No new trial for young killer of two: Justine Winter to be sentenced Monday
Flathead District Judge Katherine Curtis has denied a request for a new trial for a young Evergreen woman convicted in the 2009 deaths of a Columbia Falls woman and her teenage son in a car collision.
Attorneys for 18-year-old Justine Winter had asked for a new trial after a jury found her guilty of two counts of deliberate homicide on Feb. 3.
“The defendant received a fair trial,” Curtis wrote in her 20-page ruling, filed Thursday. “The interests of justice, the law, and the weight of the evidence do not justify or warrant a new trial or modification of the verdict.”
Winter was 16 when she sent off a flurry of text messages to her then-boyfriend threatening to crash her car and kill herself on March 19, 2009.
Minutes after her final message, Winter’s car, traveling 85 miles per hour, crossed the center of U.S. 93 north of Kalispell and collided with a vehicle driven by Erin Thompson. The 35-year-old woman, who was pregnant, died along with her 13-year-old son, Caden Vincent Odell.
Winter, who is being held in the Flathead County Detention Center, faces anywhere from 10 to 100 years in prison for each conviction.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Monday at 9 a.m. in Flathead District Court.
Curtis’ ruling was the result of a March 4 request by Winter’s attorneys David Stufft and Maxwell Battle, who asserted that irregularities and improprieties during the nine-day trial, along with other factors, meant a new trial should be held or that the convictions should be dismissed or altered.
The “cumulative error doctrine,” the attorneys argued, prejudiced Winter’s right to a fair trial.
In her Thursday order, Curtis attempted to refute each of the 17 primary claims made by Winter’s attorneys.
Stufft and Battle argued their case during a May 24 hearing during which they produced a new witness to the aftermath of the crash and presented evidence that a crash reconstructionist retained by the prosecution had misled jurors about his credentials.
Curtis wrote in her ruling that the witness — Dan DeCoite — provided no new evidence and did nothing to call into question testimony by prosecution witness Richard Poeppel, who said he saw Winter’s vehicle cross into the oncoming lane.
She also determined that crash reconstructionist Joe Gulliver never represented himself as an engineer, as Winter’s attorneys claimed he had.
As for Stufft’s claim that Curtis treated the defense differently then the prosecution during the trial, she cited trial transcripts and wrote the claim was false.
“The record shows that the court overruled and sustained objections on both sides during the trial,” the order states. “There is no evidence whatsoever that that the jury’s verdicts were influenced by improper conduct by the court.”
Additionally, Curtis discredited claims that the prosecution had changed its theory at trial, that a defense witness was improperly questioned about his previous employment and that the prosecution “asked guilty assuming, hypothetical questions when cross-examining [Winter’s] expert witnesses.”
“The court conducted the trial in a fair and unbiased manner,” Curtis wrote. “The defendant was not deprived of her right to a fair trial.”
Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.