SIMI VALLEY : Jurors Picked for Killer’s Sentencing
Attorneys on Wednesday finished choosing 12 jurors and four alternate jurors to decide whether Gregory Scott Smith should be executed or imprisoned for life for kidnaping, molesting and strangling an 8-year-old boy and setting fire to his body in 1990.
On Tuesday, the Superior Court jury in Ventura will begin hearing evidence on Smith’s motives in the death of Paul Bailly of Northridge, whose gagged and bound body was found in a burning field near Simi Valley on March 23, 1990.
Smith, 23, of Canoga Park, pleaded guilty Oct. 8, on the eve of his trial, to charges of kidnaping, child molestation, forcible sodomy, murder and arson in Paul’s death.
Firefighters answering a call to a brush fire discovered the boy’s body just a few hours after his mother dropped him off at a latchkey program in Northridge. Smith had been fired from his job at the program on March 6, 1990, after complaints about his conduct from several children, including Paul.
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