Donna Prentice - 1969 murder of 3 yo daughter - 11/10/08
Mother re-tried for 29-year-old OC murder Monday, November 10, 2008 By Eileen FrereSANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- It's a mystery nearly four decades in the making. A 3-year-old girl disappears, never to be seen again. Now her mother is on trial for the girl's murder for the second time. That woman was first tried for the crime last year, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. Her former boyfriend confessed to burying the young girl back in 1969, before he died in 2005. The retrial began in Santa Ana Monday. The prosecutor alleges that the defendant, the mother, took part in four decades of deception. She allegedly lied to various relatives over the years when asked about the whereabouts of her daughter; those alleged lies ranged from Michelle, the missing daughter, being cared for by other relatives, to Michelle studying in Canada in high school and doing well. Investigators say there's no trace that Michelle existed after 1969. Donna Prentice, in court Monday, looked at the last-known photo taken of her daughter, Michelle Pulsifer, before the 3-year-old disappeared nearly 40 years ago. Prosecutors allege the 61-year-old and her boyfriend, Mike Kent, murdered the little girl around July 4, 1969. The defendant, from 1969 on, told a lot of lies," said prosecutor Larry Yellin. Prosecutors allege that days after her disappearance, the couple left Huntington Beach for Illinois. They packed up their two boys, their family pets, and allegedly told the children there wasn't enough room in the car for Michelle. She had been left with relatives in California. For years, the prosecutor alleges, Prentice lied to relatives who asked about Michelle. Michelle's brother will testify about the last time he saw her, in July 1969, when he was 6 years old. "The door opens and in comes his sister Michelle," said prosecutor Yellin. "And she's trying to climb up in his bed, and she's saying, 'Hide me, hide me.' And Richie says that his mother, the defendant, came in, took Michelle out of there." Michelle's father, Richard Pulsifer, eventually hired a private investigator. The Orange County District Attorney's Office then reviewed the case, filing charges against Kent and Prentice in 2004. While in jail, Kent called his son Jamie. "He told him that he buried Michelle's body -- he buried that little girl -- in Williams Canyon here in Orange County," said Yellin in court Monday. Kent died of natural causes before the first trial, which ended with a hung jury in 2007. "That statement -- 'I buried her in the canyon' -- did not come from her mouth," said defense attorney Ken Norelli. "Donna Prentice did not have anything to do with the disappearance of that child." The defense told jurors Prentice was a loving, nurturing mother under the control of an extremely abusive man, and paralyzed by fear. "This case will be all about whether or not she should have not gone and had the courage and the strength to find out where her daughter was, because she didn't," said Norelli. "And that does not make her a murderer of her child." Prentice faces a maximum of five years to life in prison if convicted, following sentencing guidelines that were in place in the 1960s when Michelle disappeared. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=6498775

Monday, November 10, 2008 Prosecutor: Mom lied for 39 years about daughter's vanishing Defense attorney portrays Donna Prentice, accused of girl's killing, as loving mom abused by violent boyfriend. By LARRY WELBORN The Orange County Register SANTA ANA – The mother of a chubby-faced 3-year-old girl who went missing in 1969 engaged in nearly "four decades of deception" about what happened to the toddler, and now she should be held responsible for the child's murder, an Orange County prosecutor told a jury here today. Donna Prentice suddenly moved with her new boyfriend to Illinois in July 1969 a few days after her daughter Michelle Pulsifer disappeared from a Huntington Beach home, Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin told a jury in opening statements of Prentice's murder trial During the ensuing 38 years, Yellin contended, Prentice told a variety of lies about what happened to her daughter, including that she was being raised by her boyfriend's mother, was being raised by a family in Canada, and that she was doing well in school. But in reality, Yellin insisted, Prentice and her boyfriend, Michael Kent, murdered the girl for unknown reasons sometime around the 4th of July, 1969, and then they quickly moved to Illinois, along with their two young sons from separate earlier relationships, and a family dog and two cats. Little Michelle was not in the car on that trip, Yellin said, and has never been since. But defense attorney Ken Norelli claimed in his opening statement that Prentice was a "loving, caring and nurturing mother" who never caused any harm to her children. Kent, however, Norelli insisted, was "an extremely violent and dangerous man" who was abusive to every woman and child in his life. It was Kent, Norelli told the jury, who killed Michelle and then buried her body in remote Williams Canyon. Donna Prentice did not have anything to do with her daughter's disappearance, Norelli said. Norelli also told the jury that Prentice never knew what happened to daughter because she was threatened and manipulated by Kent, with whom she had an on-again, off-again relationship for several years after Michelle disappeared. She later kept silent about her daughter's whereabouts, or told different stories, Norelli contended, because she was suffering from battered woman syndrome at the hands of Kent and was "paralyzed by fear." Prentice and Kent were arrested and charged with Michelle Pulsifer's death in 2004 after a private investigator hired by the Pulsifer family found no evidence that the little girl ever existed after July 1969. Kent died in custody of liver failure in 2005 before he could be brought to trial. But before he died, he told Orange County district attorney's investigator that he had buried the little girl in Williams Canyon. Prentice, now 61, sat quietly at the counsel table with her gray hair tied back in a ponytail during the opening statements. She has remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bail since her arrest. Her first trial in 2007 ended with a hung jury, with a 10-2 vote for guilty of second-degree murder. Noble Prentice, her third husband, watched the opening statements from his seat in the courtroom gallery. Richard Pulsifer Sr., little Michelle's father, and Richard Pulsider Jr., her older brother, waited outside the courtroom, waiting to be called as witnesses. If convicted, Donna Prentice could be sentenced to five years to life in prison. The trial is expected to last about three weeks. Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com, or 714 834-3784 http://www.ocregister.com/articles/prentice-told-kent-2223793-norelli-michelle

Published - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 POST COMMENT | READ COMMENTS (No comments posted.) News Tracker: Donna Prentice trial By Tribune staff . WHAT WE KNEW: Donna Prentice, 61, formerly of Genoa, was on trial in California for the death of her 3-year-old daughter in 1969. Prentice was living in Huntington Beach, Calif., with her former boyfriend, James Michael Kent, when Michelle went missing about July 4, 1969. The couple abruptly moved to Illinois within days of her disappearance and told their other two children there was not enough room in the car for Michelle and she would stay behind with relatives. Kent, who has since died, told investigators he helped dispose of the child’s body and they then fled to avoid having to explain her disappearance. WHAT’S NEW: The jury began deliberations late Thursday but did not reach a verdict Monday. They did not deliberate Friday. WHAT’S NEXT: If convicted, Prentice faces five years to life in prison, based on the sentencing laws of 1969. . http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/z08ntprentice.txt

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Deliberations in 1969 murder case to resume Monday Jurors are deciding fate of Donna Prentice, charged with murdering her 3-year-old daughter nearly 4 decades ago. By LARRY WELBORN The Orange County Register SANTA ANA – Jurors deciding the fate of a Wisconsin woman accused of murdering her 3-year-old daughter in 1969 were released for the Thanksgiving weekend today. They will resume deliberations Monday. They have been deliberating for three days in the second trial for Donna Pulsifer Prentice, 62, who was charged in 2004 with murder for the death of Michelle Pulsifer, who disappeared from her mother's Huntington Beach home in July 1969. Her body has never been found. Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin told the jury in final arguments last week that Prentice either killed her daughter on her own, or acted with Michael Kent, her then-boyfriend. Yellin claimed that they buried the child's body in Williams Canyon in eastern Orange County. But defense attorney Ken Norelli insisted that Prentice was "a good, loving, nurturing mother" and Kent alone is responsible for the death of the little girl. Kent died in custody of liver failure in 2005 before he could be brought to trial. If convicted, Donna Prentice could be sentenced to five years to life in prison. Her first trial last year ended in a hung jury, at 10-2 for guilty. Contact the writer: 714 834-3784 or lwelborn@ocregister.com http://www.ocregister.com/articles/prentice-trial-kent-2241359-body-yellin