The latest battle in the case of an Evergreen teenager charged with two counts of deliberate homicide is over the location of her pending trial, a matter that is scheduled to be resolved on Sept. 15.
Seventeen-year-old Justine Winter’s defense counsel claims she will not receive a fair and impartial jury if she is tried in Flathead County because of the nature of and response to media coverage of the case.
The defense requested to change the trial location on Aug. 17.
The prosecution opposes the move, disputing media bias and insisting an impartial jury could be found in the Flathead.
Winter 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.
Thompson, who was pregnant at the time, and Odell were killed in the collision.
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.
Winter pleaded not guilty to the charges last month after Flathead County District Court Judge Katherine Curtis ruled on Aug. 6 that Winter would be tried as an adult.
Defense attorney David Stufft, however, said his client would not get a fair trial in the Flathead because of comments made by county prosecutors in an interview with ABC News and comments written on the Daily Inter Lake’s website in response to its coverage of the case.
Stufft says the newspaper’s coverage has sparked an inflammatory reaction within the community against Winter, tainting the jury pool. Court records contain multiple comments readers’ made online, including those declaring Winter guilty and asking that she receive severe punishment, in addition to comments asserting the teen deserved a fair trial.
Stufft said in an interview that the defense requested a subpoena for information on the website’s 142 commenters who wrote in response to stories about Winter’s case.
The subpoena was issued on Aug. 11 and the information, which includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, e-mail addresses and names, is now part of court record. Of the 142 accounts listed in court records, there are 87 IP addresses connected to user names. Some accounts also list commenters’ contact information.
“One of my jobs is to make sure Justine gets a fair and impartial trial,” Stufft said when asked in an interview why he requested the information.
Court records also include the testimony of Winter’s father, who wrote that he is worried his daughter won’t receive a fair trial and that she has received threatening text and Facebook messages. He also wrote that someone sent $800 worth of pizzas to his house with the intention that he should pay for them.
In her opposition to the request for a location change, Flathead County Deputy Attorney Lori Adams wrote, “(i)t is undisputed that the media has focused considerable attention to this case, however the coverage has not been excessive nor inflammatory, nor has it been solely generated by the County Attorney’s office or the Highway Patrol.”
Adams argued that the Inter Lake’s coverage was fair and objective. She asserted that Winter caused the inflammatory online comments herself by filing a civil suit in July against Thompson’s estate and the contractors and construction companies that were working on the highway. The suit claims it was Thompson who crossed the centerline and caused the crash.
Adams also wrote that the 142 people who commented on the Inter Lake’s stories only represent .001 percent of the county’s potential jury pool, and that Flathead County has found fair and impartial juries for “high profile” cases in the past.
Stufft said the defense intends to call two witnesses who will contend that the crash occurred in Winter’s lane.
The prosecution has already filed a request to exclude testimony from one of the defense’s previous witnesses, Robert Leonard, a linguist who testified in a previous hearing that Winter’s texts were not actually suicidal.
Defense counsel has also requested a gag order on the County Attorney’s office, which County Attorney Ed Corrigan opposed as well.