JAILED VALLEY GRANDMOTHER DIES : WOMAN IN COMA WAS AWAITING SENTENCING IN 1993 SLAYING OF SON-IN-LAW.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

Though she was old and ailing, Jo Lula Haynes still had a debt to pay to society: 19 years to life in prison for fatally shooting her son-in-law.

Haynes, 76, died Saturday of natural causes at County/USC Medical Center, the same place she had lain on life support since lapsing into a coma 11 months ago, on the eve of her Superior Court sentencing for second-degree murder.

``I'm sad but, you know, I'm glad it's over, that she's not on life support anymore,'' said one of her four children, Paul Haynes of Martinez, Calif. ``I think she's in a much better place now.''

The parents of victim Kenneth Lisi, 43, a Walt Disney Co. music producer, said that Haynes' death does little to ease their anguish.

``She's dead, but she's not gone. I can still see her, with her hands on the gun. It never goes away. It's with me when I go to bed at night. It's with me when I wake up,'' said Fay Lisi of Chatsworth, who witnessed her son's killing.

The death of the snowy-haired grandmother closes the books for police and prosecutors on an unusual murder case, and it ends a perplexing custody case for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The murder in 1993 occurred on Halloween night, when Haynes fired three rounds from a .38-caliber revolver into her son-in-law outside her Northridge home. Fay Lisi and her husband, Ernest, watched in horror.

According to police, Haynes killed her son-in-law because she believed he was molesting his two young daughters - a charge leveled by the girls' mother, Pamela, who was battling Lisi in an ugly divorce case.

The grandmother apparently didn't believe child welfare officials, who investigated the molestation claim and found no evidence to support it.

On Nov. 30, two days into her murder trial, Haynes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Her public defender, Michael Duffey, said his client wanted to spare her younger granddaughter the trauma of testifying about alleged molestation.

In early February, she was due to appear before Superior Court Judge Bert Glennon to be sentenced and shipped off to state prison. She also planned to seek a new trial on the grounds that, because of many physical infirmities, she didn't realize what she was doing when she entered her guilty plea.

The court appearance never happened. Haynes, already ailing from diabetes and other illnesses, suffered a stroke, fell unconscious and was placed on a respirator. She never regained consciousness.

That posed a vexing question for sheriff's officials: What was to be done with a comatose convicted murderer whose hospital care was costing $1,500 to $2,000 a day?

State law allows for the compassionate release of certain gravely ill criminals who are no longer a danger to society. But after weighing their options, sheriff's officials decided to keep custody of Haynes, said Jim Owens, a lawyer on the county counsel's staff.

Owens said the decision was based on several factors. The Haynes children differed about what should happen to their mother. Paul favored discontinuing life support. At least one other sibling favored continuing heroic measures.

Deputy District Attorney Carole Chizever, who prosecuted Haynes, opposed a compassionate release. Since Haynes apparently did not have much money of her own, the responsibility for her care might have fallen on taxpayers even if she had been released from custody, Owens noted.

``On balance, we felt it was better to just let it play its course,'' Owens said.

Haynes is scheduled to be autopsied today. Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said that the procedure will be attended by a private physician hired by Haynes' children.

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Photo: HAYNES