Winter found guilty of two counts of homicide

Justine Winter was found guilty of two counts of deliberate homicide Thursday night in Flathead County District Court.

The 17-year-old Evergreen girl was immediately taken into custody amid an emotional scene that followed a jury’s unanimous verdict delivered at 7 p.m. after about five hours of deliberations.

The jury, composed of four women and eight men, ultimately sided with prosecutors who alleged Winter intentionally crossed the center of U.S. 93 north of Kalispell on March 19, 2009, and collided head-on with a northbound vehicle driven by 35-year-old Columbia Falls resident Erin Thompson.

Thompson, who was pregnant, died, along with her 13-year-old son Caden Vincent Odell.

“We’re just relieved that the truth prevailed,” said Jason Thompson, who was married to Erin Thompson for three years prior to her death. “But it’s still a very sad day for all the families involved.”

Thompson and other family members chose to limit their comments outside the Flathead County Justice Center as a light snow fell Thursday evening.

Lindsey Eller, Jason Thompson’s sister, walked with him as members of the national press staged nearby.

“We’re just grateful to the jury,” Eller said.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan declined to comment immediately after the verdict was read, instead escorting family and friends of Thompson and Odell to a private meeting on the second floor of the Justice Center.

Winter’s defense attorneys Maxwell Battle and David Stufft met privately with Winter’s family and friends in the courtroom before exiting the building.

Winter, who was 16 at the time of the crash, had entered the courtroom hand-in-hand with her brother and her mother, Mary Winter, prior to the verdict.

Her face appeared to show no emotion as Judge Katherine Curtis declared the verdict legal and ordered her taken into custody. Each member of the jury was asked to individually confirm that the verdict was unanimous.

Behind Winter, her mother sobbed and shook her head.

The verdict came after a nine-day trial that began Jan. 24 with jury selection and ended Thursday with the prosecution and defense providing their closing arguments over the course of nearly four hours.

Corrigan used his final time in front of the jury to reiterate his belief that Winter — suicidal and despondent after breaking up with her boyfriend — intentionally crashed her car into Thompson’s after sending several text messages threatening to kill herself.

He stressed that it was not his belief that Winter intended to kill, but said that the unintended consequences were tragic fatalities for which Winter is responsible.

“It has never been the state’s position in this case that Justine Winter ... made a conscious decision that ‘I’m going to go out and kill someone,’” Corrigan said.

He told the jury that Winter, who says she has no memory of the crash, acted compulsively on her emotions when she veered into the oncoming lane on Stillwater Bridge after sending her ex-boyfriend Ryan Langford a series of text messages.

Among the messages sent to Langford during the 30 minutes before the crash were “if i won, I would have you. And i wouldn’t crash my car,” and “thats why i am going to wreck my car.”

Winter sent a final message to Langford at 8:19 p.m., less than 10 minutes before the crash, in which she responded to Langford’s assertion that she kicked him out of her car in an argument that preceded the text conversation.

“Because i wanted to kill myself. I wanted you out of my car so i could do what you told me i couldn’t. Because i lost you1 and its my fault,” the message read.

Corrigan said that the Airbag Control Module — also referred to as a black box — removed from Winter’s Pontiac Grand AM confirmed the findings of multiple collision reconstruction experts retained by the state who testified Winter was traveling close to 85 miles per hour when she swerved into Thompson’s lane.

He said it was not an accident.

“This was a decision by this young lady,” he said.

Battle and Stufft presented the jury with a polar opposite theory of how the crash occurred based on the testimony of their expert witnesses.

Battle theorized that it was Thompson who crossed into Winter’s Lane.

Battle decried what he called the prosecutors' “personal attack” on collision reconstruction expert Scott Curry, who laid the foundation for the theory that Thompson caused the crash.

Corrigan had questioned Curry on his apparent firing from the U.S. Forest Service, an event Battle said was mischaracterized and irrelevant.

“He didn’t have all the facts,” Battle said. “Just as he jumped to a conclusion with law enforcement when he brought these charges (against Winter).”

Maintaining that the collision was a terrible accident and not an intentional act, Battle criticized Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Glen Barcus, who led the initial investigation of the crash, and the findings of Sgt. Dustin LeRette who reconstructed it.

He said Barcus committed the “cardinal sin” of jumping to a conclusion before completing his investigation and that a lot of evidence was never collected or documented.

“If it had been a shooting, you know they would have did it,” Battle said.

Once Barcus, Corrigan and Flathead County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Coroner Ernie Freebury decided the fatal collision was a homicide less than 24 hours after the crash, “every single thing since then has been an effort by the state to justify their charges,” Battle said.

Battle also questioned the testimony of Richard Poeppel, the man who said he saw Winter’s Pontiac swerve into Thompson’s lane. Battle said that Poeppel’s claim surfaced more than a year after the crash.

“Anybody who really saw that the night of the accident would have written it in the report,” he said.

Battle cited the findings of a forensic linguist and a psychiatrist who both testified Winter was not suicidal and that her texts were not to be taken literally.

Corrigan focused on the testimony of four crash reconstruction experts and used photographs from the crash scene to reiterate their findings during his final remarks.

He asked jurors to use common sense when considering the testimony of defense experts.

“What is the strongest evidence that tells you what (Winter) intended when she sent that message? It’s what she did afterwards,” he said.

Winter, who was charged as an adult, is scheduled to be sentenced March 30 at 1:30 p.m. in Flathead County District Court.

The convictions for two counts of deliberate homicide carry maximum penalties of 200 years to life in prison and a $50,000 fine.