Brain Damage Attributed at Penalty Trial to Slayer of Boy, 8

A neurologist asked Gregory Scott Smith to smile Wednesday in his penalty trial for the 1990 kidnap-murder of an 8-year-old Northridge boy, then diagnosed Smith as mildly brain-damaged, during testimony that was meant to aid prosecutors.

While prosecutors argue that Smith, of Canoga Park, has average intelligence and should be executed for killing Paul Bailly, Smith’s attorneys are seeking to prove that he is mentally retarded and brain-damaged and should be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Testimony is expected to end next week in the trial of the 23-year-old former day-care aide, who pleaded guilty to charges that he kidnaped, raped and strangled the boy and burned his body on March 23, 1990. The body was found in a burning field off Black Canyon Road near Simi Valley.

The Ventura County Superior Court jury is to recommend either execution or a life sentence to Judge Steven Z. Perren, who then must decide Smith’s fate.

Dr. Helen Mayberg of the University of Texas testified Wednesday that Smith’s lopsided smile indicates mild damage in the part of his brain that controls facial muscles. Prosecutors had called Mayberg to give testimony contradicting defense witnesses, who had said a scan of Smith’s head showed that his brain is abnormal.

On Tuesday, prosecutors called a UCLA neuropsychologist to the witness stand in an attempt to refute defense witnesses’ testimony that Smith suffers from brain abnormality, mild mental retardation and learning disabilities.

Jeffrey Schaeffer testified that it would be unusual for someone with learning disabilities to keep notes as detailed as the ones that Smith kept on several children in the day-care program.

While Schaeffer said he never examined Smith, he disagreed with another psychologist’s diagnosis that Smith suffers from a schizoid personality disorder.