State high court rejects effort to remove judge in teen's case

The Montana Supreme Court has entered the fray of a Flathead County District Court case in which a 17-year-old Evergreen girl is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide.

In a ruling filed Dec. 28, 2010, the Supreme Court denied a request by attorneys for Justine Winter to disqualify District Judge Katherine Curtis from presiding over the case.

Winter’s trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 24.

Winter is accused of intentionally crashing her vehicle into a car driven by 35-year-old Columbia Falls resident Erin Thompson on March 19, 2009, in an alleged suicide attempt. The crash killed Thompson, who was pregnant, as well as her 13-year-old son, Caden Vincent Odell. Winter sustained brain trauma.

Winter’s attorneys, David Stufft and Maxwell Battle, had alleged that Curtis should be disqualified for personal bias or prejudice against Winter.

In an order filed by five justices of the Supreme Court, the court ruled that Winter’s attorneys’ evidence consisted only of Curtis’ rulings, and that those concerns could be examined on appeal at the conclusion of the District Court case.

Curtis previously ruled that Winter, who was 16 at the time of the crash, be tried as an adult in District Court. She also denied Stufft’s requests to move the trial out of Northwest Montana.

The Supreme Court weighed in on the case again Jan. 7, dismissing an additional request by Stufft that the court exercise emergency supervisory control over District Court.

In a 17-page filing submitted Jan. 3, Stufft objected to an October order that effectively barred Winter’s father — Randy Winter — from court during the trial because he is listed as a witness in the case.

“It is inconceivable that we should expect Justine to make those decisions herself when she is a minor and she has significant brain trauma,” Stufft wrote. “It would be inconceivable and unconscionable in our civilized society to require a minor to be left alone in an adult courtroom setting.”

In a response filed with the Supreme Court Jan. 5, Curtis wrote that Stufft never objected or provided evidence as to the exclusion of Randy Winter from the courtroom and that Winter’s mother had never been barred from the courtroom during trial.

The Flathead County Attorney’s Office subsequently withdrew its objection to allowing Winter’s father in the courtroom, satisfying the Supreme Court.

Both parents will be allowed to be present during the trial.

If convicted, Winter faces a potential sentence of between 10 years and 100 years in prison, or life imprisonment.