Teen makes new request for trial in Youth Court
With a request to move her trial out of Northwest Montana still pending, an attorney for 17-year-old Justine Winter now is asking that the case be moved to Flathead County Youth Court.
District Judge Katherine Curtis ruled Aug. 5 that the Evergreen teenager — charged with two counts of deliberate homicide — would be tried as an adult.
On Monday, Winter’s attorney David Stufft filed another request to move the case to Youth Court, citing information provided by possible witnesses for the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.
His request is based on a report by Dr. Lorna Fadden, a forensic linguist hired by prosecutors to evaluate text messages sent by Winter prior to the March 19, 2010, collision.
Text messages likely will be a focal point in the trial scheduled to start Nov. 8 in District Court and last up to two weeks.
According to court documents, Winter engaged in a text message conversation with her then-boyfriend prior to crashing into a vehicle driven by Columbia Falls resident Erin Thompson on U.S. 93. Thompson, who was pregnant at the time, died along with her 13-year-old son, Caden Vincent Odell.
The text messages sent by Winter included references to suicide and crashing her car, according to court documents. Fadden, though, concluded in her report dated Oct. 8 that “the text messages are not consistent with generally accepted characteristics of suicide notes.”
Fadden’s determination is similar to that of fellow forensic linguist Robert Leonard, who was retained by Winter and testified in a July transfer hearing that the messages were not indicative of someone who wished to commit suicide.
Stufft’s request also cites an interview with psychologist Dr. Paul Moomaw, another possible witness tabbed by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office. According to documents filed by Stufft, Moomaw said in an interview Oct. 22 that juveniles such as Winter should not be charged as adults.
In her original ruling, Curtis wrote that District Court was better suited to delivering a sentence that would provide Winter with long-term treatment while providing adequate punishment if she is convicted.
If convicted in District Court, Winter would face possible sentences of 10 years to life in prison compared to the 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 years she would have faced for the two felony charges in Youth Court.
“When one is not suicidal, the element of long-term treatment is removed from the argument,” Stufft wrote.
In a response to Stufft’s request, the Flathead County Attorney’s Office has countered that Fadden’s report provides no new evidence to consider in light of Leonard’s previous testimony that the texts were not suicidal in nature.
In a response filed Monday, Deputy County Attorney Lori Adams wrote that Fadden’s report addressed suicide but not the act of intentionally crashing a vehicle.
“The court relied on medical testimony and undisputed facts of (Winter’s) current medical condition when deciding that (Winter) would be in need of long-term monitoring and therapy, this does not include the suicide element,” Adams wrote.
Curtis has ordered a hearing to determine whether or not forensic linguists — who specialize in determining the context, meaning and origin of written or transmitted words — will be allowed to testify at the trial.
She also is expected to rule on a request by Stufft to move the trial out of Flathead County after a final hearing on the matter was held Oct. 19.
Curtis has submitted several orders related to the case in the past week, most recently denying Stufft’s request that the County Attorney’s Office be barred from discussing the case publicly.
She also determined that search warrants obtained by law enforcement investigating the wreckage following the crash were implemented legally.
Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com