Jackson Jambalaya

 If Carly Gregg gets a new trial, she is going to have to fight her way through prosecutors determined to see she does not get one. 

Carly Gregg filed a motion for a new trial September 26 in Rankin County Circuit Court.  A jury sentenced her to life in prison without parole after convicting her of first-degree murder and attempted murder .  Gregg was 14 years-old when she killed her mother and shot her stepfather on March 19.  The motion also asked Circuit Judge Dewey Arthur to throw out the verdict in the alternative.  Attorney Bridget Todd filed to motion on behalf of Gregg.  

A Jury of Kids? 

Assistant District Attorneys Kathryn Newman minced no words in a 51-page response to Gregg's motion Monday. Todd argued Gregg was not tried by a jury of her peers.  She posited since Mississippi law requires jurors to be at least 21 years old although Gregg was tried as an adult.  Todd said it was impossible to meet the requirement for Gregg to have a jury of people that were of her own age.

Hogwash said Newman. Todd did not cite any authority in claiming Carly was not tried by a jury of her peers.  She pointed out Todd "failed to object to the jury panel at any time during the trial."  She did not strike any prospective jurors.  The response summed the prosecution's rebuttal rather succinctly: "The right to a jury of one's peers does not entitle him to a jury which includes convicted felons or bootleggers."  

 

The WLBT Fable

WLBT interviewed Carly's father, Kevin, on September 26.  Todd claimed in her JNOV motion Kevin said in the unaired portion of the interview that Carly was placed in equestrian therapy as a child "due to experiencing auditory hallucinations (hearing voices).   

WLBT busted Todd on September 30 for the fiction.  WLBT reviewed the transcript and Zoom video as well as interviewing the reporters involved. The news station said Kevin Gregg did not make any such statement. Todd did not submit any transcripts, recordings, or evidence to back up her claim.  Article & video.  Just to drive the point home, WLBT released the entire video.  Video and article. 

Newman stated "This statement is simply not true. The State hopes that this misrepresentation was unintentional rather an intentional lie to the Court."  Ouch.  The prosecutor added there were "zero medical records, counseling records, and/or therapy records" before Ashley Smiley's murder that Carly Gregg was suffering from "auditory hallucinations."  

The Exclusion of Witnesses

Gregg "timely disclosed her witness list" to the state 13 days prior to trial on September 3.  However, the discovery was due on August 20 per Judge Arthur's order.  The state did not produce its witness list until September 8.  Todd complained the Court found the attorney "engaged in a willful discovery violation" in order to gain a tactical advantage at trial. The Court struck two defense witnesses, Carly's grandmother and uncle.  Todd called the "radical sanction" improper and a gross violation of Gregg's Sixth Amendment rights.  

One untold story of the Carly Gregg case is how her lawyers repeatedly flouted the rules of criminal procedure and Judge Arthur's orders.  The defense  ignored discovery deadlines.  A fed-up Judge Dewey Arthur ordered the defense to provide all discovery to the prosecution by August 20.  August 20 came and went yet the defense, Newman claimed, did not provide the names of all of its witnesses nor the substance of their testimony as required. 

Even though witnesses were excluded, Todd could have proffered their testimony at trial outside of the jury's presence to preserve it for appeal.  This Todd did not do.   Although Toddy's motion did not identify the two witnesses in question, Newman said they were Vicki Breland, Carly's grandmother, and James Floyd, Carly's uncle by marriage.  The response states the defense sent a witness list but did not include any statements of what their testimony would be.  

Newman cited Page v. State (269 So. 3d 440) in defense of her position.  The defendant did not provide the names of his witnesses until 11 days before trial while offering no explanation for his tardiness.  The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled the witnesses were properly excluded.  Judge Arthur cited the case at a September 10 hearing but Todd's Co-Counsel Kevin Camp pleaded ignorance of the case. 

Todd did not provide the testimony of Breland, Floyd, and other witnesses prior to trial (p.24).  Newman argues the Court properly excluded their testimony but for that which the state already recorded in interviews. 

 

Is she sane or is she not sane? 

The motion for JNOV states "

 The undisputed evidence at trial of Carly’s mental illness, loving relationship with her mother and stepfather, absence of prior criminal charges, absence of prior violence, good school record, maternal family support, community support, the victim’s testimony that Carly was not in her right mind and did not recognize him at the time of the offense, and the State’s admission to an absence of motive to commit the alleged crimes do not support the verdict or sentence in this case. Therefore, this matter calls for a new trial, or in the alternative, a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Nice try, said the State.  The standard for determining insanity is the M"naghten test.  The test requires the Court to find whether the defendant knew right or wrong when the act is committed.  The defense had to prove Carly Gregg literally did not know what she was doing and that it was wrong.  

Newman stated the prosecution does not have to prove motive "as an element" of the crimes charged to Carly.  Unlike Todd who cited no cases in support of her position, Newman cited four cases while noting Todd did not object to any jury instructions that omitted any mention of motive.

 The prosecution also disputed Todd's claim there was "undisputed evidence at trial of Carly's mental illness.  Although Heath Smiley, Carly's stepfather, testified Carly "was not in her right mind" shen she shot him, there was plenty of evidence to show she knew what she was doing.  

The security camera in the kitchen shows Gregg calmly walking across the den with the gun hidden behind her back.  Three shots ring out as Gregg kills her mother. Gregg calmly walks into the kitchen while keeping the gun hidden from the camera and places the gun on the counter.  

Gregg calmly and deliberately texted Heath Smiley on her mom's phone, asking Heath when he would be home.  She called a friend over to her house and said she was going to kill her stepdad.  She showed her mother's body to her friend.  Carly asked her friend "if she wanted to go outside while she took care of her stepdad." Gregg fled the crime scene, thus betraying her claim she did not know right from wrong. She knew why she was the target of a search when discovered by police.  

The state discounted Heath's testimony: 

Heath sayingCarly was not in her right mind does not meet the M’Nagthen standard. Our appellate court has found that a strange look on the defendant’s face at the time of a shooting was not enough to prove insanity.

Although Carly's expert witness, Dr. Andrew Clark, testified she suffered from Bipolar disorder II and shizophrenia, such diagnosis did not mean Gregg did not know right from wrong.  Although Todd repeatedly argued placing Carly on Lexapro five days prior to the murder caused her to go insane, Newman stated such a claim was not enough to meet the M'Nagthen standard. 

Should Carly Gregg be in an adult prison? 

Todd argued in her motion for JNOV her client should not be placed in an adult prison.  Carly is not in an adult prison as stated by Todd.  State law requires MDOC to operate a juvenile offender unit at CMCF in Rankin County.  Thus Gregg is housed in a prison of her peers.  Newman took some trouble to point out these basic facts as she dismissed Todd's claim. 

Defense struck out on pretrial motions

The motion for JNOV charges the Court erred in granting all of the state's pre-trial, trial, and post-trial motions while denying all of same motions by the defense. A substantial number of the prosecution's pre-trial motions were approved without argument because the defense once again did not respond on time.  It was a pattern throughout the case.  Todd struck out on her motion to transfer the case to Youth Court as expected.  State and federal precedent allow Carly Gregg to be tried as an adult for murder. 

Todd also claimed the Court made a mistake in allowing Carly's drug screen at the Rankin County youth detention center to be used for impeachment purposes only at trial.  However, such argument is moot because the state did not present the drug test results at trial.  

Kingfish note: The Court should seriously consider sanctioning Todd for the WLBT claim and the bogus motion to dismiss for a Brady violation.