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, of Morgan Hill.
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, of Morgan Hill.
McDowell 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.
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 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 pickup when he lost control and drove off the road, according to the California Highway Patrol. 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.
If convicted, McDowell could face jail time of up to one year.
Gilroy Dispatch reporter Lori Stuenkel can be reached at ls*******@************ch.com or 847-7158.
