'Say You're Sorry': Locals Take Sides in Justine Winter Case,
Car Crash Victims' Family Waits for Apology

Aug. 19, 2011 — -- Earlier this year, teenager Justine Winter was sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison for causing a car accident that killed a pregnant woman and her son. But the crash, which happened more than two years ago in the town of Kalispell in northwestern Montana, and the controversial court case that followed still provoke strong emotions in the community.

Minutes before the accident on Flathead Valley's Highway 93, Winter sent a series of text messages to her boyfriend saying she planned to kill herself by wrecking her car. Prosecutors would later successfully argue that the messages helped prove that Winter intentionally drove her car into oncoming traffic, killing 35-year-old hairstylist Erin Thompson, who was four months pregnant, and her 13-year-old son, Caden Odell. Flathead County attorney Ed Corrigan told "20/20", "As we considered the text messages a little closer, it became inescapable … that this was a knowing act on [Winter's] part, that she purposely crossed the center line [of the highway]." Read more about the crash and Justine Winter's trial here.

Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher said the case tore apart the small community as people sided with the Winters or the family of Erin Thompson and Caden.

"There was empathy on all sides of the board," said Fisher. Some feel the teenager should not have been charged with deliberate homicide – the highest available charge – in the first place.

"There's a great divide in the community about what is justice in this case," Fisher added. "She is still just 18 years old."

Comments posted as recently as this summer to the website of a local newspaper, The Daily Inter Lake, include opinions that both condemn and defend Winter, who was 16 at the time of the crash. Some commenters suggested that Winter deserved the death penalty, while others urged compassion, saying, "she was just a kid."

PHOTOS: Justine Winter, Erin Thompson and Caden

Winter, who survived serious injuries, says she does not remember what happened the night of the accident and cannot take responsibility for the deaths that resulted. The case has remained in the headlines as Winter pursues an appeal; her lawyer filed a notice of appeal to the Montana Supreme Court last month. Meanwhile, as Winter maintains her innocence, the family of Erin Thompson and Caden are still waiting for an apology from Winter – one they say was conspicuously missing when Winter addressed the family during her sentencing in June.