Man found not guilty in crash that killed two girls on Manitoba highway

A Manitoba family has been left devastated over a not guilty verdict in a crash that killed two young girls in August 2019.

“We’re profoundly disappointed in this verdict,” said Gaylene Dutchyshen, the grandmother of the girls who died.

“We know that there was DNA evidence on that airbag.”

On Thursday, Jack Winters was found not guilty in the crash that killed six-year-old Oksana Dutchyshen and four-year-old Quinn Dutchyshen.

The crash took place on Aug. 16, 2019, at the intersection of Provincial Road 362 and Road 147 North.

RCMP said a Ford F-150 was being driven east on Road 147 when it went through the intersection of PR 362 and hit the side of a northbound Dodge Ram.

Firefighters got the two girls out of the Dodge Ram. Both were taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died.

On July 17, 2020, Winters was arrested and charged with 15 offences, including impaired driving causing death.

Winters' DNA was found on the driver's airbag.The judge said there was still reasonable doubt he was the driver of the truck. The only other passenger in the car with him died two years ago.

“[Winters is] going to get to enjoy his summer. He’s going to go to Countryfest this weekend. He’s going to go to the fair, do whatever he wants. Free as a bird,” Gaylene said.

“Our girls don’t get to go to the splash park named in their honour in Gilbert Plains. They don’t get to go the beach. They’re gone forever.”

Prior to the verdict, Clare McBride, the girls’ mother, said the family was handed a life sentence the day of the crash.

“We got a life sentence instantly, no questions asked. The girls were given a life sentence within seconds,” she said.

She said there’s not a day that goes by that she doesn’t think about her daughters.

"When the girls first died, I was given advice by another bereaved mother who said,'You can still live for your children. You just live to honour them now.' So in everything that I do, every decision I make is still all about the girls.”

- With files from CTV’s Jill Macyshon and Devon McKendrick.