A Montgomery County judge passed down a not guilty verdict following the trial of the woman accused of killing three members of a Mason family in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 75 on St. Patrick’s Day in 2019.
Abby Michaels, 25, of Fairborn, was charged with six counts of murder and three counts of vehicular homicide.
Judge Steven Dankof filed his verdict in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court on Friday, the day after Michaels’ bench trial finished.
Bench trials are when a judge decides the facts of the case and reaches a verdict.
Her charges were in connection to the deaths of Timmy and Karen Thompson and their 10-year-old daughter, Tessa.
On Thursday, the state and Michaels’ defense attorney presented their closing arguments.
Prosecutors argued that Michaels knowingly and recklessly caused the deaths of the Thompsons, using her car as a deadly weapon.
Michaels’ attorneys argued that childhood trauma paired with rejection by her ex-husband caused her to have a psychogenic seizure and lose control of her car. Michaels has a medical history that includes seizures and a brain surgery.
The four-day long trial featured state and defense witnesses, including Michaels’ ex-husband, the man she was dating at the time of the crash, an employee at the pizza shop where she celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, an Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles investigator, a paramedic who responded to the crash scene, a Moraine Police Division sergeant, the mental health professional who treated Michaels after the crash and others.
Kyle Pastorelle married Michaels in 2018. The couple separated later that year, and he filed for divorce two days before the crash, according to his testimony.
The man told the courtroom on Monday that he received phone calls and texts from Michaels the evening of the crash but was hesitant to respond to her after taking one of her calls.
During that call, which lasted two minutes, Pastorelle said he recalls Michaels allegedly telling him she was going to “drive backwards on I-75″ after he declined to let her come over to talk.
She later sent a text telling her she loved him. Another message sent immediately after said she was going to die. The crash occurred roughly two minutes later.
This story was originally published on our news partner's website.
Watch Live:
