A psychologist and a forensic linguist testified Tuesday that a 17-year-old Evergreen girl charged with two counts of homicide likely did not intend to commit suicide prior to a 2009 crash that killed two people.

Defense attorneys for Justine Winter elicited the testimony Tuesday afternoon in Flathead County District Court before announcing they had no further witnesses as Winter’s trial reaches its eighth day.

Robert Leonard, a forensic linguist and professor at Hofstra University, read a series of text messages sent by Winter to her then-boyfriend Ryan Langford in the 30 minutes before the fatal crash and said his opinion is that the messages were not suicidal.

Prosecutors allege the messages — including some that refer to suicide and crashing her car — are the strongest evidence that Winter intentionally crossed the centerline of U.S. 93 near Church Drive and collided with a vehicle driven by 35-year-old Erin Thompson on the evening of March 19, 2009.

The collision killed Thompson, who was pregnant, and her 13-year-old son Caden Odell.

Leonard, though, said that by analyzing the text messages in context while considering all factors, one can deduce that Winter and Langford were simply carrying on a continuing cycle in which threats of suicide were used as mechanism to gain conversational power.

“It is clearly not a suicide note,” he said.

Calling the exchange a “back-and-forth of conversational agendas,” Leonard said Winter and Langford were trying to provoke responses from one another, and that neither of them were serious in their threats of suicide.

Leonard, who said “there is nothing abnormal about the conversation,” read a transcript of the text messages — beginning with one at 7:51 p.m. and ending with a final messages at 8:21 p.m. — to the jury, offering his analysis of each messages.

In one message, Winter wrote “just know that i am telling the truth when i tell you i love you. my last words. Love You Ryan.”

“This is a suggestion to us that these were not meant to be her last words,” Leonard said, adding that she was more likely trying to elicit a response from Langford.

In another message, Winter wrote “i can’t change what happens in my life but i will do all i can to make all the difference, because its ending. bye ryan.”

“It could have meant, ‘I am breaking up with you,” Leonard said.

Overall, Leonard said “most people who make threats never carry it out,” and that Langford’s testimony combined with the text messages proves the text message conversation was not a precursor to an actual suicide attempt.

Pressed by Deputy County Attorney Lori Adams on whether or not he could truly know the intentions of Winter or Langford based on an evening of text messages, Leonard said “no one can.”

“What I’m doing is not mind reading, but looking at patterns I perceive,” Leonard said.

His testimony came after psychologist Scott Poland provided a similar analysis based on his review of reports and testimony related to the case.

Poland, who also is the prevention director of the American Association of Suicidology, testified that Winter did not exhibit any of the standard warning signs of a suicidal individuals, those being anger, substance abuse and mental illness.

“I believe this communication was conversational,” he said of the text messages. “It did not, in my opinion, constitute a suicide note.”

Citing her success in school and cheery personality, Poland said it’s not likely an argument with her boyfriend would have sparked a suicidal reaction. He said adolescent suicide is most often the result of prolonged pain combined with other factors, be they physical or emotional.

“A lot of things have to go wrong at once,” he said.

On cross-examination, Adams asked Poland if Winter’s home life — her parents were preparing to separate and her mother was battling alcoholism, according to testimony — combined with the turbulent relationship with Langford could have resulted in depression.

She read an apparent text message sent from Winter to Langford prior to the crash that said “God, did you pick the wrong person to care about. I have so many problems you don’t even know.”

Adams read another text that said “I live with them basically hating each other and hating me.”

Poland said Adams was referring to “mild issues, not severe problems.” Earlier in the trial, he said “You don’t become suicidal because your parents are having some difficulties.”

“General a suicidal individual has to have what (is) called unendurable pain,” Poland said.

In on of the testier exchanges of the afternoon, Poland attempted to relate the concern he felt when his wife recently was late arriving home to Langford’s concern that he had not heard from Winter in the minutes before the crash. Prosecutors have sought to use Langford’s concern for Winter as an indicator that he thought she was suicidal.

“I’m sure your wife didn’t text you telling you she would crash her car,” Adams replied.

Poland later questioned why the trial was allowed to proceed, stating that the forensic linguist retained by prosecutors — who has not testified — reached a conclusion similar to Leonard’s.

“We’re here because five minutes before her last text in which she said she would crash her car, she did crash her car and it killed two people,” Adams said, drawing an objection from Winter’s defense attorney Maxwell Battle.

A Libby man hired by the defense to reconstruct the crash also continued his testimony Tuesday. Scott Curry, a forensics engineer, provided his analysis of the collision in which he determined the crash occurred in Winter’s lane, not Thompson’s.

Prosecutors challenged Curry’s conclusion that the roadway was wet the night of the crash and pointed out discrepancies in diagrams aimed at proving it was Thompson who crossed the centerline and caused the fatal crash.

Curry also testified that a recall of 1999 Subaru Foresters — which Thompson was driving at the time — was aimed at a defect in the brake system.

“The pedal goes to the floor and the car doesn’t react to the braking mechanism until seconds later,” he said.

Earlier in the trial, a Montana Highway Patrol sergeant and a crash reconstruction expert retained by the state testified that the collision occurred nearly head-on in Thompson’s northbound lane.

The trial is scheduled to resume today at 9 a.m.

Prosecutors said they will call eight more witnesses, and will likely begin closing arguments Thursday morning.

Winter, who is being tried as an adult, faces a maximum of 200 years or life in prison if convicted of both charges of deliberate homicide.

Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.