Retrial of Parents in Girl’s Death Begins
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VAN NUYS — There is no question that Lindsay Gentry was an extremely thin girl. At the time of her death in 1996, the Lake Los Angeles teen, who stood 4 feet 10, weighed 44 pounds.
Did the 15-year-old waste away from a degenerative muscle disease from which she suffered all her life? Or was she starved to death through neglect and abuse by her parents?
That is the central question in the retrial of Michael and Kathleen “Katrina” Gentry, who face charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and conspiracy.
Lindsay, who suffered from myotonic dystrophy, “was severely malnourished at the time of her death,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen Cady during opening statements Thursday before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John S. Fisher.
Cady described the Gentrys as abusive parents who gave their daughter so little food that she starved to death--allegations that the couple’s attorneys deny.
A year ago, a Van Nuys jury deadlocked over murder charges against the couple.
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