Juror: Innocent man went to jail
Member of panel that convicted Greg Kelley tormented by decision.
Late into the night, after about 12 hours of contentious deliberations marked by shouting matches, jurors in a controversial sex assault case filed into a courtroom where a young defendant awaited their verdict.
The judge in the State of Texas v. Greg Kelley asked the 12, one by one, to announce their individual conclusions as to whether the high school football star had carried out the crime of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old boy. The case had already taken a toll on the community, with strident Kelley supporters squaring off in courthouse hallways and on social media against others convinced of his guilt.
As jurors took turns reciting their verdict — “guilty,” each of them declared — one holdout stifled two words he wanted desperately to say.
“I almost said ‘not guilty,’” he said, bowing his head as he recalled that tense moment in court during an interview with the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV. “I should have. We found an innocent person guilty.”
Three years later, the moment that helped send Kelley to prison replays itself in the juror’s mind every day, often loudest when he tries to sleep. Ever since that day in 2014, he has tried to take it back, saying other members of the panel coerced him because they wanted to conclude the trial and return to their lives.
“I think about what’s going on in his head sitting in that prison cell when he shouldn’t be,” said the juror, who agreed to an interview on the condition of anonym-
ity because of the controversy surrounding the case and because he lives in the same community as the families of Kelley and the boy.
After the revelation of new evidence that raises questions about whether Kelley committed the crime and points to a different suspect, the juror sometimes choked back tears as he recounted his failed attempts to sway a jury that he felt was influenced by pressure to reach a consensus.
“Nobody should have to go through something like that if they are innocent and they know they are innocent,” he said. “That kid had his whole life ahead of him. He had a scholarship to play football and everything, and we took that away.”
In the three weeks since Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick confirmed that officials have reopened the case and named Kelley’s former best friend as a suspect, the Statesman has attempted to reach each juror who convicted Kelley of super aggravated sexual assault, a crime that carries a minimum of 25 years in prison because of the age of the victim.
Of the 10 whose contact information could be found, only two responded to interview requests. The other, Michel Tetrault, said he decided to convict Kelley based on evidence at the trial. However, he said he now has second thoughts about what they did.
“Obviously, Kelley has to be let out of jail,” Tetrault said in a brief telephone interview with the Statesman. “I didn’t think the system is perfect. There is room for error. We based our decision on what we saw and what we thought. If this other evidence is solid, they need to let him out.”
According to court documents filed by Kelley’s defense, Johnathan McCarty confessed to at least two people after the trial, saying to one, “It was me, not Greg. I did that to the little boy” while they were smoking marijuana together.
Kelley’s lawyers also obtained the cellphone and computer of McCarty, whose mother operated an in-home day care where Kelley also was staying, and said they found photographs of nude children that McCarty thought he had deleted.
The attorneys have given that information to authorities, including the Texas Rangers, who are investigating.
The juror who agreed to an extensive interview has been outspoken about his misgivings in a case that was almost entirely built on the testimony of the child, who gave intimate details about what happened and identified Kelley as the perpetrator.
The juror, who has two children at Leander High School, which Kelley and McCarty also attended, submitted a sworn affidavit immediately afterward, and it was used in Kelley’s first unsuccessful bid at a retrial.
He wrote, “I was not persuaded Greg Kelley was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” During deliberations, “I was the holdout. The rest of the jury was livid at me.”
The case had no physical evidence, which is not altogether uncommon in instances of child sexual assault.
‘Just for y’all’
Notes sent to the judge from the jury foreman remain on file in Williamson County district court and show jurors questioned aspects of the testimony, including disagreements about what the mother and child said on the stand.
They also reveal the panel struggled to reach a decision.
“I was trying to bring up points,” the juror said. “‘Were y’all watching the same trial I was?’ I was trying to convince them. It’s almost like you’re on a football team, and there are 11 guys on the field but you’re not a team member.”
A final note to the judge said, “After 10+ hours, we are still split 9-3. The last several votes have shown no movement. We the jury welcome any guidance the court can offer.”
“They were tired. They wanted to go home. I wanted to go home,” the juror said. “I felt that we were pressured, not only by the other jurors, but the judge, to come up with a decision, and I didn’t think that was right.”
Under growing pressure, the juror said he collapsed.
“They were saying, ‘We want to go home. We want to go home,’” the juror said. “I said, ‘Well, just for y’all, I’ll change my vote.’”
He said the immediate aftermath of the trial was the hardest, that he had difficulty with daily functions, that his life was plagued with second-guessing.
“Those first two weeks after the trial were the worst,” he said, with tears welling in his eyes and his voice cracking. “A man goes to work and comes home and wants to have a cold beer, and I couldn’t do that for two weeks. Just thinking about what happened. I lost a lot of sleep, waking up at 3 in the morning.”
The juror said he thinks about one day possibly meeting Kelley and considers what he would say.
He knows he would apologize.
“I did everything I could,” he said.
But first, he said, he hopes that his actions — and those of his fellow jurors — are soon overturned.
“He should be exonerated for everything, his name be cleared,” the juror said. “He needs to get his life back.”