Trial to Focus on Cause of Girl’s Death

What killed Lindsay Gentry?

Was the disabled 15-year-old girl slowly starved to death by her parents? Or did she succumb to a congenital illness, as doctors always thought she would?

That is one of the main issues in the trial, beginning this week, on murder and child abuse charges against the teen’s parents, Michael and Kathleen “Katrina” Gentry.

To answer it, the jury is expected to wade through the testimony of nearly a dozen treating physicians and medical experts who will translate a foot-high stack of medical, dental and school records into opinions of what killed Lindsay, and whether she was abused.

Harder still will be the jurors’ task of sifting through the statements of teachers, social workers and friends to determine whether the Lake Los Angeles couple purposely deprived the sickly girl of food, knowing it could kill her, or whether they were truly caring parents doing their best to raise an independent adult.

A pathologist initially determined that her death, in February 1996, was the natural consequence of myotonic dystrophy, a rare disease similar to muscular dystrophy and characterized by a deterioration of the muscles. The illness stunted her growth, twisted her spine and left her with severe cataracts in her eyes.

Listed as a contributing factor 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.

The illness itself can cause a lack of appetite and difficulty eating.

But after a two-year investigation, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said they had enough proof the Gentrys killed their daughter.

“The parents intentionally deprived the child of adequate food,” one expert for the prosecution wrote in a letter. He said the evidence showed “the parents’ negligence” caused Lindsay’s death.

“Lindsay Gentry died from natural causes,” countered Patrick Thomason, Michael Gentry’s lawyer, in court papers. “And disapproval or disagreement with their parenting techniques over a 10-year period, even when viewed through the prism of 20 / 20 hindsight, cannot transform that death into a homicide, much less a murder.”

The Gentrys vehemently deny that they abused their daughter. Michael Gentry, an electronics communications technician at Fox Airport in Lancaster, stated in an interview with The Times that he and his wife wanted only the best for Lindsay. He said he spent tens of thousands of dollars for her medical care for problems related to the disease, which to a much milder degree also afflicts his wife.

He maintains that the charges are the result of a vendetta by school officials who he alleged were upset because he decided to take his daughter out of school and tutor her at home.

“They developed a case based on what the teacher’s aide said,” agreed defense lawyer David Houchin, who represents Kathleen Gentry.

Much of the alleged abuse and starvation was recorded by teachers, school nurses and social workers.

Investigators said teachers noticed Lindsay’s homemade lunches were “minuscule,” that the lunch box was often dirty and the food at times covered with ants. For a while, teachers gave her additional food to supplement the allegedly meager lunch box offerings. But the parents eventually put a stop to it, ordering the school to feed her only what they send or approved.

From the time she was 6, teachers and nurses reported what they considered evidence that Lindsay was being abused to social workers in Orange and Los Angeles counties, according to court files. They saw bruises, belt marks, a black eye and a bloody nose, which Lindsay said was the result of her father hitting or pushing her.

One teacher who befriended the girl 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. She once told her mother that the teacher was her “other mommy and she doesn’t want me to die.”

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, court records show.

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

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The allegations are buttressed by the statement of one family friend, who told investigators Kathleen Gentry once stopped him from cutting up a pork chop for the little girl. If the girl couldn’t cut it up herself, then she couldn’t eat it, the woman purportedly said.

“This is a child that needed special attention. She needed special care,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen Cady said during one hearing. “The defendants, however, went out of their way to not treat her with any particular care and compassion.”

Cady has sought permission to use statements from Michael Gentry’s former wife, who says he abused their daughter, according to court papers. She has also said that, when they were splitting up, her ex-husband told her to drown the children if they were the reason she wanted to leave him, according to court records.

The result of those child abuse complaints shows that the Gentrys did nothing wrong, the defense says. All were eventually closed, with no action taken against the parents.

“Everyone knows [the Department of Children and Family Services] is on you like a cheap suit after a complaint. I know that they investigate so well,” Houchin said. “They will go after anyone after an allegation, even when there is a recantation. They don’t just turn you loose.”

Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services officials said an internal review of their handling of the Gentry complaints found that the social workers acted appropriately.

Houchin wants to use the social worker’s findings in the trial, but Superior Court Judge John Fisher indicated in court Friday that he would likely not admit them as evidence that the abuse didn’t occur.

Thomason may call Michael Gentry to testify in his own defense that he did not think he was doing anything wrong, specifically because social workers never took action.

Thomason has also said that the parents were simply trying to teach the child self-reliance.

“They were her parents and had to make sure she matured and not simply existed on a diet of Jello and burritos for the rest of her life,” Thomason said at one hearing. “If you are going to continue to cut up a pork chop for a 15-year-old, she is never going to learn to cut up a pork chop.”