An Oxford woman who was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of two friends in a 2012 car crash is appealing her conviction to the state’s highest court.
Kristina Lowe, who was 18 at the time of the crash, was convicted a year ago in Oxford County Superior Court of two counts of manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident, though found not guilty of drunken driving.
She is appealing that conviction, saying there was not enough evidence and that the court made a series of errors during the trial.
Lowe was sentenced last October to serve 18 months in prison.
The Jan. 7, 2012, crash killed Rebecca Mason, 16, of West Paris, and Logan Dam, 19, of Norway, and injured another passenger, Jacob Skiff of Paris.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the appeal on Wednesday at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor.
Lowe’s attorney, James Howaniec, will argue among other challenges that the court should not have allowed Lowe’s father to testify for the state during the defense portion of the case, should not have allowed testimony of witnesses whose statements were inconsistent and who expressed bias against her, and should have moved the trial because of pretrial publicity. He also will argue the trials for manslaughter and drunken driving should have been held separately.
Lowe already won one case before the Supreme Judicial Court prior to her conviction, when it unanimously upheld a trial court ruling that her statements made while in a hospital bed after the crash could not be used against her at trial.
Lowe had told police while she was hospitalized at Maine Medical Center in Portland that she had been texting at the time of the crash, admitted to drinking and at one point denied that she had been driving the car. Her attorney said there was no evidence that she was texting at the time of the crash.
David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
Twitter: Mainehenchman
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