Sharon Woman Found Not Guilty in Fatal 2017 Crash

By Jordan Cuddemi

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 10-25-2018 12:12 AM

Newport — A Sullivan County jury on Wednesday found a 23-year-old Sharon woman not guilty of causing a head-on crash in September 2017 on Route 10 in Croydon that resulted in the deaths of two Newport residents.

Kristin Lake had no visible reaction when the jury forewoman read aloud the verdicts for two counts of negligent homicide — DUI in the deaths of driver Michelle Fenimore, 20, and passenger Nicholas Carpenter, 18.

Lake’s parents also sat stoically inside the Newport courtroom, and there was no audible reaction from two people in the gallery who knew the victims.

One of them was Marie Struss, of Brownington, Vt., who would have become Fenimore’s mother-in-law. Fenimore was engaged to Struss’ son, Trevor Morse. Carpenter and Morse were brothers.

Struss, who attended every day of the eight-day trial, said afterward that she didn’t agree with the verdict, nor did she appreciate defense attorney James Valente’s painting a picture that Fenimore was at fault.

The defense contended that Fenimore crossed the centerline into Lake’s northbound travel lane that night and that she may have been distracted by her cellphone, while prosecutors said Lake was driving under the influence, fell asleep and crossed into Fenimore’s lane. A sample of Lake’s blood taken at a hospitalafter the crash registered a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent.

“Michelle did not text and drive. She didn’t drink and drive,” Struss said. “They didn’t party. They were good kids. ... I will never, ever believe that this was her fault.”

Fenimore and Carpenter had only recently moved to Newport; they formerly were residents of the North Country, making it difficult for family members to travel daily to the trial, a court advocate said. The trial also went three days longer than anticipated.

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Lake, who was living in Sharon and working on a Royalton farm, and her family declined to comment as they left the courthouse shortly after the 11:15 a.m. verdict, which followed roughly three hours of deliberations over two days by a jury of eight women and four men. Jurors declined to comment as they left the courthouse.

Valente, who stopped short of saying he was surprised by the verdict, said the outcome of the case could have gone either way.

“We are relieved,” Valente said. “It was a close case, and we didn’t know what the jury was going to do.”

Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway, who led the prosecution of the case, said he was “disappointed” by the verdict.

“We are obviously disappointed, but we are completely respectful of the jury’s decision,” Hathaway said. “In our system of justice, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is an appropriately high and difficult burden. Obviously the jury concluded that we did not meet that burden.”

Both attorneys agreed that this case is reflective of the justice system at work.

“Our system requires that the proof be beyond a reasonable doubt and that there be someone on the other side who is probing that proof, who is asking the questions, ‘Do these facts really lead to a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt?’ ” Valente said. “The family has my condolences, and I am sure that this was extremely hard for them. However, it is my job to put on a good defense no matter what.”

Hathaway added: “Our system of justice is designed to ensure that no innocent person goes to jail. The burden of proof is high. That is appropriate. We trust juries with that decision.”

Asked whether he felt a not guilty verdict in this case could set a precedent for future DUI cases, Hathaway said it wouldn’t.

“Every defendant is entitled to a jury trial. We believed that the evidence in this case was strong. We believe that the evidence went in. We believed that the jury heard it and we are not second-guessing the jury’s verdict,” he said.

When Valente was asked whether he felt it was ethical to blame a crash on a person who can’t defend herself, he said the defense was “not accusing her” of anything.

“We don’t know what was happening. We know that our accident reconstructionist evaluated the physical evidence on the scene and his conclusion was that the physical evidence put the collision in Kristin Lake’s lane. We knew from the report of the emergency medical technicians at the scene that Ms. Fenimore had a phone in her hand, and our job is to determine what the state can prove as to causation, and those two questions formed the foundation for our defense.”

Hathaway agreed with Valente from an ethical standpoint.

“The defense attorney has a constitutional responsibly to his client. ... He fashioned arguments from the evidence that was presented, and it would have been unethical of him not to have made an argument that he believed he had a factual basis (for),” Hathaway said.

The prosecution put a variety of witnesses on the stand, including the police officers who interviewed Lake after the crash, the EMT who recalled Lake telling her she woke up to the sound of Fenimore’s horn and a chemist who interprets blood alcohol content.

Lake told a police officer in an interview on the scene that night that she had fallen asleep and crossed the centerline. Jurors also watched recorded police interviews with Lake in which she said she had been drinking prior to the crash.

Lake did not testify in the trial. The defense presented two witnesses, reconstruction expert Stephen Benanti, and the aunt of the man Lake had been drinking with at the Newport Moose Lodge on the night of the crash. Cody Osgood’s aunt, Tina Osgood, told jurors that she didn’t think Lake was impaired when she left the lodge.

Lake had her blood drawn in the hours after the collision, and the result showed she was too impaired to legally drive a vehicle, prosecutors said. But her defense questioned whether her blood alcohol content had risen after the crash because of when she consumed the alcoholic beverages. Valente also painted a picture that the bartender served Lake strong drinks that night.

Hathaway declined to comment on whether the Moose Lodge or the bartender had been questioned about over-serving Lake.

Valente spent a great deal of time saying that “gouge marks,” or digs in the pavement, in Lake’s travel lane indicate where the crash occurred — in Lake’s lane. Lake and Fenimore were both driving sedans of similar weight.

He also focused on Fenimore’s cellphone, which rescue personnel said was found in her hand after the crash. Valente criticized lead State Police investigator Detective Michael McLaughlin’s decision to not send Fenimore’s cellphone to the state forensics laboratory. That would have cleared up whether she was or wasn’t on her phone, said Valente, who told jurors in his opening statements that Fenimore had a new phone and was excited to play music on it.

There was contention between the defense and prosecution about whether a text message on Fenimore’s phone that night at 11:05 p.m., which is about 10 minutes before the call reporting the crash came into dispatch, was sent by Fenimore or received by her.

Reached later on Wednesday, at least one juror again declined to comment on what pieces of evidence led the jury to its verdict.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.

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