The Greg Kelley case covered in the Showtime docuseries Outcry was, well, worthy of an outcry. The handsome young Texas football star seemingly had a successful life ahead of him. He was not only an amazing football player but also got good grades, had plans to attend university, a loving family, and a devoted girlfriend.
But everything came crashing down when he was accused of molesting a four-year-old boy. In a case with shockingly little evidence and a defense that Kelley later argued was not sufficient, the 19-year-old ended up spending four years in jail until he was finally exonerated.
As if those facts alone weren't shocking enough, there are more shocking details revealed in this five-part series.
The Police Never Went To The House
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that if someone accuses someone else of harming them in a particular place, police should visit that place to take a look around. Not only that but also to talk to the people who live in and have been in the house.
Yet the police never stepped foot in the daycare. They never looked around in the room the child described. Had they done that, they would have seen that it wasn't actually Greg's room at all.
Johnathan McCarty Was Never Questioned
A teenager boy who was clearly troubled was living in the same house as Greg. He looked like Greg, also played football, and owned the pair of pajamas the child said the assailant was wearing at the time of the incident. The child also described a bedroom that was clearly Jonathan's, not Greg's.
How in the world no one questioned Jonathan, or even all of the other football players who were constantly in and out of the house, is ridiculous and shocking. This was not lost on new District Attorney Shaun Dick, who re-opened the case, in part, because of this.
Patricia Cummings Never Moved Beyond Her One Strategy
Cummings, Greg's initial lawyer, had one strategy and she stuck with it. She has defended her decision by saying if she introduced Jonathan as a potential alternate suspect, it would mean admitting that something happened at all. And her defense strategy was that the incident didn't happen, period.
Even after seeing all of the evidence that could prove Greg's innocence, however, she still stuck to her guns and didn't want to entertain going another route, even when that route likely had a better chance of proving her client's innocence.
Greg Kelley Was Convicted
How? Why? The only testimony against Greg was the words of a four-year-old boy who knew someone named Greg molested him. But did anyone show him a photo of Greg and ask him to identify the person? Did anyone question others who were in the house at the time to see if it might have been someone else who looked like Greg, or just called themselves Greg?
What's more, Greg wasn't even living there at the supposed time of the incident. And it was no secret that he and Johnathan, who had already been in trouble with the law, looked the same. So the fact he was convicted based solely off of a child's testimony and his name makes no sense at all.
Jake Bryden Coming Out Of The Woodwork
Who is Jake Bryden? He showed up out of nowhere like a knight in shining armor. He did not know Greg and didn’t know much about the case. He just knew that what he saw and read in the news about a seemingly innocent 19-year-old who was going to jail for a heinous crime he purportedly did not commit was wrong.
Dubbing himself an activist, he called Greg's mom and set out to raise heck and have Greg's case looked at again. And he got the attention of people who could do something about it.
Greg Kelley's Mom's Strength
Through dealing with her own illness, the illness of her husband followed by his death, visiting her son in jail every weekend, and still being mom to several other kids, the strength Greg Kelley's mother showed through the entire six-year ordeal was incredible.
When she got up to speak on behalf of her son, however, pleading for the officers involved in the initial investigation to be fired, it brought tears to viewers' eyes.
Gaebri's Unwavering Devotion To Greg
Anyone would kill to have someone like Gaebri in their life. Willing to wait 25 years for Greg to get out of jail to be with him, she never wavered in her love for the young man. Sweethearts since they were in grade school, they were destined to be together.
It's not uncommon to see a spouse or partner stand by someone who was innocent after they were sent to jail. But how absolutely certain Gaebri was about not being with anyone else or giving up on him, no matter the circumstance, was amazing to see.
Jonathan Raped A Girl
It was clear from the get-go that Jonathan was going to be going down a very different path than Greg. He was also a football player, but not as skilled. And presumably, he wasn't as good academically either.
But the fact that it was later discovered that he raped a 15-year-old girl, and may have harmed many others as well, makes it all the more shocking that Jonathan was never even questioned in the initial case.
The Believe The Children Campaigners
Of course, any sane adult would believe a child when they said they were molested, assaulted, or hurt in any way, shape, or form. However, the believe the children campaign seemed to focus so much on believing that the accusing child was telling the truth and not considering the fact that perhaps the child was telling the truth but mistaking one person for another. (Perhaps this was a side effect of Cummings' trial strategy, which was to suggest the incident never happened instead of proving that her client wasn't the one who did it.)
The possibility that people could still believe Greg was innocent while also believing the child was never considered. The campaigners simply painted those supporting Kelley as people who thought the child was lying.
Sergeant Dailey's Interview With The Second Child
Most shocking about this wasn't even the interview itself, which seemed to include plenty of suggestive wording and leading questions, frightening the poor young boy. It was the fact that the boy's parents purportedly never actually came forward with any kind of reporting of presumed sexual abuse.
Rather, Sergeant Dailey cold-called them and noted that sexual abuse was reported at their daycare and that he wanted to talk to the son. Of course, the parents were quick to oblige. Sneaky, sneaky!