A month after 15-year-old Carly Madison Gregg’s Rankin County murder trial ended with conviction, for which she was sentenced to two life sentences without parole, her defense’s appeal asking for a new trial is headed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
The Rankin teen was initially charged with the crimes of killing her mother, Ashley Smylie, and attempting to kill her stepfather, Heath Smylie, on March 19, earlier this year. Gregg’s defense team of Kevin Camp and Bridget Todd made it clear they would appeal the verdict immediately following the trial.
“In my opening statement, I said that on March 19th there were three victims,” Todd told Court TV after both lawyers detailed their plans for an appeal in the hours after the verdict came down. “That’s true again. It’s just a tragedy.”
Gregg’s defense team officially filed for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), a rare ruling that would allow Judge Dewey Arthur to overrule the jury’s verdict and either give his own or order a new trial. Rankin County Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman, who prosecuted the case alongside Michael Smith, says the appeal was expected.
“We will file a response to that. This happens in every case where a defendant is convicted, so this isn’t anything new to us,” Newman told Mary Wieden & You in earlier this month. “It’s pretty rare that a judge says, ‘Oh yeah, there was so much bad error in this trial that I oversaw that you should get a new trial.’”
In the motion for a new trial, Camp noted that the trial was not properly executed. He cited the exclusion of necessary witness restrictions that led to an unfair process.
“Witnesses necessary to establish Carly’s defense were improperly excluded from testifying at the trial. Witnesses were improperly restricted in the testimony they could provide in Carly’s defense,” Todd wrote in the motion. “Carly did not receive a fair and impartial trial.”
Gregg’s defense also argued that new evidence and material was recently discovered that could potentially produce a different result should a new trial be ordered.
In a response to the motion, state prosecutors Kathryn Newman and Michael Smith say the defense’s motion doesn’t comply with the Mississippi Rule of Criminal Procedures because it fails to state the “specific factual grounds and specific legal authority” in support of the allegations. They also said in the response that the initial verdict was correct and there were no errors that adversely affected the defendant.
Gregg’s conviction and sentencing came after initially turning down a plea deal that would have sent her to prison for 40 years and allowing her to forego a trial, which risked the heavier-handed sentencing that she eventually received. Newman and Smith say, that while the appeal motion from Gregg’s defense was expected, the outcome of the trial was just and correctly applied.
“We thought that 40 years was reasonable,” Newman said. “But certainly, we believed that life without parole is the appropriate sentence for her based on the facts and circumstances and the fact that she has still shown zero remorse for her actions.”
Both sides now await the decision of Judge Dewey Arthur on the appeal motion in Rankin County, while the separate appeal to Mississippi’s higher court will come within the next 270 days.
