Greg Kelley speaks out about exoneration

CEDAR PARK, Texas - “It’s a good day, it’s a very good day,” Greg Kelley said via FaceTime Wednesday morning.

Every Wednesday morning, Kelley wakes up and checks a list from the Court of Criminal Appeals to see if his case is on it. He says he’s been doing that every week for nearly two years.

“Every Wednesday I’m disappointed that I’m not on it and it’s kind of gotten numb to me where I’m just like ‘next Wednesday, next Wednesday’ and this Wednesday I was on it man, I was at the top. I’ve never felt so much sense of freedom before in my life,” Kelley said.

Back in 2013 when Kelley was a Leander High School senior, he was briefly living with his friend and classmate whose parents ran a daycare.

Two four-year-old boys at the daycare said that "Greg" had sexually abused them. After Kelley's conviction, he spent three years in prison before he was released on bond because new evidence came to light.

That new evidence was crucial to an opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals that Kelley, who maintains his innocence, should be granted relief.

A post-conviction Texas Rangers investigation actually points to a friend of Kelley’s, the son of the daycare owners he was staying with.

According to court documents, the other suspect was overheard confessing to the crime by witnesses, kept pictures of naked children on his phone and even had a pair of the same pajamas the victims described. 

One of the opinions released says “no reasonable juror, confronted with this evidence, would have found Kelley guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“He suffered these last two years,” Kelley’s attorney Keith Hampton said.

Hampton is emotional when talking about what his client has been through.

“He was overjoyed. One of the things he said was the last six years of his life flashed before him,” Hampton said.

Hampton says there will be a hearing in Williamson County.

“In which he will be publically and very specifically exonerated with the sort of language that he deserves,” Hampton said.
 
Then Hampton will seek compensation for Kelley under the “wrongful incarceration act.”

“The compensation will include free tuition, any college in Texas, compensation at the tune of $80,000 a year for the time he’s spent and he will also get a small annuity,” Hampton said.

Kelley is marrying his fiancé Gaebri in January. 

“I’m just so happy that we never gave up and we kept the faith that God is good,” Gaebri Anderson said.

He also intends to fight for people who have been in the same spot he has, and he might just play some football.

“I personally want to stay in God’s will and what my life is, what I want to do, any decision I make I intend to do it as a Christian man. I’m just so thankful I can now do the things that I want to do,” Kelley said.

Hampton points out all nine judges agreed Kelley needs to be exonerated, but two judges specifically wrote that they felt Cedar Park police or trial counsel didn’t violate Kelley’s constitutional rights.

Cedar Park Police Chief Sean Mannix sent a statement saying “this relief was based on new evidence post-conviction, and not on the grounds of deprivation of due process or ineffective assistance of counsel.”

Mannix also said he’s heard criticisms of the case and taken steps to address them.

Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick says this is probably the end of the daycare case. There will likely be no one else charged.