Kristina Lowe jury hears from friend of accident victim

PARIS — Rebecca Mason’s childhood friend testified Monday morning in the manslaughter trial of Kristina Lowe, the young woman accused of killing Mason in a car accident in January 2012.

Baylee Heikkinen, who is now 16, told the jury that Mason had been at her home the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2012, and had wanted to stay overnight but “Becca’s dad wouldn’t let her stay,” so Mason went home and Heikkinen asked her mother if she could stay overnight at her brother’s house in West Paris instead.

Her mother agreed, so Heikkinen went to 12 Yeaton Lane where her older brother, 18-year-old Michael Henderson, was hosting a drinking party for teens and young adults.

Heikkinen, who is now a junior at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, seemed upset and reluctant to be on the stand. She wasn’t even aware Lowe was in the courtroom until Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne asked her to point the defendant out.

Lowe is facing five felony charges in connection with the Jan. 7, 2012, accident that killed Mason, 16, and 19-year-old Logan Dam, including two counts of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated criminal operating under the influence, and one count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Heikkinen testified that she remembers Lowe showing up at the party and acting “weird,” but doesn’t remember seeing her drink any alcohol or use marijuana. She did remember seeing Lowe get in a car and at some point during the party and then “run into a stump in the driveway.” She told the jury that Lowe then told other party-goers she would tell the guy who owned the car that she’d hit a deer, which is consistent with testimony previously offered by other young people at the party.

Henderson took away Lowe’s keys then, Heikkinen said, and gave them to 17-year-old Nicholas Plummer.

Then, Heikkinen said, she was surprised to see Mason show up in her father’s truck, especially since she knew her friend’s father hadn’t wanted her to stay out overnight. She also remembers that their friend, Logan Dam, said he didn’t think it was a very good idea for Mason to be there.

Heikkinen couldn’t offer any information about who left the party when or who was driving, but remembers some time later that Lowe “ran through the door. Her jacket was all bloody, and I asked her what happened.”

She kept saying she didn’t know, Heikkinen said of Lowe.

“A few minutes later Jake walked in. His head was bleeding really bad,” Heikkinen said, referred to Jacob Skaff, who had also been in the car with Lowe, Mason and Dam when it crashed on Route 219.

Lowe was really cold, Heikkinen remembers, so she helped take her wet pants off and put shorts on. Then she wrapped her in a blanket and rubbed her back to soothe her, all the time asking what happened.

Heikkinen, who was 14 years old on the night of the accident, said Lowe “just said she was texting and driving and that Logan tried to correct the wheel but he couldn’t.”

“I kept asking where Becca and Logan were and she couldn’t say,” Heikkinen said, so she called 911. Lowe “was telling me not to call,” Heikkinen testifieid. “She said ‘no,’ ‘no,’ ‘no,’ don’t call, but I still did, obviously.”

Heikkinen gave two statements to police, and defense attorney James Howaniec asked her why neither one of the statements contained any reference to the fact that Lowe told her she’d been texting.

“I was so worked up” when she wrote the first statement herself, Heikkinen said, on the night of the crash, and she said she didn’t know why police didn’t include that fact in her official statement, even though she remembers telling that to police.

Heikkinen was the third party-goer to testify in this trial. Megan Plummer testified on Friday afternoon and her younger sister Alicia Plummer testified Monday morning. Both of the Plummers also remember telling police that Lowe told them she was texting and driving, but that information is not in any police statements.

Alicia Plummer, who was working as a preschool teacher in Yarmouth in early 2012, went to the party at the invitation of her sister and brother. She remembers Lowe was already there when she arrived with her sister and their friend Mark Zeegers, 24, of Oxford, who drove.

Plummer told jurors that her brother, Nicholas, was already at the party, which is different than what their sister Megan said. Megan testified Friday that all three siblings arrived together with Zeegers.

Asked what she remembered about the party, Alicia Plummer said she remembers Lowe was already there and that she was talking fast, walking around fast, her eyes were red and she was sipping from a bottle of Jagermeister. Plummer said she remembers not wanting to talk with Lowe, who she found annoying, and that Lowe was drunk. “She just didn’t stop talking,” Plummer said.

She also remembers Lowe hitting the tree in the yard and that others took her car keys after she laughed off the accident. And, she remembers Dam leaving with Lowe and Skaff to meet up with Mason after she dropped the truck back at her house.

Beauchesne asked Plummer who was driving when the group left, and Plummer said Lowe was. “She refused to let anyone else drive because it was her friend’s car,” Plummer said.

Then, maybe 45 minutes later, Plummer said Lowe and then Skaff came back to the party. “She came in the door and said my legs are cold. My back hurts,” so several of the girls at the party tried to warm her up. She kept saying “she didn’t know what happened,” Plummer said, but several minutes later said “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was texting. Logan tried to stop it but he couldn’t,” Plummer said, demonstrating how Lowe then held up her arms as if she were driving.

When Lowe heard Plummer had called 911, Plummer said Lowe “asked if we were leaving and if we were could we take her with us. I told her no one was going anywhere,” she testified.

Howaniec pressed Plummer on her motivation for testifying, whether it was to “stick up for her friends” Mason and Dam, as her sister testified on Friday. Plummer said “I’m here to tell the truth.”

She later acknowledged that she was upset Lowe hadn’t shown more remorse. “As a human being you should feel like apologizing,” she told Howaniec.

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