Countywide : Jury Selection Starts in Penalty Phase

Jury selection began Thursday in a proceeding that will decide whether Gregory Scott Smith should be executed or sentenced to life in prison for kidnaping, molesting and strangling 8-year-old Paul Bailly and burning his body last year in Simi Valley.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren released 25 of the 99 potential jurors interviewed Thursday for a variety of excuses, ranging from one man’s conviction on charges of misdemeanor child abuse to a woman’s prior jury service in a murder trial.

Smith, 23, of Northridge, pleaded guilty Oct. 8 to charges of kidnaping, child molestation, forcible sodomy, murder and arson in the March 23, 1990, slaying of the Northridge boy. Because of a two-week Thanksgiving break, jury selection for the penalty phase is expected to last into December, attorneys said.