Lawyers for the teenager said that "she has been detained in solitary confinement and not allowed visitors (with the sole exception of her attorneys), or the ability to speak with anyone for twenty-three (23) hours of the day."
A 15-year-old Mississippi girl who killed her mother is being held in solitary confinement at a local jail.
The high school freshman, then 14, surrendered to police back in March after admitting she shot and killed her mother, beloved school teacher Ashley Smylie.
On Friday, a jury sentenced her to life in prison following a weeklong trial.
After shooting her mother, she then texted her stepfather from her mother's phone to lure him home and attempted to murder him as well, prosecutors alleged in their opening statement.
Heath Smylie arrived home and was able to disarm the teenager and call 911, but not before being grazed by one of the two bullets fired at him by his stepdaughter
Prosecutors decided to try the teenager as an adult and charge her with murder, at which time she was booked into the Rankin Detention Center and placed in solitary confinement, according to her lawyers.
In a motion filed back in May, lawyers for the teenager said that "she has been detained in solitary confinement and not allowed visitors (with the sole exception of her attorneys), or the ability to speak with anyone for twenty-three (23) hours of the day."
The defense argued that this arrangement was "deteriorating [their client's] mental state" and pointed out that both adults and minors charged with the same crime were not being placed in solitary confinement. In addition, the defense motion said that both Heath and the family of victim Ashley were in favor of the court reducing her bond, which at the time had been set by the judge at $1 million.
Ultimately, the judge did not reduce the bond and in July declined to move the teenager to a different facility after another request from the defense.
The minor is now able to speak on the phone with her stepfather during her one hour out of confinement however after he dropped a no-contact order he filed after the shooting.
During testimony on Thursday, at least one medical expert could be heard saying in a video that played in court that the teenager's time in solitary confinement may explain why she seems so detached.
Video however from after the moment she shot her mother shows the defendant casually sending out texts and inviting over friends.
A friend of the minor testified earlier this week that they arrived at the defendant's home to find Ashley dead in the bedroom with a towel covering her head. The minor testified that the defendant then said that she shot her mother three times in the head.
Video shows the minor and the defendant fleeing the home that day after Heath came home and managed to wrestle the gun away from the defendant, who discharged the weapon twice. One bullet grazed his shoulder but he suffered no major injuries.
Heath took the stand on Tuesday and made it clear that it is his opinion that his stepchild suffers from mental illness and that her actions on the day she killed her mother and tried to kill him were out of her control.
“It was evident to me immediately that something was very wrong with [redacted],” Heath testified on Tuesday. “The way [redacted] was screaming, the way [redacted] looked, [redacted] was moving so fast.”
He went on to say that he views the defendant as their biological child and, under questioning by the prosecution, said he could not remember his comments to police, most of which were disparaging of the defendant as he spoke to detectives shortly after the death of his wife.
“I knew that she had been shot, there was blood around, I’m not sure exactly where, on the right side of her face,” Heath said.
Prosecutors said in their opening statement that the defendant shot their mother after a friend alerted Ashley to her daughter's alleged drug use.
The defense meanwhile said that while the defendant did shoot their mother and attempt to kill their stepfather, the child was suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness at the time.
A plea deal had been offered to the defendant prior to trial that would have seen her sentenced to 40 years in prison, but it was rejected by the defense.
A lawyer for the defendant did not respond to a request for comment.
Related Stories
