Illness, Not Abuse, Killed Girl, Parents’ Lawyers Insist

Attorneys for a couple charged with murder for allegedly starving their 15-year-old daughter to death insisted in final arguments Monday that the girl succumbed to congenital illness and not starvation.

The lawyers representing Michael and Kathleen “Katrina” Gentry rebutted allegations by prosecutors that the couple repeatedly abused and neglected their daughter, Lindsay, over an eight-year period before her death in February 1996.

During the trial, they argued it was a congenital condition known as myotonic dystrophy, a rare neurological disease similar to muscular dystrophy, that contributed to the girl’s death.

The illness, they said, stunted her growth, twisted her spine and left her with severe cataracts in her eyes. Adding to the problem was marasmus--malnutrition because of severe starvation.

At the time of her death, Lindsay was 4 feet, 10 inches tall, but weighed only 44 pounds.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen Cady said the Gentrys didn’t feed Lindsay, who was so much in need of food she would steal it from other children. Teachers bought her snacks, she said.

But defense attorneys Patrick Thomason and David Houchin rejected allegations of neglect and abuse, saying they could not be substantiated by scores of medical and social workers who never reported the incidents despite seeing the girl on more than 180 occasions.

“The law says provide food, shelter and clothing,” said Thomason, the lawyer representing Michael Gentry. “The Gentrys provided food, shelter and clothing.”

“If there were feeding aversion problems . . . you can’t blame the parents,” he said. “You’re talking about events that took place years ago.”

But Cady took jurors back through time, through nearly a decade’s worth of comments by school personnel, as well as social workers and physicians between 1988 and 1996.

Cady recounted a school nurse who reported belt marks on the child when the family lived in Orange County in 1987. There were also reports of black eyes and loose teeth.

In 1988, when the family lived in Anaheim, Michael Gentry allegedly told a police officer that he instructed his wife to “shoot the neighbors dead” if they interfered with how he disciplined his daughter, the prosecutor said.

Later, one teacher who befriended the girl in Lancaster said that days before her death, Lindsay told her that her parents said “it was time for her to go be with Jesus,” according to court documents.

Social workers left the girl in the home, documents show. Often, the complaints were ruled unsubstantiated or unfounded.

Defense lawyers said the Gentrys wanted only the best for Lindsay. They cited tens of thousands of dollars for her medical care for problems related to her disease.