After a weeklong trial, 19-year-old Greg Kelley was convicted last Tuesday on two counts of super aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Facing a possible sentence of life in prison, Kelley accepted a plea deal that will send him to jail for 25 years, without the possibility of parole. As a condition of the plea agreement, Kelley waived his right to appeal his case. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

Throughout the course of the trial, prosecutors’ case against Kelley hinged on the testimony of two young boys — now 5 — who were just 4 years old at the time of the alleged incidents. One of those boys recanted his testimony, saying Kelley never touched him, leading Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield to drop the charges stemming from that child’s accusations.

Kelley’s defense did not present any alternative scenarios, instead relying on Kelley’s own testimony, a lack of physical evidence in the case and the changing story of one of his accusers.

On the stand, Kelley stated that he had never touched the boys, and that he had never been alone with either of them. Shama McCarty, the owner of the daycare where Kelley was living at the time of the alleged incidents, testified that she couldn’t recall the specifics of where and when Kelley had access to the children.

A number of character witnesses testified that Kelley was truthful and law abiding, including Kelley’s former football coach at Leander High School, Lee Bridges, who called the former standout player a hard worker who was always on time to early morning workouts.

However, the prosecution called a rebuttal witness to testify on the subject of Kelley’s character. Phillip Forbes, who owns a gym where Kelley works out, said that Kelley had told Forbes that he was a Marine sniper and had served in Afghanistan.

“We are not talking about telling a lie. We are talking about living a lie,” prosecutor Geoffrey Puryear told the jury, while Kelley’s defense attorney told jurors that Kelley had simply made up a story to cover up for his being expelled from school and faced with criminal charges.

Still, the lack of evidence and the recanting of one boy’s testimony had Kelley’s family and friends feeling hopeful as the trial progressed. Defense attorney Patricia Cummings pointed out holes in the investigation performed by the Cedar Park Police Department, including a failure to interrogate Kelley when he was indicted, and detectives’ failure to seek out or interview other possible witnesses.

On the stand, detective Christopher Dailey admitted that he didn’t talk to any other possible witnesses, admitted to deleting emails about the case in violation of department policy, and said he took it upon himself to interview the second boy despite the training he received on investigating child sex abuse claims which teaches that detectives should not interview a child.

Cummings painted a picture of a detective who had already made up his mind about Kelley’s guilt and simply investigated the case in a way to confirm the detective’s own conclusions.

“As a result you believed you did not need to investigate the possibility of something else having happened?” asked Cummings.

“Correct,” said Dailey.

“Isn’t the policy in your department not to destroy documents produced in an investigation?” asked Cummings.

“Correct,” said Dailey.

Kelley’s defense presented an expert witness, Austin psychologist Stephen Thorne, who testified that children who are interviewed multiple times are much more likely to make false accusations in sexual abuse cases.

“There’s a reason why we want to get an interview done one time and put it on video so a child doesn’t have to do it anymore,” Thorne said.

Both of the boys who alleged that Kelley had abused them were interviewed multiple times, including the separate interview by Det. Dailey, which Dailey admitted to conducting on his own primarily because the second boy had backed away from his earlier claims when interviewed by trained counselors at the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center. Dailey, who had already testified that believed Kelley had abused the boys, wanted to talk to the second boy a separate time to see if he couldn’t get the boy to admit to abuse.

“You thought the first interviewer had not established a proper rapport?” Cummings asked him, and Dailey responded, “Correct.”

Dailey testified that he walked into the room as soon as the boy’s interview with counselors was over to question the child himself.

“When you do it you actually have a gun on your hip?” Cummings asked.

“Yes,” said Dailey.

“How many seconds do you think you spent building rapport with him before you started asking him about allegations against Greg?”said Cummings.

“I didn’t attempt to build rapport,” said Dailey.

In closing arguments last Tuesday, Cummings accused the Cedar Park Police Department of doing a lax job of investigating the case, ‘contaminating’ the testimony by improperly interviewing the accusers and having inappropriate conversations with the boys’ parents and then deleting email evidence.

Prosecutor Geoffrey Puryear said, however, that the defense’s case is based on the boys’ parents lying to the court and “planting ideas in their kids’ heads.”

After 11 hours of deliberation, including a brief question to the judge, jurors returned a guilty verdict on both counts of sexual assault involving the first child.

Faced with the possibility of life in prison, Kelley agreed to a plea bargain that would allow him to serve his two 25-year sentences concurrently.

Puryear characterized Kelley’s accepting the plea as proof of his guilt, and said prosecutors were satisfied with the outcome of the trial

However, before the trial commenced, Kelley turned down an offer from the District Attorney’s office that would have had him plead guilty to a lesser charge, and serve no jail time. Kelley said that rather than plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit, he would go to trial and place his fate in the hands of a jury.

That jury wound up convicting him.

Kelley still maintains his innocence, and his family and friends have rallied to his support with the hope of having the case reviewed by either the Governor’s office or Attorney General Greg Abbott.

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Editor’s Note: This is a more in-depth look at the story, following our earlier breaking news briefs.