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Jury finds Gentrys' guilty of manslaughter Couple face up to 10 years in prison in daughter's death This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press June 7, 2000 By ALAN SCHNEPF Valley Press Staff Writer VAN NUYS - Guilty. That was the verdict delivered by a jury in the second trial of Michael and Kathleen Gentry, accused of causing the 1996 starving death of their 15-year-old daughter, Lindsay. After nearly a month of testimony and more than three weeks of deliberations, the jury returned a guilty verdict against the Lake Los Angeles couple on charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and criminal conspiracy. They face up to 10 years in prison when they are sentenced July 6. Kathleen Gentry, also known as Katrina, sitting in a wheelchair next to her defense attorneys, laid her head on a table as the six guilty verdicts were read. Michael Gentry took off his tie and placed his face in his hand. After the verdicts were read, the couple were taken into custody, but Kathleen Gentry reportedly collapsed outside the courthouse and was taken away by ambulance. Kathleen Gentry is in a wheelchair, reportedly because she says she also suffers from a mild affliction of myotonic dystrophy, the same disease that she and her husband say killed their daughter. Her condition was unknown at press time. The Gentrys' defense attorneys, Patrick Thomason, David Houchin and Lyle Middleton, could not be reached for comment Tuesday about the verdict or Kathleen Gentry's condition. The couple's mentally and physically disabled daughter, Lindsay, was born with myotonic dystrophy, which is a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Throughout the trial, the Gentrys and their lawyers claimed the disease, through its weakening and wasting of Lindsay's muscles, is what led to the girl's death. Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Kathy Cady claimed the Gentrys themselves caused Lindsay to die by failing to feed her. The 4-foot, 10-inch girl weighed 44 pounds when she died. The defense countered that claim by stating the disease caused swallowing problems that discouraged Lindsay from eating. Cady praised the jury after the verdicts. "I think they were just able to see through the veil of her disease," Cady said. "(The jurors could see) her condition was not the result of her disease; it was the result of something going wrong at home." Cady also prosecuted the Gentrys in their first trial in 1999, in which they faced murder charges. That case ended in a mistrial, with 10 of the 12 jurors deadlocking in favor of acquittal. Cady immediately went to work after that trial, saying at the time she thought the jury would have found the couple guilty of lesser charges. Cady proceeded to retry the couple after they rejected plea-bargain offers - two years in prison for Michael Gentry and one year in the county jail for Kathleen Gentry. The plea bargain was contingent on the couple pleading guilty to either manslaughter or child abuse. During the second trial, Cady called the testimony from Lindsay's former teachers "heroic." Those teachers from Challenger Middle School in Lancaster told the court that Lindsay Gentry would arrive at school hungry with small amounts of food in her lunchbox. The lunchbox, according to one prosecution witness, was so unkempt that it had ants crawling out of it one day. The teachers also testified that they started to give the girl snacks and were encouraged by how she would gain weight during the week, but after weekends at home, Lindsay would come back to school a few pounds lighter than she was the preceding Friday. The Gentrys then took steps to prevent teachers from giving Lindsey food at school, according to testimony from the teachers. During the first trial, the courtroom often filled up with Gentry supporters. During the retrial, however, there were rarely more than one or two supporters present. Mary Ellen Spalding said she met the couple when Michael Gentry approached her for advice regarding a possible lawsuit against a health organization caring for Lindsay when she died. Spalding, who helped the Gentrys organize a defense fund for their last trial, said the jury is wrong. "They adored their daughter," Spalding said. "They did everything a family could possibly do. They waited on her hand and foot." Spalding characterized the Gentrys as compassionate, loving parents who did everything in their power to keep Lindsay alive. She said when Lindsay was born that doctors gave her a slim chance of living more than a few years. Spalding called Cady's prosecution "vindictive," contending it sets a bad precedent for other parents of disabled children. "If they can do this to them, they can do this to anyone with a disabled child," she said. The verdicts came through just three days after one of the jurors had been excused for reasons the defense and prosecution would not reveal. Another juror had been excused May 19. That juror had previously advised the court he could only serve for a certain time frame and was excused after that time elapsed. After the first juror was excused, deliberations continued for almost two weeks with no verdict until the second juror was dismissed. The verdict was delivered three days later. |
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