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Woman accused of Facebook messaging before crash acquitted

After a three day trial finished on Wednesday, it took the jury less than two hours to come back with not guilty verdicts on three counts of vehicular homicide. It was the theory of the prosecution that Kari Milberg, 35, had been messaging on Facebook seconds before a fatal crash that killed her 11-year-old daughter, Lydia, and her two nieces, Laynie Jo Amos and Clara Pavek, both five.

On Dec. 12, 2013, Milberg was driving her SUV on Wisconsin Highway 35 near Prescott. She lost control of her vehicle and it crashed into a truck. In addition to the deaths of the three children, Milberg was critically injured and her three-year-old son suffered minor injuries. None of the three people in the truck were hurt.

After the snow melted in the spring of 2015, Milberg’s cellphone was found near the accident scene. The phone showed messages on Facebook were exchanged between the phone and another person seconds before the crash. Milberg was then charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter. Prosecutors argued the accident was caused by Milberg using the phone right before she lost control of her SUV.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Sean Froelich argued Milberg sent messages on her phone 52 seconds before a 911 call was made about the crash. But the man who received the messages from Milberg’s phone testified at trial he did not remember the conversation.

Milberg claimed to have amnesia after the crash and did not take the stand. Aaron Nelson, her attorney, argued there was no evidence Milberg was the one using the phone and there was evidence that pointed to bad weather conditions on the winding road where the accident occurred. Evidence was also called that showed the tires on the Milberg’s SUV were bad.

From the totality of the evidence, the jury either could not determine what exactly caused the crash or had a reasonable doubt Milberg was using her phone rather than her 11-year-old daughter and found her not guilty of all charges.

After she was acquitted, Milberg described the legal process as exhausting and felt relieved it was over. She said now she and the family can focus on healing. She described the loss of her daughter and two nieces as “unexplainable.”

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