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About Greg and Gaebri Kelley
Greg and Gaebri Kelley’s story embodies selfless love, perseverance, and incredible forgiveness. In this week’s episode of The Balanced Voice, we unpack Greg’s story of wrongful conviction. Greg was an 18-year-old all-star football player when he was wrongfully convicted of two counts of supper aggravated sexual assault of a minor. In what seemed link the blink of an eye, he was sentenced to 25 years without the possibility of parole all because of one wrongful #OUTCRY. Greg’s investigation is one of the worst we have ever seen. It seemed as if the men and women who took oaths to seek justice completely turned their back on Greg.
Gaebri and Greg began dating in 8th grade, and when Greg was convicted of one of the most heinous crimes know to man, Gaebri and her family stood by his side and fought for his justice. Gaebri’s dad was the first person Greg turned to when allegations were made against him, and from the start, Gaebri’s mom was the driving factor behind the fight for Greg. Gaebri’s family along with a few “angels” as Greg calls them, built an army of strangers to fight day in and day out for his freedom. During Greg’s years of incarceration, Gaebri continued to live her life as a professional dancer while also fighting from the outside for Greg. She is a former LA Chargers Girl, professional dancer and choreographer for MUV dance studio, a Naturally Fit signed dancer, and was trained at the Broadway Dance Center in New York. Just days after Greg was released on bond in 2017 due to new evidence found in his case, he and Gaebri got engaged. Even though they did not know the final status of Greg’s case, they set a wedding date for January 2020.
On November 6, 2019 Greg was granted total exoneration and deemed completely innocent of all allegations by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Just two months later, Greg and Gaebri married in a beautiful ceremony live streamed for all of their army to watch. Just last week Greg was given a full ride scholarship to Eastern Michigan University to live out his lifelong dream of playing college football. In a recent article from The Detroit News Greg said, “I choose to forgive, not for the people that did me wrong, but for myself, so I can continue to go forward.”
Post Show Questions
After our interview with Greg and Gaebri our team had two burning questions we wish we would have asked. Gaebri was incredibly gracious and scheduled a time to answer both questions for our team.
Question 1: Greg lost so much and suffered so greatly, but he also found faith or as he said, “his spiritual fathers in prison.” With all of that said, what are your feelings towards the McCarty family and specifically Jonathan McCarty? Do you hate them?
“My outlook on the McCarty family and Jonathan—it took us a long time get to the point where we can say we are in the process of forgiving them. I don’t think people realize that Jonathan was on e of our best friends. He was really good friends with me and like a little brother to Greg. They show that in the documentary, but they don’t go into detail about it. It is hard not only to know what Jonathan let Greg go to prison for but also that was someone that we trusted and who was one of our best friend. It was extremely hurtful, and I want to say I forgive him but I don’t think I am fully there. I don’t hate them. There is no hate, there is no room for hate. That just brings you down and has a lot of negative outlook on everything. Honestly, I would love to talk to Jonathan face to face or even Ms. Shama (Jonathan’s mom) but I don’t want to say I hate them. I was extremely hurt by the McCarty family. Extremely just disappointed and I hope one day Jonathan comes forward and apologizes and makes everything right and I hope Ms. Shama does the same thing. I hope they own up to their mistakes.”
Jonathan McCarty, 2013 Greg Kelley, 2013
Photo Credit: KVUE News
Question 2: Greg suffered due to one of the worst investigations we have ever followed. The men and women who take an oath to seek justice all seemed to turn their back on Greg. Given his first and only experience with law enforcement, what are your feelings towards law enforcement today?
“Our feelings toward law enforcement I think is very surprising to everyone because everyone expects us to, you know, hate policemen and hate law enforcement. We understand that there are a lot of bad people in law enforcement but there are also way more incredible people that are doing good out there and really protecting people’s rights and doing actual investigations. We don’t have any hate towards law enforcement. We definitely want to hold the people accountable in Greg’s case, and would really appreciate some kind of closure and apology, which you know to this day we still have not received, but we definitely respect law enforcement and we know there are some good ones out there. I think the good really outweighs the bad.”
Follow Greg and Gaebri:
Greg on Instagram: @grkelley2
Gaebri on Instagram: @gaebrikelley
Greg’s Foundation on Instagram: @grkfoundation
Greg’s Foundation on Facebook: www.facebook.com/FightForGregKelley
To watch Greg’s Showtime Documentary:
Listen to Greg and Gaebri's Episode
Thank you to our Episode 3. Sponsors, Brigitte and Bashar Kalai and Hallie Vanderhider.
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