment of loss of control, but a carefully considered plan to hurt both of her parents. Yes, Carly had some mental health issues, things like anxiety, depression, and typical teenage problems.
But none of that meant she was legally insane. She knew the difference between right and wrong. She knew it was wrong to hurt someone, and the fact that she tried to hide her actions showed she understood it was against the law. The defense’s narrative was entirely different. Carly Greg was a profoundly mentally ill child who had suffered for years from conditions no one fully understood.
She had a genetic predisposition for severe psychiatric illness, inherited from her biological father, who suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She had heard voices since childhood, possibly as early as age nine. She experienced dissociation, derealization, and intrusive thoughts that frightened her. For years, she had engaged in self-harm to cope with overwhelming emotions.
Then, just six days before the murder, her medication was switched from Zoloft to Lexapro. For someone with underlying bipolar disorder, such a medication change can trigger manic episodes or worsen psychotic symptoms. By March 19, Carly was in the midst of a full-blown psychotic episode. Under Mississippi law, in order to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, the defense had to prove that, at the time of the crime, Carly did not understand the nature and severity of her actions or that she did not know what she was doing was wrong.
That’s an incredibly high hurdle. Insanity pleas are successful in less than 1% of criminal cases, but Carly’s defense team believed they had the evidence to make it happen. And if they were successful, Carly wouldn’t go to prison. She would be committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment. If she stabilized and was no longer considered a danger, she could eventually be released.
But first, they would have to convince a jury. And before that decision was made, the prosecution made an offer. In August 2024, just weeks before the trial was due to begin, the prosecution offered Carly’s defense team a deal. She could plead guilty to all three charges, and in return, the state would recommend a 40-year sentence in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
The other two charges, attempted murder and evidence tampering, would be dropped or combined with this sentence. Forty years. For a 14-year-old, that meant she wouldn’t be released until she was 54. She would spend her entire teenage years and most of her adult life in prison. But when it came time to decide, Carly did something no one expected.
“All right, Miss, uh, Greg, did you receive this recommendation from 40 years ago?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And it was your decision, and your decision alone, to reject this recommendation?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
At just 14 years old, Carly Madison Greg chose to try her luck with a jury rather than accept a 40-year prison sentence. Her lawyers supported her decision. They believed they had a strong mental health-based defense and that once the jurors learned about Carly’s history and heard their expert testimony, they would see this as the case of a troubled young girl who needed help, not someone acting out of cruelty. Carly sat at the defense table, flanked by her lawyers.
She looked even younger than 14. Throughout the entire trial, she was frequently seen crying, covering her ears during particularly difficult witness testimonies, and seemed genuinely distraught by what was shown and said.
“Over all the time you’ve known Carly, would you describe her as hard-hearted?”
“No.”
“Would you describe her as calculating?”
“No. Except in math.”
“Would you describe them as devilish?”
“No.”
“How would you describe Carly?”
“She’s just a sweet little girl, ever since I’ve known her.”
But then Heath had to describe the worst moment of that day: finding Ashley’s body in Carly’s bedroom.
“Heath, when… when you saw her lying there, um, what is the very first thing… that you did after that?”
“Uh, checked her pulse and saw it, and somehow moved the towel and then called 911.”
“And Heath, when you moved the towel, um, what did you see?”
“I knew she had been shot. Oh, there was blood everywhere, but I don’t really remember exactly where. Somewhere on the right side of her face.”
The courtroom was silent except for the sound of Carly weeping at the defense table. It was a powerful, emotional moment that set the tone for what followed. As the witness testimonies continued, the focus shifted from what Carly had done to why she had done it. The crux of the trial became the question of her mental state on the day of the killing. Both sides brought in mental health experts, each of whom painted a vastly different picture of Carly Greg.
The prosecution called four specialists to the witness stand who had examined her after her arrest. They agreed that she was a troubled teenager struggling with anxiety, depression, and self-harm, but not legally insane. Their testimony emphasized intent and awareness, arguing that Carly’s actions on March 19, 2024, were deliberate. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew it was wrong.
The prosecution emphasized Carly’s deliberate actions: unlocking her mother’s phone, mimicking her tone of voice in a message, and luring her stepfather home. To them, these were signs of calculation, not confusion. Even her therapist, who had treated her before the murder, said she had never shown any signs of psychosis, delusions, or violence.
Her medical experts addressed her recent switch from Zoloft to Lexapro, acknowledging potential side effects but insisting that the dosage was standard and the switch medically appropriate. They maintained there was no evidence that this could have caused a psychotic episode. By the end of the trial, the courtroom was divided between two opposing viewpoints.
The defense portrayed Carly as a deeply troubled child whose fragile mind had been shattered by mental illness and medication side effects. The prosecution, however, described her as a calculating teenager who knew exactly what she was doing and executed it with precision. Which version the jury chose to believe would determine the rest of Carly Madison Greg’s life.
When it was the defense’s turn, attorney Bridget Todd spoke with great emotion. She told the jury that Carly was not a cold-blooded killer, but a deeply troubled child. Todd explained her history of anxiety, depression, and hearing voices, arguing that a change in her medication could have triggered a nervous breakdown.
She said this tragedy had destroyed three lives—Ashley, Heath, and Carly—and that what appeared to be planning was actually confusion. Todd concluded by asking the jury not to see Carly as a monster, but as a sick 14-year-old who needed help, not a life behind bars. The jurors deliberated for less than two hours, a clear indication that they had reached a firm consensus.
“Okay, the verdicts appear to be in order. The jury’s verdict for count one: We, the jurors, find the defendant, Carly Madison Greg, guilty of first-degree murder, as charged. Count two: We, the jurors, find the defendant, Carly Madison Greg, guilty of attempted murder, as charged. Count three: We, the jurors, find the defendant, Carly Madison Greg, guilty of tampering with evidence, as charged.”
“Starting in the front row, Ma’am, is that your verdict?”
“Sir, is this your verdict?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Ma’am, is this your verdict? Sir, is this your verdict? Ma’am, is this your verdict? You must answer loudly. Ma’am, I’m sorry.”
“Yes.”
“In the back row. Sir, is this your verdict? Ma’am, is this your verdict? Ma’am, is this your verdict?”
“Sir, is this your ruling? Ma’am, is this your ruling? Ma’am, is this your ruling? Ma’am, is this your ruling? This ruling is formally valid and unanimous.”
Here’s what they concluded. The defense of insanity had been completely rejected. The jury agreed with the prosecution that Carly knew exactly what she was doing. Next came the sentencing phase. Under Mississippi law, the jury had three options: life with the possibility of parole, life without parole, or leaving the decision to the judge.
“Regarding count one, we, the jury, sentence the defendant Carly Madison Greg to life imprisonment. Regarding count two, we, the jury, sentence the defendant Carly Madison Greg to life imprisonment.”
The verdict was life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. For the attempted murder charge, Carly received a further life sentence, to be served concurrently. At just 15 years old, Carly Madison Greg was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison. Reactions were mixed. Ashley Smiley’s family felt that justice had been served, while others were heartbroken that a child would spend her entire life behind bars.
Carly wept quietly as deputies led her back to the detention center, where she would remain until she was transferred to an adult facility. The case of Carly Greg ended without a sense of victory, only with the lasting weight of a tragedy that devastated an entire family. Carly’s father, Kevin Greg, spoke to the media. He believed her illness was inherited and that the system had failed her long before the tragedy.
Carly’s defense team pressed for a retrial, claiming that crucial evidence regarding her mental health had been excluded, particularly Kevin’s account of Carly’s childhood hallucinations. But Judge Dwey Arthur denied the motion, ruling that even if it had been allowed, it would not have changed the verdict. The defense has since appealed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, though such reversals are rare. For now, Carly remains in a juvenile detention center in Pearl.
When she turns 18, she will be transferred to the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, where she will spend the rest of her life. Her attorney, Bridget Todd, insists that the system failed her. She argues that a mentally ill child should never have been tried as an adult. The prosecution, however, maintains that justice has been served and that Carly planned her actions and understood the consequences of what she was doing.
Carly’s appeal could take years, and even if successful, it would mean another trial, not freedom. For now, she remains behind bars, just 15 years old, facing a life defined by what happened when she was 14.
