Prentice portrayed as a good mother

It was a murder trial with no body. But the 38-year-old mystery of the disappearance of Michelle Pulsifer may soon at least get a verdict.

Jurors heard closing arguments Thursday from prosecution and defense in the trial of Pulsifer’s mother, Donna Prentice, accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter in Huntington Beach in 1967. In a case where some details will never be known, attorneys battled over just how much doubt remained.

Prosecutor Larry Yellin used a PowerPoint presentation to show jurors what he called the six possible scenarios of Michelle’s disappearance. Three he called unreasonable: Michelle is still alive, she died of natural causes, or then-boyfriend James Michael Kent killed her alone. Three he called reasonable: Prentice killed her daughter, Prentice gave her daughter to Kent to kill, or Prentice gave her daughter to Kent to get rid of.

“We know she was taken by the defendant, and we know she was never seen again,” Yellin said. “We know that Michelle was a normal baby, a healthy baby.”

Prentice didn’t act like an innocent person, Yellin said. He asked why she never contacted police, why she kept living with Kent, and why Prentice never moved back to Huntington Beach after she left the state with Kent shortly after Michelle disappeared.

Yellin repeatedly asked jurors to listen again to a tape in which a dying Kent confessed to burying Michelle’s body in a shallow grave in Williams Canyon in eastern Orange County. And he recalled testimony by Michelle’s brother Richard Pulsifer Jr., who said his last memory of his sister was hearing her say, “Hide me,” before Prentice took her out of his bedroom.

Prentice’s defense attorney Ron Brower returned to his case’s main theme — that Kent was the real villain, and Prentice was as much a victim of his violence as her daughter.

“Michael Kent is rotting in hell, and that is the justice in this case,” Brower said.

The testimony of several witnesses, Brower said, showed Prentice was a good mother — never violent, avoiding drugs and alcohol, and having no mental problems. He said that Kent, on the other hand, was shown by witnesses to be a brutal monster whose favorite phrase was, “I’ll kill you in a minute.”

He also said testimony of Richard Pulsifer Jr.’s last memory of Michelle was inconsistent, telling four different stories — some of which involved Kent walking away from the house alone with a large cardboard box.

Jurors will now deliberate on the case until they return with a verdict.