Accused Killer of Boy Should Face Death Penalty, Judge Rules

A Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that Gregory Scott Smith should face the death penalty when he is tried in October on charges of murder, kidnaping and arson in the slaying of an 8-year-old boy.

Judge Steven Z. Perren ruled in favor of the district attorney’s office, which argued that Smith killed Paul Bailly of Northridge during a kidnaping he committed to embarrass the people who fired him from his job as a day-care aide.

Smith, 22, of Canoga Park had supervised Paul in a day-care program for latchkey children at Darby Avenue Elementary School in Northridge.

But on March 6, Los Angeles Unified School District officials fired Smith for playing too hard with the children, disciplining them too often and leaving them unattended.

Prosecutors have alleged that Smith kidnaped Paul on March 23, gagged him with duct tape and strangled him, then set fire to his body in the Santa Susana Knolls near Simi Valley.

In cases like this, the death penalty can be applied when the murder is committed during the course of a separate felony. That was the position taken by the district attorney’s office in connection with the charges against Smith.

The Ventura County public defender’s office argued last week, however, that Smith kidnaped Paul with the intent to kill him; this would make Paul’s death one crime instead of two.

Perren said Tuesday that he disagreed with part of the prosecution theory of the case, an argument by Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris that Smith kidnaped Paul to make him suffer before killing him.

“I cannot find any evidence that that is so,” Perren said.

But Perren said that testimony during Smith’s June 4 preliminary hearing supports another prosecution theory: that Smith wanted to embarrass school officials for firing him.

During the preliminary hearing, the latchkey program’s regional executive director, Harold Kuhn, testified that Smith threatened to “get me back” for being fired and told him, “I’m not out to get the children; I’m out to get you.” Perren said that that theory of Smith’s intent is enough to support the district attorney’s allegation that Smith committed the murder during a separate felony.

Perren said the law only requires him to decide whether Municipal Judge Lee E. Cooper Jr. acted properly in ruling after the preliminary hearing that Smith may face the death penalty if he is convicted. And he concluded, “The motion of the defense is denied.”

Assistant Public Defender Duane Dammeyer said he will appeal Perren’s ruling to the state 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Dammeyer said Smith was “as hopeful as we were” that Perren would detach the death penalty from his case, but added that Smith did not appear surprised by the judge’s ruling.