Ex-Day-Care Aide Goes on Trial in Murder of Boy
After 19 months of investigation, court delays and a mistrial, former Canoga Park day-care aide Gregory Scott Smith goes on trial today in Ventura County Superior Court on charges of kidnaping, child molestation, murder and arson in the March, 1990, slaying of 8-year-old Paul Bailly of Northridge.
Smith’s defense attorneys, James M. Farley and Willard P. Wiksell, plan to argue that Smith lacked the mental capacity to have intentionally killed Paul. Prosecutors, however, want Smith condemned to die.
Gregory D. Totten, one of two prosecutors in the case, said the evidence shows that Smith was sexually attracted to Paul, and that he plotted revenge on the boy after Paul made complaints that helped get Smith fired from a Northridge latchkey program.
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