Prosecutors oppose bid to move trial
The Flathead County Attorney’s Office is opposing an Evergreen teen’s request to move her trial on two counts of deliberate homicide out of Northwest Montana.
Attorneys for Justine Winter filed the request in District Court Aug. 17. The filing accuses The Daily Inter Lake of skewing coverage and commentary and allowing readers to post inflammatory messages on its website, thereby harming the potential for a fair jury trial.
Prosecutors responded this week, writing that it was Winter’s decision to sue a dead woman’s estate — not the coverage of the case — that sparked the ire of the newspaper’s readers.
Winter, 17, is accused of driving her car into oncoming traffic in March 2009 in an alleged suicide attempt on U.S. 93. The crash killed 35-year-old Columbia Falls resident Erin Julie Thompson and her 13-year-old son, Caden Vincent Odell. Thompson was four months pregnant.
In her response to the change-of-venue request, Deputy County Attorney Lori Adams wrote that the newspaper’s articles have presented facts in a fair manner.
Instead, Adams blamed Winter and her attorneys for inflaming public opinion. Winter is suing Thompson’s estate as well as the construction company and contractors working on the stretch of highway where the crash occurred. Winter claims Thompson crossed the centerline and the construction zone wasn’t properly marked.
“It was the filing of this civil suit against the estate of Erin Thompson that generated the most inflammatory comments, not the articles about the criminal case,” Adams wrote. “It was [Winter] herself that caused this kind of reaction from bloggers.”
Winter’s attorneys also have asked for a gag order preventing prosecutors from talking to the media about the case.
Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan wrote in his response filed Monday that prosecutors have refrained from making inflammatory statements to the press and that any difficulty in seating a jury is due to Winter’s handling of the matter.
“The public attention drawn to this case is the result of the defendant’s ill-timed civil suit. ... not the state’s brief comments to the press,” Corrigan wrote.
Prosecutors also addressed the perceived impact of reader comments posted on the Inter Lake’s website. There are 80,264 potential jurors in Flathead County, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s office. Only 142 individual readers have commented on articles related to Winter’s case, according to court documents.
Adams wrote that commenters represent .001 percent of the combined juror pool. She asked that Judge Katherine Curtis delay a ruling on the matter until jury selection, noting that the defense has not conducted a public-opinion survey to determine the accuracy of its claims.
The legal wrangling comes ahead of Winter’s Sept. 27 trial in Flathead County District Court. Curtis ruled in August that Winter would be tried as an adult rather than in Youth Court.
Defense attorney David Stufft has requested a hearing on his motions to change the location of the trial and to suppress all evidence since the night of the crash.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are asking that Winter’s attorneys be barred from referring during the trial to the maximum and mandatory sentences for deliberate homicide.
Curtis is expected to rule on any unsettled motions prior to the start of the trial.
Deliberate homicide carries a sentence of between 10 years and 100 years in prison, or life imprisonment.