PARIS – Lee Hillsgrove, a New Hampshire logging truck driver accused of killing a Bethel woman on March 10, 2003, walked away a free man Thursday morning in Oxford County Superior Court.

Following two days of witnesses’ and wreck reconstructionists’ testimony about the head-on collision on Route 26, Justice Ellen A. Gorman found Hillsgrove, 46, of Alton, N.H., innocent in the violent and sudden death of 54-year-old Rebecca Shaw.

“The state failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Gorman said, in rendering her verdict.

Though she said the wreck was a “terrible event caused by events and errors,” she said the evidence presented did not support the prosecution’s claim that Hillsgrove chose to drive into the oncoming lane where his fully loaded 73,000-pound rig struck Shaw’s 1998 Volvo, then fell on it when his load of logs shifted.

The Volvo was crushed. Shaw died instantly.

Prosecutor Joseph M. O’Connor had charged Hillsgrove with manslaughter, a Class A felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison and a $10,000 fine pending conviction.

Gorman spent 10 minutes explaining Maine criminal law as it pertains to manslaughter, recklessness, criminal negligence and gross deviation of conduct before declaring him innocent.

Hillsgrove showed no emotion when the verdict was read, but his wife erupted in wailing sobs.

Defense attorney Thomas J. Nale of Waterville quickly ushered his client and Hillsgrove’s family and relatives into a back room.

One of Shaw’s five siblings, David Keniston, who attended the trial with his daughter Heather and Shaw’s twin sister, Rachel McKnight of Jericho, Vt., said he was disappointed and upset.

“I was disappointed with the verdict, but I understand why she reached the version she did,” he said later Thursday afternoon.

“I’m upset about the fact that Lee Hillsgrove showed no remorse whatsoever in taking my sister’s life, and I would like the public to know that the Hillsgroves were not remorseful.”

About 30 minutes after the verdict was read, Nale said the Hillsgroves did not want to comment on the case or verdict.

Keniston said that after the trial ended, he tried without success to speak to Hillsgrove, to ask him why he wasn’t remorseful.

But, he said, Hillsgrove’s brother Wayne “seemed to be more remorseful” when he testified.

Wayne Hillsgrove was driving the first fully loaded logging truck ahead of his brother on that tragic day when both overtook a stopped pickup truck waiting for oncoming traffic to pass before turning left.

“It was Wayne who put the fire out under my sister’s car, and he saw her and testified that it was a pretty horrific sight. But his brother Lee never saw Becky or her car,” Keniston said.

“Then, during his testimony, Lee said he didn’t want to see the photos of my sister’s car. He said, If any of these pictures are of the Volvo, I don’t want to see them,'” Keniston added.

As to why he attended the trial, Keniston said, “For closure. Hopefully, this is the end of it. I think we’re all OK with the verdict, and we just want to move on.”

[email protected]