Young killer of two faces parole hearing Monday

An Evergreen woman who as a teenager killed two people in a vehicle crash in 2009 is set to go before the state parole board in Billings on Monday for possible release.

Justine Winter, 22, was denied full parole in August 2014, though she was approved for a prerelease work program that would allow her to serve as an inmate worker.

She was listed as in custody of the Passages Pre-release Center in Billings beginning Dec. 10, 2014. Winter initially served her sentence at the Montana Women’s Prison in Billings.

Staff at the Flathead County Attorney’s Office said Friday that the office had declined to weigh in on whether or not Winter should be paroled.

Winter’s case will be part of parole hearings taking place at the Alternatives Pre-Release and Passages Pre-Release Centers in Billings at 1 p.m. The facility’s address is listed as 1001 South 27th St.

Winter was convicted by a Flathead County jury in February 2011 of two counts of deliberate homicide for a horrific traffic crash that killed two people.

Pregnant Erin Thompson, 35, and her 13-year-old son Caden Vincent Odell were killed when Winter, driving at 85 mph, intentionally crossed the center line of U.S. 93 north of Kalispell on March 19, 2009.

Winter was sentenced in June 2011, two days after she graduated with honors from Glacier High School, to two concurrent 15-year sentences for deliberate homicide.

Each sentence included 15 years suspended.

Winter, who was 16 at the time of the crash, was seriously injured.

She had texted her boyfriend shortly before the crash saying that she meant to kill herself by crashing her car.

While in prison, Winter and the case have been the focus of television specials on ABC’s “20/20” and NBC’s “Dateline.”

Reporter Megan Strickland may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.