car was the one that crossed the center line and smashed into erin thompson's car. but the worst of it, the inconceivable part was, at least as investigators told flathead county attorney ed corrigan, this was not an accident at all. what was your first reaction? what did you think? >> nuts. this is the last thing i wanted, was to have to take a double fatality and have to now treat it as a homicide. >> homicide? yes. right there in justine's car

officers found what amounted to a minute-by-minute narrative of the events leading up to the collision in text messages. and in those messages the prosecutor said was the evidence he believed required him to press criminal charges against that girl doctors had quite miraculously saved, justine winter. charges of murder. >> she did not swerve. she drove head-on into that other vehicle. >> the prosecutor lays out his case while jason gets yet another shock.

the sorrow ran deep in montana flathead valley that awful spring and summer of 2009.

deep and wide, the whole valley, in fact, the country, heard about the crash that killed caden and erin and her unborn child and heard a strange and disturbing story that 16-year-old justine winter took deadly aim at erin's oncoming car, crossed the center line, and plowed right into them. on purpose. shocking? oh, yes. as was the alleged reason. justine, said the police, was trying to commit suicide. how did they know? they found the evidence on justine's phone, they said, text messages which she wrote herself and which once county attorney ed corrigan saw them gave him no choice, he said. he charged her with deliberate homicide, montana's equivalent of murder. >> justine purposely went into the wrong lane of traffic and

smashed head-on into another car. by doing so, she should have known her actions could have killed someone. and under those circumstances i think deliberate homicide was the only charge we could make. >> you decide to charge her as an adult. why? she was 16. >> she was. the taking of two lives is not, in my opinion, a delinquent act. it is a crime, needs to be prosecuted as a crime, and if convicted needs to be on her record for the rest of her life. >> perhaps because of her own massive injuries, her continuing operations, her age, justine after pleading not guilty was released to house arrest, fitted with an ankle bracelet to await trial, allowed to attend school. at home, her parents fumed. whatever the text messages said, the idea justine would cause that crash on purpose, just crazy. are you angry at all of this? >> it builds up inside, and it gets to a point where you can't take it anymore.

>> turned out -- and it was frankly hardly surprising in a town the size of kalispell -- the two families actually knew each other. justine's mother and erin's mother had worked at the same school. erin's family let it known what they wanted from justine is a heartfelt apology and that she took responsibility for the act with which she was charged. they saw that as a way to work forgiveness. most people around town thought that was a fine idea. but from justine and her family? just an awkward silence. and then early one morning in the fall of 2010, an entirely unexpected knock at the door took emotions to a whole new level. >> this private investigator just hands me these papers like he's serving me papers. you know, it says they're suing erin's estate. >> suing you. >> suing me. for her pain and suffering. >> it was true.

in a legal preemptive strike, justine winter's attorneys had filed a lawsuit on her behalf against erin's estate as well as three companies in charge of the construction zone where the crash occurred. the lawsuit claimed erin had negligently operated her car resulting in the collision and also that the companies had failed to adequately construct and maintain the vicinity causing hazardous and confusing conditions for the traveling public. >> i can't even begin to guess what they were thinking about when they decided to file that lawsuit. >> it inflamed the whole town. >> the whole town. this wasn't justine's decision. that was a decision made by her attorneys. >> ah, yes, the attorneys. their names? maxwell battle and david stoft. according to the winters, the two assured them the lawsuit, if she was found not guilty, would give them a better shot at an insurance reimbursement later. >> there was no intent of going for the estate, making that

family endure more than they've already endured. >> but the optics were awful. >> oh, the timing could have been -- who knows -- better. >> you pick up the newspaper, you look at the blogs, you hear the radio and what you got was, those awful people, those disgusting, terrible people. what are they thinking, trying to sue the victims of this crime? >> that's what was portrayed. but the actual intent was not that. at all. >> all rise. district court is now in session. >> misunderstood or not, by the time justine winter's trial for deliberate homicide started in january 2011, the tide of public opinion had turned as bitter as a montana winter. the hearts of erin thompson's family, too, had toughened. and justine, who showed up in an almost childlike polka dot hair band certainly didn't look like an accused killer facing 200 years behind bars. but there she was. with the two families just a few

feet away, they heard detectives testify to a certainty that it was justine's pontiac grand am that crossed the center line. >> here you can see all the debris from the initial impact of the crash. >> slamming into erin's subaru so hard it was driven backward into the highway barrier. and crash reconstructionists agreed. >> justine winter's car encroached into the northbound lane striking mrs. thompson's vehicle. >> but what evidence was there that justine had done it, as the law says, purposefully? investigators pulled the so-called black box out of justine's pontiac, analyzed the data, and found another sign that pointed to suicide. she had taken off her seat belt. the black box also recorded speed, acceleration, and braking and found that justine was accelerating, flooring it so to

speak, in the five seconds before the crash, speeding up from 81 to 86 miles an hour before hitting the brakes at the last second. >> she did not swerve. and she drove head-on into that other vehicle. >> to back it up, prosecutors pulled the speedometer from justine's car, there right above the mark indicating 85 miles an hour found an orange mark. it's known as a slap mark, made, the experts testified, when the needle smashes against the console at high speed. and, finally, prosecutors revealed the reason, they said, behind it all. justine, like many 16-year-old girls, had a boyfriend. hers was named ryan. it was quite hot, this relationship. he was her world. but that day in march there had been a tiff. they had words. and so that night she drove ryan home, asked him to get out of the car, he said they were

through. then justine drove north to clear her head. she was on her way home when, detectives testified, she began texting ryan. apparently while behind the wheel. the first text, half an hour before the crash. >> good-bye, ryan. just live your life knowing you did change me. my last words. i love you, ryan. >> then her texts became somewhat threatening. >> if i won, i would have you and i wouldn't crash my car. >> and ryan answered. >> you kill yourself, i kill myself. so come on, don't be selfish. >> that's the only thing i want to live for, you ryan. you keep me living. >> stop. you hurt yourself, and i'll know and i'll do the same. >> that's why i'm going to wreck my car, because all i can do is [ bleep ] up. so you would rather me die because i want to kill myself. good-bye, ryan. i love you. >> then the final message from ryan. >> you killing yourself is just another way for you to run away.

>> just five or six minutes later, prosecutors say, justine winter drove her car into erin thompson's lane of traffic to commit suicide but instead killed mother, child, unborn baby. the prosecution had made its case for murder. now the question was, what could justine winter's attorneys possibly say to make a jury believe otherwise? >> it was a way of exercising power and control in the relationship. >> the defense takes on the heart of the case. those texts, when "crossing the line" continues. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake.

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every day in this montana courtroom the family of now 17-year-old justine winter dutifully shuffled to the seats

directly behind the defense table. their faces, by their attorneys' decree, an intentional blank, emotionless. their apparent demeanor a spur in the hide of an already angry town. but almost no one knew what was really going on. justine's mother mary who had been struggling with alcohol caved in to the stress. tell me how it's changed your life. >> i ran away for a while. i couldn't deal with it. i just left the house. i didn't come back. >> justine's brother kyle dropped out of college to help keep things together at home and get justine to her medical appointments. and randy, her father, the strong and tall as a montana spruce firefighter and national guardsman turned angry and bitter at the continuing prosecution of his little girl. >> i could be sitting in the living room watching tv and all of a sudden i hear something, i

just completely lose it, start crying. >> the whole world, said justine's dad, seemed intent on misunderstanding, demonizing his little girl. yet, he said, she had always been so good, kind, thoughtful and responsible, was getting almost straight as in high school, but mostly wouldn't harm a bug, literally, and cared about people. would never, never want to hurt that sweet woman or her son or her baby. >> always that smile, always wanted to help. it's who she was. >> what kind of little girl was this? >> she was just a good girl. >> but it might interest you to know that as the winters spoke to us here, they were doing so against the expressed advice of their attorneys. and when it was time for justine's defense team to make its case in court, attorneys maxwell battle and david stoft

told the jury that everything the prosecution told them, everything they knew about the case so far was wrong. >> what happened out there was an accident. >> including where the crash occurred. remember the prosecution's experts testified there was no doubt justine crossed the center line and veered into erin thompson's lane, causing the crash. but a forensic engineer hired by the defense said his research turned that finding its heaoit . he claimed it was erin who drove out of her lane in that construction lane and struck justine. and the defense went further, claiming the slap mark on the 85-mile-an-hour mark on justine's car was planted there by investigators, that the black box that measured speed and braking was plain wrong, that justine always wore her seat belt. and, finally, a psychologist said what actually a lot of

experts said, that a spat with a boy wasn't enough to lead to a suicide attempt. and those texts? they should not be considered a suicide note at all. >> it was a way of exercising power and control in the relationship, to make that kind of threat, that it was always clear that it was never meant. >> what would justine winter say about what happened here that night? about those texts? the jury would never know. she did not testify on the advice of attorneys, said her family. and of course that was her perfect right. but there was another reason, too. justine suffered a brain injury in that crash so her recollection of the last few days leading up to the crash and that night itself here she doesn't remember. she is charged with a crime about which her memory is a complete blank. so, then, how could the jury know that justine knowingly crossed the center line, having decided to commit suicide by

hitting the other car? a question we put to the prosecutor. in order to draw that conclusion, you have to read her mind essentially. >> you've been a prosecutor for years. you know that car accidents happen in the most bizarre ways, that people do crazy things on the road. but you clearly said this was a situation in which i know what somebody was thinking when they drove across that lane of traffic and into that other car. >> no. >> i just don't know how you can know what she's thinking. >> i can't know what she was thinking. nobody knows what she was thinking at the time. she doesn't know what she was thinking at the time. >> precisely. >> all i can do is base my decision on what the evidence shows. >> did the evidence clearly show that justine winter had made up her mind to commit suicide by driving into an oncoming car? up to the jury now. >> everyone just cried about it. >> a verdict comes quickly, but the pain and one final question remained, when "dateline" continues.

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as a montana jury prepared to decide the fate of 17-year-old justine winter, the members of erin and caden's family struggled to hang on to the frayed remnants of their former good will. they had tried so hard not to be angry at justine.

that is, until they were served with that lawsuit, blaming the crash on erin, and then watched defense attorneys battle and stoft twist what they believed were the facts of the case. these are unusual victims because of this willingness to forgive justine. >> it's the adults in her life who are steering her in this direction. it's not her decisions. you know, it's these adults. so i've had plenty of anger towards them. >> but for justine's family, too, there was considerable strain. so much that justine's father randy buckled under the pressure and was rushed to the hospital and not present in the courtroom -- >> i will ask the clerk to file the verdict and to read it. >> when, just after four hours of deliberation, the jury came back. >> we the jury enter the following unanimous verdict to the charge of deliberate homicide for the death of erin

thompson, guilty. for the death of caden o'dell, guilty. >> it was a horrible numbing experience, my head fell to my knees. >> it was like the whole courtroom -- i felt like everyone just cried about it. >> how did she look, mary, when she was led off to jail? your little girl. >> she looked very stunned. she didn't look back. >> just a week after that verdict, justine winter marked her 18th birthday in a jail cell. and then came sentencing day. and everyone wondered, would justine finally tell erin's husband, her family, what they desperately wanted to hear? in your ideal world, what would you like to hear from justine?

>> to be sorry for what she took from us because it was huge. >> just before sentencing, the family received this, a statement written by justine. and it wasn't even close to what they were looking for. in it she called herself a miracle who was wrongly convicted of a horrific crime. she wrote that she would never, ever in a million years take her own life or anyone else's, that this was an accident that had been blown out of proportion, that she didn't need time behind bars, just a chance to turn a horrific situation into a positive one. and so, with this statement in mind, the family of erin and caden took the stand to have their own say. >> i want for you to make something positive of your life through this, but you still have yet to grasp the truth. >> caden's father, the same message. more anger. >> you took him. you did it.

and you need to own it. you killed my boy. you need to own it. >> and finally caden's stepfather jason, the elementary school counselor first displaying compassion, then a rare stream of venom aimed at justine's defense team, attorneys battle and stoft. >> i have chosen to believe that you in crashing your car didn't want to harm or would ever think about harming them, but it has been very, very, very difficult to hold on to that thought given that you've been led by these two men and influenced by them to not do what is most important in all of this to show and demonstrate to us that you are sorry for having taken them. >> then, finally, the moment, as justine winter herself took the stand to speak for the first time. >> i've wanted to speak with you for two years now.

i've wanted to let you guys know that my heart goes out to you. and as every single one of you came up here today, my heart was breaking. but i just hope that you guys will be able to forgive that i will never be able to say that i intentionally crossed the center line wanting to take three lives from all of you. >> but before the judge allowed justine to leave the witness stand, the prosecutor stepped to the podium and asked a question on behalf of the victims' family, a question that froze the courtroom. >> what they wanted to hear from you for a long, long time also is "i'm sorry." can you tell them that? >> i'm sorry for your loss, but

i cannot -- i don't know what you're meaning by you want me to say that i'm sorry. >> and so the hammer came down. >> by order of the court the defendant is committed for a period of 30 years with 15 years suspended. >> 15 years in prison. justine will have to serve 7 1/2 before she has any chance of parole at all. and her father back on his feet and in court for sentencing day began his own prison term, the one deep inside his own soul. >> the system betrayed me. you serve your country and then feel betrayed by it? >> you feel betrayed by the country you fought for. >> uh-huh. by the judicial part of the system. >> they took her, this once promising honor-bound college student, to a cell in the women's prison where she instantly became the youngest inmate in the place.

and two months later those attorneys stoft and battle who declined our requests for interviews were off the case. that civil lawsuit was dropped. and that's when justine winter finally now on her own decided to tell us her side of the whole sad story. >> an exclusive interview with justine. >> you say you probably caused that accident. are you able to say i take

shortly after justine winter walked out of this courtroom in kalispell, montana, she landed here, more than 450 miles east across the state at the women's prison in billings.

and, just weeks into a 15-year prison sentence for deliberate homicide, she sat down with us, quite well aware of how all this time she'd been the target of so much curiosity and anger. i'm curious to know what your thought process was as you went about deciding, yeah, i think i'll talk now. >> i don't know. i guess it was probably that i was being shown in a different light than what i wanted to be shown in. >> when you read accounts of your case and when you see the comments people write, what's that like? >> they are really hard to read. i heard one that said that i need to hang from a noose on a tree. >> what does it feel like inside, when you saw that comment, for example?

>> i'm really weird. with my brain injury i feel it in the second, but it's hard to, like, recall it afterwards. >> that brain injury is the reason she says she sometimes smiles when she doesn't mean to, why everything came out wrong she says when she took the stand and spoke at sentencing, and why she says -- and even the prosecutor says he believes this -- that she recalls nothing about the crash. >> i don't remember the night of the accident, but i remember events that i know had to have happened right before the accident happened. >> what events would those be? >> i remember doing stuff to get ready for prom because prom was supposed to be two days after when the accident happened. but, other than that, i don't really remember a whole lot about march. >> what do you remember was the last time you saw your boyfriend? >> i have no idea. i remember we spent oodles of time together. >> you were inseparable basically.

>> pretty much. >> in love? >> kid love. >> well, it's pretty strong love, that kid love, isn't it? >> yeah. i remember if i wasn't with him i was texting him all the time. >> but, as for those texts following the argument with ryan before the crash, justine says, despite what many believe, she would never, ever have tried to commit suicide, knowing as she does that her grandmother, randy's mother, killed herself when her dad was just a boy. in fact, she says, the most likely explanation is she was just playing a game of sorts with ryan. >> he liked controlling everything having to do with like my life, and he'd threatened suicide twice. that's what i think was happening, that i was playing his own card back at him. >> oh, i'm going to kill myself then. >> yeah. i don't think that they were text messages that were to be taken seriously.

>> well, if you look at them through justine's eyes they don't look like serious texts, but the jury didn't look at it through your eyes. >> no. >> despite her conviction and all that evidence and the fact she has no memory of that night, justine still claims she must have been wearing her seat belt and cannot imagine driving her car at 85 miles an hour. just not the sort of thing she ever did, she says. something happened. you swerved across and hit that other car. does that sound about right? >> yeah. >> it was probably you that caused the accident. is that fair to say? >> uh-huh. >> and if you say it's probably you who caused that accident, are you able to say, yeah, you know, if i did it -- and i probably did cause it -- i just feel horrible about that? >> uh-huh. >> and i take responsibility for that? >> yeah. >> is it possible for you to say that? >> yeah. i mean, if i knew, then i would take responsibility for it. you know, if it was me, i take complete, utter responsibility for it. and i do.

>> and now, finally, having said the words almost that erin and caden's family longed to hear, justine says she is finally through with what she called a pity party she held for herself. >> all i would change about the accident is that they lived. and if it had to so be that they lived and i didn't, i'd be okay with that. because i don't -- i don't like seeing anyone else in pain. i know my family was put in a lot of pain because of the accident, but they've got to see me grow up. >> and the other family can't see that. >> yep. and i don't want to put them in any more pain than they've already had to be put through.

and i want to make everything okay for them. >> but, oh, that will take a long time. that sadness as big as the sky. for erin's widower jason, the dream is gone. only an empty chair, an empty ache remain as he and so many in the family, as if climbing those montana mountains, try to keep putting one foot in front of the other. >> it's a dance between the grief of their loss to the joy and the blessing of having experienced them. >> it's like seeing a meteor. you wouldn't curse your luck that you saw this meteor, you'd just be thankful that you were blessed to see it. so we just have to cling to that, that wow, how amazing that we got to spend a good part of