Witness: Disabled girl did not want to die

 This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press April 22, 2000. By ALAN SCHNEPF Valley Press Staff Writer VAN NUYS -

 Another person from Lindsay Gentry's old school testified Friday against her parents, Michael and Kathleen, the Lake Los Angeles couple accused of allowing the 15-year-old mentally and physically disabled girl to starve to death in 1996. Paula Elrod, an instructional aide at Challenger Middle School in the early 1990s, said she was close to Lindsay and had the girl stay at her home on several occasions. During those stays, Elrod said Lindsay displayed a healthy appetite. The deceased girl's appetite is of paramount importance in the trial because the prosecution says Michael and Kathleen Gentry failed to feed the girl.

 Defense lawyers contend that Lindsay's disease - congenital myotonic dystrophy - kept her from eating and eventually caused her 4-foot-10-inch body to whither down to 44 pounds before she died. Elrod said Lindsay gave indications shortly before her death that her parents were telling her she was going to die. Elrod testified that just days before Lindsay entered the hospital where she would die, the pair went out for pizza. It was there that Lindsay started talking about death, according to Elrod. "She said her mommy and daddy told her she had to meet Jesus," Elrod said in court, on the verge of tears. "She gave me a hug and said `I don't want to die.' " 

It was not the only reference to death Lindsay made during her last days, Elrod testified. Lindsay, who sometimes called Elrod "mommy," also occasionally spoke with Elrod on the phone. Elrod said Kathleen Gentry would stay on the phone during those talks, sometimes to her daughter's chagrin. "She said, `Mommy, get off the phone. I'm talking to my other mommy and she doesn't want me to die,' " Elrod said. Elrod also told jurors that her conversations with Kathleen Gentry indicated Lindsay was being abused. One of those conversations occurred when she phoned the Gentry home to ask for a set of clean clothing for Lindsay because the girl had wet her pants. "She (Kathleen Gentry) told me to rub her nose in it and she can just sit in it," Elrod said. This is the second trial for the Gentrys. 

A jury last year deadlocked at 10-2 in favor of acquitting the couple on murder charges. Defense attorneys used some of Elrod's testimony from the first trial and said some of it was not consistent with what she told the court Friday. Patrick Thomason, one of the Gentrys' three lawyers, said Elrod never testified during the first trial that Lindsay wanted to stay overnight. He also said Elrod testified in 1999 that Lindsay had eaten two "complete" pieces of pizza when they went out to eat. Now, however, he said that Elrod was testifying that Lindsay left the hard end pieces of crust on her plate because they were difficult to Chew.

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