Man Held in Slaying of Boy, 8, Denies Sex Charges : Trials: Prosecutors remain tight-lipped about informant’s statements to investigators concerning former day-care employee Gregory Scott Smith.

Gregory Scott Smith pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Ventura County Municipal Court to sexual molestation charges that prosecutors added to the murder, kidnap and arson charges he already faced in the death of an 8-year-old Northridge boy.

An earlier complaint was dismissed and refiled with the new charges after a jailhouse informant told investigators that Smith discussed some circumstances surrounding Paul Bailly’s death.

The child’s bound, burned body was found March 23 in a field near Simi Valley, several hours after he disappeared from a day-care program for latchkey children in Northridge where Smith once supervised him.

The informant said Smith, 23, of Canoga Park, admitted to some of the elements of the case, according to court documents that Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren unsealed Wednesday at the request of The Times.

But prosecutors remain tight-lipped about the revelations, which are only alluded to in the court papers, and other documents that could shed light on Smith’s role in the case remain under court seal.

However, the unsealed documents show that informant Tracy Ray Prell told investigators that Smith admitted that he had sexually molested children ranging in age from 4 1/2 to 9.

According to court documents, Prell told a district attorney’s investigator that Smith used to stop outside his cell while on cleaning duty in the Ventura County Jail and talk to him through the crack in the door.

“He was not sure about talking,” Prell told investigator Michael McKendry in the interview. “But I made him believe that . . . we were friends. ‘Cause he’s never had a friend in his life. . . . He’s told me some pretty deep stuff. . . . He’s molested other children, from what he’s told me.”

Prell, 26, of Simi Valley, is serving two years for misdemeanor battery and obstructing a peace officer.

According to records of a private Dec. 13 courtroom conference that Perren unsealed Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Duane Dammeyer accused the district attorney’s office of planting Prell in a cell near Smith’s.

“That’s in the transcript,” Dammeyer told Perren during the conference. “He told the police officers, ‘I’m getting close to this guy, don’t move me.’ ”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory D. Totten said in an interview Wednesday: “We do not plant people in jail for purposes of getting statements from defendants.”

Prell’s development as a prosecution witness has forced the Smith case back to its starting point in Municipal Court.

On Dec. 17, Perren declared a mistrial after the public defender’s office bowed out of the case, saying it had represented Prell and thus would not be able to cross-examine him fairly during Smith’s trial.

Perren then dismissed the 72 potential jurors who already were qualified to hear the death-penalty case.

And on Wednesday, Perren dismissed the charges of murder, kidnaping and arson against Smith and ordered him sent to Municipal Court, where Smith was rearraigned on those charges, plus one count each of forcible child molestation and sodomy.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled April 25 in Municipal Court. Smith is being held without bail in Ventura County Jail.