Gilroy
– Nine months after a tragic accident that took the life of a
Gilroy High School student, a new trial date has been set for
Anthony Scott McDowell, 19.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Nine months after a tragic accident that took the life of a Gilroy High School student, a new trial date has been set for Anthony Scott McDowell, 19.
The Morgan Hill resident will be tried next month on a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence for the death of 15-year-old Gilroy resident Erin Kinkel last August. McDowell also is accused of unlawfully transporting a person in the back of a motor truck, an infraction.
Following McDowell’s last pre-trial appearance on Monday, Superior Court Judge Susan A. Bernardini set his trial for June 27 at 9am in Dept. 90 at the San Martin courthouse.
Kinkel’s father said after McDowell’s appearance Monday morning that his family and friends had been hoping the teenager would change his not-guilty plea to resolve the matter without a trial.
“It’s just a real shame,” Scott Kinkel said. “We were hoping, but I guess it’s just not to be.”
Inside the courtroom, it was a tense 40 minutes as Kinkel’s parents, with about a dozen other family members and friends, sat on the left side of the courtroom as McDowell sat across the aisle with his parents and girlfriend. The two groups waited while Deputy District Attorney Amir Alem and defense attorney Ingo Brauer conferred with the judge in her chambers. McDowell and the three next to him generally sat silent, while the victim’s supporters chatted with one another.
Quietly, but in a voice that could be heard throughout the courtroom, Scott Kinkel at times spoke about the impending trial and charges against McDowell, and said he believes McDowell will be found guilty.
“It’s too bad,” Kinkel said later outside court. “I don’t want to see him go to jail, but I believe if he does go to (trial), that will happen.”
McDowell’s defense attorney declined to answer questions outside court, and did not return a call for comment.
McDowell was arrested in late August in connection with the crash that occurred on Redwood Retreat Road just after midnight Aug. 1. Erin Kinkel was riding with another teen-age girl in the back of McDowell’s pick-up truck when he lost control and drove off the road, according to the California Highway Patrol accident report. The two girls were thrown from the truck, one onto the dirt shoulder and Erin Kinkel onto the paved road. She struck her head and was pronounced dead while en route to the hospital.
Kinkel suggested the defense will claim the curvy road was not properly marked, though he says there are signs posted that warn of narrow roadway and sharp corners.
“The definition of misdemeanor manslaughter is they need to show negligence” and not gross negligence, Kinkel said. “(McDowell) illegally and unsafely transported two minors in the back of his truck, and there is no defense for that. The rest of it is a smokescreen.”
If convicted, McDowell could face jail time of up to one year. Kinkel has said he would rather the 19-year-old Live Oak High School graduate plead to the charges – the DA’s office does not plea bargain manslaughter cases – for a sentence of community service.
“The most important thing to us is we would like at some point to think that our daughter died with people who cared for her, and to this point, neither Tony nor his family has shown any compassion or caring to me or my family whatsoever,” Kinkel said. “I would rather have that than anything this court could do.”
