Justine Winter free after four years

An Evergreen woman convicted in 2011 of killing two people was freed on parole from a Billings pre-release center on Friday.

Justine Winter, 22, had been convicted of two counts of deliberate homicide after she drove her car into traffic in March 2009, killing a pregnant 35-year-old Erin Thompson and her 13-year-old son, Caden O’Dell.

Prosecutors said she drove into oncoming traffic at 85 miles per hour in an effort to kill herself after a fight with a boyfriend.

State officials granted Winter’s parole request in September.

Jan Begger, director of the Passages Women’s Pre-Release Center in Billings, said Winter was released on Friday.

Winter had been at Passages, the women’s side of the Alternatives pre-release center in Billings, for a year. She completed six months of traditional inmate time and six months in the inmate-worker program in the Billings community.

“She worked in the community, had treatment groups and other things she had to complete,” Begger said. “It costs $14 a day to live here, so she had to pay her rent.”

Begger said Winter was under constant monitoring while at the Billings facility.

“She did everything that was asked of her in the program,” Begger said. “She wasn’t a management problem at all.”

Winter has been released on parole under the supervision of the Missoula Parole and Probation Department.

She will be on parole until Jan. 20, 2026. Landee Holloway, her parole officer, was not available by phone on Monday.

If Winter violates the terms of her parole, she may be imprisoned for more than 15 years. Her original sentence was two 30-year sentences for deliberate homicide, with 15 years suspended for each.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.