Flathead County District Court Judge Katherine Curtis ruled Monday that the homicide trial for Evergreen teenager Justine Winter will stay in Flathead County if the jury selection process successfully yields a jury.
If this happens, the defense’s attempts at moving the trial out of Flathead County will effectively be denied, Curtis wrote.
Winter, 17, is accused of intentionally driving her vehicle across the centerline of U.S. Highway 93 between Whitefish and Kalispell on March 19, 2009, and crashing in to a northbound vehicle containing Erin Thompson, 35, and her son, Caden Odell, 13.
According to court records, Winter and her boyfriend had argued earlier in the evening, and she sent him several text messages less than an hour after dropping him off at home, including: “Good bye… My last words….,” and “If I won. I would have you. And I wouldn’t crash my car.”
Investigating officers concluded that Winter crossed the centerline and struck Thompson’s car in an effort to commit suicide, and she was charged with two counts of deliberate homicide.
During the change of venue hearing, Winter’s attorney David Stufft claimed the Daily Inter Lake’s coverage of the case and the comments written online in response to the newspaper’s stories had inflamed public sentiment toward his client, ruining Winter’s chances at a fair trial in Flathead County.
The prosecution refuted these claims, saying the newspaper’s coverage had been unbiased since it was based on court proceedings.
The defense requested subpoenas for seven of the identified commenters, who testified in court in September. Also subpoenaed at the time were the Inter Lake’s publisher Rick Weaver and managing editor Frank Miele.
The newspaper fought these subpoenas, citing the Montana Media Confidentiality Act, which protects the media from being forced to reveal sources or information gathered during its course of business.
Curtis, however, denied the Inter Lake’s attempt to quash the subpoenas on Oct 7. She ordered Weaver and Miele to appear on Oct. 19, but she set limits on the type of questions Stufft could ask during the hearing.
“Counsel may question the witnesses about the readership and circulation data for the Daily Inter Lake and its sister publications,” Curtis wrote in her ruling. “Defendant is barred by the Media Confidentiality Act from inquiring into the gathering, writing and decision-making process behind the publication of any article.”
Weaver and Miele took the stand at the Oct. 19 hearing, answering only questions about circulation numbers. Stufft attempted to ask about the process for removing comments from the website and about the nature of the online comments, but those questions were met with sustained objections.
From the change of venue hearings, held on Sept. 15 and continued on Oct. 19, Curtis concluded in her Nov. 1 order that the Inter Lake’s reporting was not biased or inflammatory. Instead, the judge wrote that Winter’s civil lawsuit, filed against the Thompson estate on July 15, was most likely the source of negative public sentiment.
“(T)here is no suggestion that the actual coverage of the case by the Daily Inter Lake rather than the nature of the allegations against the Defendant served to inflame the readers,” Curtis wrote in her Nov. 1 order. “Clearly, the fact that elicited the strongest expressions of indignation was the filing of the civil lawsuit by and on the Defendant’s behalf.”
Curtis also reasoned that the comments posted under the articles on the Inter Lake’s website only accounted for a very small percentage of the 84,544 potential jurors in the jury pool, and any commenters would be weeded out by the jury selection process.
In other orders, Curtis wrote that Winter will be allowed to talk about the injuries she sustained during the crash while she is on the stand at the trial. Curtis also ruled that the defense could ask potential jurors if they know what the penalty for homicide is in Montana, but cannot specifically reference the penalty.
Curtis also ruled on whether the defense’s linguist could testify as a witness during the trial. Robert Leonard testified at an earlier hearing that he believed Winter’s text messages were not suicidal, and the prosecution sought to exclude him as a witness at the trial.
In her order, Curtis wrote that there was a possibility for Leonard to testify if the defense can prove he legally qualifies as an expert witness at a hearing to be held one day before he testifies.
Stufft filed a motion for Curtis to reconsider this decision, stating that the prosecution intends to call its own forensic linguist, Lorna Fadden, during the trial and that her testimony mirrors Leonard’s. He also requested sanctions against the county attorney’s office, specifically asking the court to remove County Attorney Ed Corrigan from the case.
Curtis denied Stufft’s attempts to get a gag order on the county attorney’s office.
Winter’s attorneys have also requested that the judge reconsider her decision to move the trial from youth court to district court.
The trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 8.