Was girl choked, force-fed?

PROVO — Former neighbors of Richard and Jennete Killpack testified Friday that they saw the Springville couple punish their 4-year-old daughter in bizarre and disturbing ways prior to the girl's death in 2002.

Neighbors said Jennete Killpack choked the girl, force-fed her, locked her in her room for hours at a time, and made her to stand in a corner with her arms raised until her legs and hands were shaking.

"Common sense would tell me that's not appropriate for a child of her age," said Bobbi Condie, a family friend who regularly baby-sat the Killpack children.

Prosecutors say what the Killpacks called punishment was actually abuse, and that it culminated on June 9, 2002, when the 4-year-old was placed on a bar stool and forced to drink water until her brain stopped functioning.

But defense attorneys in the child abuse homicide case say the Killpacks were merely acting on the advice of therapists at the Cascade Center for Family Growth, a controversial Orem clinic that has since closed. They say Cascade therapists told the couple to indulge the girl "to the point of excess" as treatment for Reactive Attachment Disorder, a mental health disorder that often affects adopted children.

On Friday, former neighbors said they saw Cassandra Killpack gradually change from the time she was adopted as a 2-year-old from a lively and rambunctious girl into a withdrawn and fearful child who looked to her parents for permission to even acknowledge others.

"Many times at church we were told not to talk or look at Cassandra because she was being disciplined," former neighbor Cindy Sumsion said.

Sumsion was one of several neighbors to describe disturbing ways in which the Killpacks disciplined Cassandra. She said at a church barbecue Jennete Killpack forced a spoonful of food into the girl's mouth because she refused to eat.

"She kept going until Cassandra's cheeks were puffed out and her upper lip was against her nostrils," Sumsion said. "She was not chewing or swallowing."

On another occasion, former neighbor Lynette Squire said she saw Jennete force food into Cassandra's mouth and plug her nose until the girl ate it.

Maria Wilkey, a former neighbor, said she was called to baby-sit Cassandra after Jennete choked the girl in 1999. She said Jennete later told her, 'I'm not sure I want her.' "

One neighbor who described herself as a very close friend of the Killpacks said Cassandra was kept in her room for hours at a time and forced to stand in a corner when she was only 2 or 3 years old.