PARIS — The defense attorney for a 21-year old Oxford woman convicted of two counts of manslaughter is requesting the audio recordings between police and emergency dispatchers as evidence for a July acquittal hearing. 

James Howaniec, attorney for Kristina Lowe, has asked for dispatcher audio and computer records which he said may have firsthand police accounts of the road conditions on Jan. 7, 2012, on Route 219 in West Paris, when two teens perished in a high-speed car crash.  

During the trial, a meteorologist testified that the weather conditions on the night of the crash were “ripe” for the formation of black ice, and Howaniec said the tapes may contain police accounts that the road at the scene of the accident was icy.

“We’ve requested the dispatcher audio and computer records. We’ll see if there’s anything behind it,” he said.   

Howaniec said the defense is investigating “numerous” aspects of the case but declined to comment further on the specifics. 

In May, Lowe was convicted in Oxford County Superior Court on two counts of manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident. She was found not guilty on two lesser charges of criminal OUI.  

Last month, the defense moved to acquit Lowe on those charges, arguing the state failed to meet the burden of proof that Lowe’s actions amounted to manslaughter.

A one-day hearing on the motion is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. July 31 at Oxford County Superior Court in Paris.

In a response to that filing, Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne has argued that Lowe’s combination of texting and speeding led the jury to a “rational” guilty verdict.  

Prosecutors are seeking 10-year sentences for each manslaughter charge with all but five years suspended and four years of probation. They are also seeking a consecutive sentence of five years, all suspended, with one year of probation for leaving the scene of an accident. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

Trial testimony from people at a party Lowe attended in West Paris reported she appeared drunk when she arrived and continued drinking until half an hour before the fatal accident that killed Rebecca Mason, 16, and Logan Dam, 19, both of West Paris.  

In the motion for acquittal however, Howaniec argued that the jury did not find Lowe to be impaired by either alcohol or marijuana and that the state had not proven Lowe had been texting and speeding.

According to the motion, a forensic cellphone expert was unable to determine whether Lowe, whom a witness said was driving, had received or sent a text message in the moments prior to the crash. 

Jacob Skaff of South Paris, who testified he was sitting in the front passenger seat while Lowe drove the car, also testified he didn’t hear or see an incoming text message.

Testimony from Earl Lowe, the defendant’s father, which was admitted after the defense had rested its case against the protests of the defense, included that his daughter told him, her mother and Maine State Police Trooper Lauren Edstrom that just before the accident she heard her phone ring and looked down, which was when the car began to drift and Dam reached over from the back seat to correct the direction of the car.  

Sentencing in the trial has not been scheduled.

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