SIMI VALLEY : Mistrial Declared in Murder Case

A Ventura County Superior Court judge Monday declared a mistrial for child-murder defendant Gregory Scott Smith and appointed new lawyers for him after Smith’s public defenders said they also represent a key prosecution witness in the case.

Because of the conflict of interest, Judge Steven Z. Perren ordered the dismissal of 72 potential jurors who were already qualified to hear the death-penalty case.

Smith, 23, of Canoga Park, was to have been tried Jan. 8 on charges of murder, kidnaping and arson in the death of 8-year-old Paul Bailly of Northridge, whose gagged and burned body was found in a field near Simi Valley on March 23 after his disappearance that morning.

Jury selection was to have continued Monday. But Perren’s order effectively postponed the trial until the spring, allowing the new court-appointed defense attorneys, James M. Farley and Willard P. Wiksell of Ventura, time to prepare.

The conflict that prompted the mistrial involved Tracy Ray Prell, 26, of Simi Valley, a jailhouse informant in the Smith case who is serving a two-year sentence for misdemeanor battery and obstructing a peace officer.

The public defender’s office has represented Prell in the past and would be forbidden from cross-examining him at trial, said Assistant Public Defender Duane Dammeyer.