Couple Guilty of Starving Disabled Girl

After more than two weeks of deliberations, a Van Nuys jury convicted Michael and Kathleen “Katrina” Gentry of involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in the starvation death of their severely disabled daughter.

A previous jury deadlocked last year on murder charges against the couple, and a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors offered the Gentrys a plea bargain that would have freed them, with time already served, if each had pleaded guilty to a single count of child abuse. But they insisted on a full second trial and proclaimed their innocence to the end.

Each could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“They didn’t want to plead to something they did not do. They knew the downside. Their position was, and still is, that they didn’t do that,” said defense attorney Lyle F. Middleton.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen Cady said the verdict spoke for itself, and she commended the jury for its tenacity, integrity and thoroughness.

“Children with diseases and other disabilities can and often are victims of abuse and neglect,” Cady said. “Unfortunately, their abuse can be masked by their disease and disability. I’m very glad the jury can see that.”

The Gentrys’ 15-year-old daughter, Lindsay, suffered from myotonic dystrophy, a congenital muscle-wasting disease that crooked her back, caused severe cataracts and made it difficult for her to walk. The Lake Los Angeles couple contended that their daughter died of her disease, but prosecutors alleged that the girl starved to death because of neglect by her parents.

Before she died, measuring 4 feet 6 and weighing 44 pounds, Lindsay’s treatment led to six child abuse complaints in Orange County in 1987 and 1988 and nine in Los Angeles County from 1988 until her death in 1996. At each turn, child welfare workers decided there wasn’t enough evidence of abuse to intervene.

The Gentrys, who were also convicted of felony child abuse and conspiracy, are scheduled to be sentenced July 6 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John S. Fisher.

Last year, the couple faced second-degree murder charges, but the trial ended with a hung jury. This year, the substance of the evidence presented was the same, attorneys said.

But prosecutors had an easier job at the retrial. To win a verdict of involuntary manslaughter, they did not need to prove intent but only to show that the Gentrys committed an unlawful act--withholding or not giving enough food to Lindsay “without due caution and circumspection.”

The case was more streamlined than last year’s, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Rodriguez, who investigated the death. This year, Rodriguez said, “we kept it more focused . . . and concentrated on malnutrition and neglect.”

Katrina Gentry, 46, who has a milder form of the same disease that afflicted her daughter, sobbed quietly as she sat in a wheelchair and listened to the verdict. Her husband, 56, looked ashen and was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

As Katrina Gentry was wheeled out by bailiffs, she complained of chest pains. Deputy David Cervantes, a sheriff’s spokesman, said later that she was in stable condition at a hospital.

Deliberations lasted 13 days; two jurors were replaced by alternates.

Jurors declined to answer questions after the verdict was read, and bailiffs escorted them out of the courtroom through a rear, nonpublic exit.

In the courtroom audience were a few friends of the family, including a woman who cried softly after hearing the verdict. Earlier, another member of the community called the case a witch hunt.

The retrial had so rallied Lake Los Angeles--which is east of Palmdale--around the couple that neighbors, friends and fellow church members packed the Van Nuys courthouse during closing arguments last month. Their donations helped pay for Katrina Gentry’s two attorneys, while Michael Gentry was represented by a public defender.

During the trial, witnesses included doctors who treated the rail-thin girl, experts who reviewed her medical records and teachers who fed Lindsay extra food because she appeared emaciated.

Social workers from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, who testified for the defense, said they investigated the abuse allegations but found them unsubstantiated.

“If [the agency] had not blanketly accepted the parents’ explanation but had delved deeper, they should have realized what was going on,” Cady said.