A local court room erupted in a display of shock, anger and anguish as Justice Sandra Zinchuk handed down a not guilty verdict for a Dauphin man facing 15 charges in connection with a 2019 drunk driving collision which killed two young sisters.

At the heart of the trial of Jack Winters, 28, was the identity of the person behind the wheel of a Ford F-150 registered to Winters, which ran a stop sign at the intersection Road 457 North and PTH 362 north of the city causing the collision, killing six-year-old Oksana Dutchyshen and her four-year-old sister Quinn.

Winters was travelling with his friend Jeffrey Thompson and court was told both men had been drinking heavily, with both men having high blood alcohol levels.

Winters’ DNA was found on the drivers’ side airbag and he was found on the ground near the driver’s door by first responders. However, in delivering her verdict Justice Zinchuk indicated the defense offered multiple alternate scenarios which could account for the DNA transfer.

The question of who was driving was further clouded by contradictory statements made by Thompson, who immediately after the accident told a first responder he was driving. Later that night in hospital, Thompson told police he “might” have been driving and in a final statement to police some months later indicated he was not driving.

Thompson died in an unrelated incident in 2020 making further clarification of his statements impossible, Zinchuk said.

Winters maintained throughout that he had no memory of the accident.

It all added up to reasonable doubt about who had care and control of the vehicle, Justice Zinchuk said.

“A reasonable doubt is not an imaginary or frivolous doubt. It is not based on sympathy for, or prejudice against, anybody involved in the proceedings,” she said. “Even if I believe that Winters is probably guilty, or likely guilty, that is not sufficient. Accordingly, I must find the defendant not guilty on all counts.”

Following the decision, the victims’ mother Claire McBride crumpled to floor in tears, while other supporters and family members hurled obscenities at the judge, the accused and his family and levelled charges of incompetence at police.

Outside the courtroom following the proceedings the girls’ grandmother, Gaylene Dutchyshen, expressed her “profound disappointment” in the verdict.

“We don’t have a reasonable doubt. We know our grandchildren are dead. This is not about me, it is about those two little girls. This is not an accident, this is wilful drinking and driving. They chose to get in that vehicle,” she said. “Total injustice and that’s all I can say. And we have to live with it, we have to live in the aftermath of being without those two little girls the rest of our lives.”