Day-Care Aide Pleads Innocent in Slaying : Justice: Former child-care worker, Gregory Scott Smith, is described by attorneys as a childlike man who couldn’t have slain 8-year-old Paul Bailly.

Murder suspect and former day-care worker Gregory Scott Smith was described by one of his attorneys Monday as a childlike man who engaged in “rough play” with the children he cared for at day-care centers.

Ventura County Deputy Public Defender Duane Dammeyer made the comment after entering a not-guilty plea for Smith, 21, in the March 23 slaying of 8-year-old Paul Bailly, whose gagged body was found burning in a field near Simi Valley on March 23.

“It was rough play, but there was no abuse,” Dammeyer said.

Smith “would play dodge-ball, and instead of perhaps tempering your throw like an adult would, he’d play these games to win,” throwing the ball full force at the children, Dammeyer said. His former co-workers described him “as being competitive with the latchkey children,” the public defender said.

Smith, 21, of Canoga Park, who was quiet during his arraignment in Ventura County Municipal Court, could be sentenced to death if convicted of murder, kidnaping and arson charges in the slaying of the boy.

Judge Thomas Hutchins ordered Smith held without bail and scheduled a June 4 preliminary hearing. He also granted Dammeyer’s request that a court-ordered seal remain on all documents filed in Smith’s case, such as the report on searches of Smith’s home and car. Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris told Hutchins that the preliminary hearing probably will last one day.

PTA records show that Smith had a pattern of roughness with children in his care at San Fernando Valley latchkey programs. In such programs, children are taken care of while their parents are working and school is out.

Two PTA-run day-care centers fired him in the first three months of 1990 for failing to heed supervisors’ warnings to stop punishing children so harshly. He had worked part time in at least eight other day-care centers.

Paul attended the Darby Avenue Elementary School day care, where Smith worked mornings from September, 1988, until he was fired in March.

PTA logs reported incidents in which Smith dragged a little girl across the floor, causing rug burns on her shoulder. In another instance, Smith reportedly forced children to clean up vomit.

Dammeyer said Monday that, in addition to rough play, “there was probably yelling, but that’s a far cry from being consistent with these reports.” After interviewing Smith’s co-workers, “the consensus seems to be that he acts like a 10- or 12-year-old,” said Deputy Public Defender Richard Holly. “We’re just puzzled with how it could be that somebody like Greg Smith could be responsible for a crime like this.”

Paul disappeared from the Darby school after his mother dropped him off there at 7 a.m. In the afternoon, firefighters found Paul’s body at the center of a brush fire in a field in the Santa Susana Knolls area, south of Simi Valley.

The Ventura County coroner ruled that Paul had vomited while his mouth was gagged with tape, and either choked to death or was strangled. His body was set afire after he died, ruled Coroner F. Warren Lovell.

Dammeyer and Holly were appointed Monday to defend Smith after his private attorney, Barry F. Hammond of Van Nuys, suggested that Smith’s family could not afford to pay his legal fees.

Dammeyer said Smith plays only a passive role in the planning of his case. Smith understands what is happening to him, “but it’s a child’s understanding,” Holly said.