Outcry’s Gaebri Anderson has revealed why she stood by her football star boyfriend after he was convicted of sexual assault of a four-year-old boy and continued to fight for his innocence.
The 24-year-old started dating Greg Kelley, who was about to start his senior year at Leander High School, after the pair graduated from middle school outside of Austin, Texas.
However in 2013, Mr Kelley, who was 18 at the time, was convicted of super-aggravated sexual assault of a child based on the testimony of a four-year-old boy who attended the home day care centre of his friend’s mother.
He was officially declared innocent and exonerated in 2019 more than five years after his sentence and his story has now been turned into a five-part documentary called Outcry.
Following the conviction, Ms Anderson, who was just 17 at the time, stood by her partner as he continued to maintain his innocence.
Gaebri Anderson has revealed why she stood by her football star boyfriend after he was convicted of sexual assault of a four-year-old boy
Football star Greg Kelley was about to start his senior year at Leander High School when he was convicted of super-aggravated sexual assault of a child based on the testimony of a four-year-old boy
Ms Anderson (pictured with her partner) was just 17 when Mr Kelley was convicted of the assault and opted to go to trial
She told The New York Post: ‘It was crazy. I had friends since I was a baby who were saying, ”I can’t believe you are sticking by him”. From the first day in my heart, I knew he didn’t do this.’
The shocking case began in August of 2013, when police arrived on the campus of Leander High School, where Mr Kelley was a star football player, and led him away in handcuffs.
Police said the mother of a child, identified as H.M and who attended the Cedar Park home daycare run by Mr Kelley’s football teammate Shama McCarty, had come forward with allegations of abuse.
Several days after Mr Kelley was arrested, police said that another four-year-old boy, had made allegation of assault.
Police apparently connected Mr Kelley with the alleged abuse based solely on the suggestion of one of the boy’s parents, according to a judge’s findings.
Despite being given the option to enter a plea deal, Mr Kelley maintained his innocence opted to go to trial.
However in July 2014, Mr Kelley was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison during a trial in Williamson County Criminal District Court.
Ms Anderson continued: ‘I had no doubt in my mind. I knew what kind of person he was. We weren’t really scared going into the trial. There was no way he was going to get convicted on the evidence they didn’t have.’
Greg Kelley (pictured with his mother Rosa) speaks to Cedar Park City Council members in November 2019
Mr Kelley’s story has now been turned into a five-part documentary series looking at the trial
Ms Anderson said she always knew her partner was innocent and began to fall in love with him
She added: ‘We started falling in love after these accusations. The way he handled himself; he was so positive, hopeful and persistent.’
After his conviction, Mr Kelley, who had begun a 25-year sentence at Williamson County Jail, encouraged Ms Anderson to move to Los Angeles and enrol in the prestigious dance program Edge.
During this time, the pair would share 20-minute phone calls every day and even exchange love letters.
However in August 2017, Mr Kelley was released on bond three years into his 25-year sentence after police found new evidence pointing to his best friend Jonathan McCarty as the suspect.
The new evidence found that two witnesses had heard McCarty admit to the sexual assault of H.M and that Cedar Park police department had ‘failed to perform many basic steps necessary to conduct an effective investigation’.
It was also found that police had ‘backtracked’ the suspected date of the assault to match when the football star was staying in the McCarty home.
Mr Kelley (right) was released on bond three years into his sentence after police found new evidence pointing to his best friend Jonathan McCarty (left)
Greg Kelley was released on bond three years into his 25-year sentence after new evidence emerged
Mr Kelley (pictured after he is released on bond) was released from Williamson County Jail in 2017
‘Greg Kelley was their suspect,’ Ranger Cody Mitchell testified at a later hearing.
‘They believed that Greg Kelley moved out of the house on that date, and they backtracked [the offense] a month, and month and a half, two months from that date that he moved out.’
‘They were concentrating on time frames he was there.’
Following his release, Mr Kelley, who still continued to hold a criminal record, proposed to Ms Anderson during a family trip to Cabo San Lucas.
In August 2019 the couple decided to move to New York City so that Ms Anderson could train at the prestigious Broadway Dance Center.
Just months later Mr Kelley was officially exonerated in the same courtroom he was sentenced just five years earlier.
Speaking to Fox 7 on the day he was exonerated Mr Kelley said: ‘I look forward to a lot of awesome things in my life but ultimately I just look forward to being free.’