Murder case ends in mistrial

The trial of Donna Prentice, accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter Michelle Pulsifer 38 years ago in Huntington Beach, has ended in mistrial with a hung jury. But prosecutors say this likely isn’t over, and a new court date has already been set.

After four days and roughly 15 hours of deliberations, jurors told judge James Stotler on the afternoon of June 20 that they had deadlocked 10 to 2, leaning toward a guilty verdict.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for July 27, postponed till then at the request of the defense.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office has not made an official decision to pursue the case again, but officials offered an indication it would likely do so.

“We will have to meet and discuss that, but this is certainly the type of case we want justice on,” said District Attorney spokeswoman Susan Schroeder. “Little Michelle has waited a long time for the person responsible for her murder to be held accountable. We’re going to discuss our strengths on the evidence.”

Prosecutor Larry Yellin said he was disappointed in the verdict, but said it didn’t shake his belief in Prentice’s guilt or in his ability to get a conviction.

“I believe in the case,” Yellin said. “In a sense, the 10-2 reaffirms that. It’s a pretty close hang. We say that a 10-2 reads like an 11-1, but somebody got somebody to go with him.”

Jurors made Yellin nervous when they started asking questions about how much credence they were expected to give to accomplices in crimes — in this case, a confession by James Michael Kent, the former boyfriend of Prentice.

Before his death from organ failure in 2005, Kent said on tape that he buried Michelle’s body in a secluded canyon but implicated Prentice in the crime.

“I argued this case wasn’t about what Mike Kent said,” Yellin said. “They were off on a tangent, and they mistried soon after.”