Prosecutors say the March 2009 crash was a calculated suicide attempt that occurred less than an hour after she broke up with her boyfriend and left his house. Their evidence, in part, rests with a series of ominous text messages Winter sent to her boyfriend minutes before the crash.
"If I won, I would have you," one text message read. "And I wouldn't crash my car."
And another, "That's why I'm going to wreck my car. Because all I can do is *advertiser censored** up. Because I am a terrible person and I know it."
And also, "Good bye ... my last words."
Winter, backed by her father Randy Winter because of her status as a minor, accuses Thompson of causing the accident through "negligent driving." The three companies -- Knife River Corporation, Western Traffic Control, Inc., and Mountain West Holding Company -- are accused of failing to properly maintain the highway, which was under construction at the time.