PARIS — Prosecutors recommended a five-year prison sentence for Kristina Lowe, 21, of Oxford, convicted last month on two counts of manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of a high-speed crash that killed two West Paris teens in 2012. 

In a sentencing memo filed with Oxford County Superior Court on Friday, Assistant District Attorneys Richard Beauchesne and Joseph O’Connor recommended concurrent 10-year sentences for each manslaughter charge with all but five years suspended and four years of probation, and a consecutive sentence of five years, all suspended, with one year of probation for leaving the scene of an accident.

Each count of manslaughter carries the potential of up to 30 years in prison. Leaving the scene of an accident carries a potential of five years in prison.

Lowe was convicted May 22 by a jury in Oxford County Superior Court. On Thursday, a court clerk said sentencing would be scheduled in July at the earliest.

The accident occurred in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2012, on Route 219 in West Paris, killing Rebecca Mason, 16, and Logan Dam, 19, both of West Paris.

In the 10-page memo on Friday, prosecutors argued that Lowe had no prior criminal convictions or motor vehicle offenses and no violations since her arraignment. They noted that her actions were not as serious as if she had been convicted of operating under the influence but did deviate from the conduct of a “reasonable and prudent person.”  

Prosecutors said trial testimony showed Lowe had arranged for alcohol to be provided at a party she attended in West Paris, that she appeared drunk when she arrived at the party and continued drinking half an hour before the fatal accident.

Prior to the fatal accident, seven eyewitnesses testified Lowe crashed a car while doing “doughnuts” in the driveway of the party location and rammed into a tree stump on the front lawn.

Lowe later left the party with Dam, Mason and Jacob Skaff, 22. The car stopped at the Big Apple in West Paris, where Skaff purchased alcohol. Lowe’s blood-alcohol content, taken at a hospital hours after the crash, was 0.04 percent and her blood tested positive for marijuana, according to testimony.

Following the crash, prosecutors argued Lowe should have sought help at one of the 24 homes she passed on her walk back to the party on Yeaton Lane. Instead, they said, Lowe urged friends there not to call 911, persisted in denying she’d been driving and tried to persuade Maine State Police Trooper Lauren Edstrom that Skaff had been driving.

On June 4, defense attorney James Howaniec filed a motion for an acquittal in the case, claiming the state had not met the burden of proof that Lowe was texting and speeding during the crash.

In a subsequent memo on June 12, Howaniec reiterated the manslaughter convictions were not rational because the jury had dismissed a charge of operating under the influence and it could not be proven by testimony or state forensic experts that Lowe had been texting or speeding just prior to the crash.

He added that Kristina Lowe’s father, Earl Lowe, gave false testimony that he’d overheard his daughter say she’d reached for her cellphone as the car began to drift. The statement had an “inflammatory” effect on the jury, contained information from a previously suppressed police recording and never should have been admitted.

Howaniec said prosecutors were overzealous in their efforts and that the hostility of the courtroom was unfair. He quoted Beauchesne as saying prosecutors had to put on a “dog and pony show” to satisfy families of the victims and the public.

On Thursday, Rebecca Mason’s father, Jerrold Mason, said he was frustrated that the court was “dragging” in setting a sentencing date.

A call to Mason’s home Friday was not answered.

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