Former Gulf Breeze mayor convicted of recording naked teens out of prison. Here's why.

Former Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray, who was sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison for tracking and secretly recording teenage boys undressing at his Gulf Breeze home, is now out of prison and has a chance for a new trial.

The 71-year-old man's sentence was vacated in April after the court granted Gray’s motion for postconviction relief.

The motion was granted on the grounds that Judge Clifton Drake gave Gray a stiffer sentence than state prosecutors and the defense agreed to when Gray plead no contest to charges stemming from the case in 2021.

Five years in prison: Ex-Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray sentenced to prison for secretly recording teen boys in shower

Plea: Former Gulf Breeze mayor pleads no contest to recording teens in shower, may avoid prison

Those charges included eight counts of video voyeurism, one count of illegal interception of communications, one count of illegally installing a tracking device and one count of stalking.

Gray mistakenly thought that he scored too low on Florida’s criminal scoresheet to quality for state prison. Both the former mayor and the State Attorney’s Office expected that he would spend no more than a year in the Santa Rosa County Jail.

However, Florida law allows for prison sanctions when defendants face charges like Gray’s. Judge Drake based his decision on that law when he sentenced Gray to five years in prison in August of 2021.

“He found statute 775.082 sub ten, which actually excludes this statute, that Ed Gray was charged with, from this non state prison sanction,” explained chief assistant state attorney Bridgette Jensen. “The problem is that the sentence wasn't everyone's understanding. When Ed Gray entered the plea, he's thinking the maximum sentence he can get is going to be a year in the county jail because his score sheet shows only 10 points. That was everyone's understanding of the maximum the judge could do. The defendant filed a motion for post-conviction relief. and it was granted because basically at the time he entered his plea, he was mistaken as to what he could be sentenced.”

In April, Judge Drake set aside Gray’s sentence which included five years in prison, three years of probation, and two years of community control, which is essentially house arrest.

Gray served about eight months behind bars at Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello prior to the decision.

He has been out on bond since, under the same conditions he was after his arrest in 2020, including no direct or indirect contract with any of the alleged victims, no contact with juvenile boys, and he’s prohibited from attending youth-oriented events or places known to be attended by juvenile boys.

However, some exceptions were made that allow Gray to spend time with his grandchildren.

What lead to Ed Gray’s arrest

Gray was arrested Sept. 14, 2020, more than a month after agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement searched his home on Gray Oaks Lane in Gulf Breeze and seized several electronic devices.

According to the arrest report, investigators found eight videos depicting four males either nude or undressing in Gray's bathroom.

Most of the videos showed Gray starting the camera before the teenagers came into the bathroom, the report noted.

Voyeurism charges: Ex-Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray arrested on voyeurism, stalking, tracking device charges

Two of the young men were 17 at the time the videos were taken and the other two were 18. Until one of the teens discovered a hidden camera, they were unaware they were being recorded and all said Gray “pushed” them to shower in his house after they performed work around his home.

One of the alleged victims also told police he thought Gray was tracking him because the older man would unexpectedly show up where the teen was.

Secret recordings: Affidavit: Former Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray recorded teen boys in shower, stalked them

According to the arrest report, when the young man’s mother confronted Gray about the allegations, Gray initially told her he was recording the air conditioner repairman, but after the repairman left Gray said he turned the camera on because “he was suspicious that (her son) was possibly sexting in his master bathroom,” and he wanted proof before “confronting the teenager.”

The report said Gray also initially denied to the teen’s mother that he had been following her son, but told her there were a few incidents over the last year that “leads him to think I follow him.”

Those incidents included Gray turning up at a park where the teen was late one night, as well as showing up in the parking lot of a Gulf Breeze condominium complex where the young man had gone after telling Gray he was “sick” and couldn’t work for him that day.

Police said Gray eventually admitted that he put a tracking device on the young man’s vehicle in the fall of 2019. They said he told them he also changed out the battery on that tracking device every couple of weeks, then put it back on the teen’s truck.

Investigators said Gray also had 160 screenshots of GPS coordinates that the former mayor said were of one of the teen’s vehicles.

Gray’s history with City of Gulf Breeze

Gray was a former mayor of Gulf Breeze and longtime city employee, as executive director of the Capital Trust Agency, which issues hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds to fund mostly construction projects throughout Florida.

More: Former Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray leaves city amid investigation

He retired from Capital Trust Agency in 2020, shortly after FDLE agents raided his home and the investigation began.

What happens now

A status conference between the state and the defense on Gray’s case is scheduled for Aug. 22 at 1:30 p.m., at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse.

Gray will eventually have to decide if he wants to go to trial or make another plea deal, knowing that he could potentially go to prison.

“We'll reach out to the victims and see what their take on it is as well and then go from there,” said Jensen. “Basically, we're starting all over again.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Former Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray out on bond after conviction