Nate Eaton breaks down the timeline of the Ouellette case and pays tribute to the victim, Sophie R.

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Connecticut versus Cooper Ouellette. This is the case that we are beginning tomorrow. Ouellette is spelled O-U-E-L-L-E-T-T-E. It's a French spelling, so I hope I'm saying it correct. Grace is from Canada and told me that's how you say it, Ouellette. A 17-year-old girl gets into her boyfriend's pickup truck on a Saturday night in Burlington, Connecticut. Before 1 a.m., she's dead. At first, state police describe it as a possible fall from a moving truck. 14 months later, they charge her boyfriend with manslaughter. And this week, starting tomorrow, a jury in New Britain will begin hearing the evidence and hearing from witnesses. Some of the most important evidence is not coming from eyewitnesses. It's coming from phones, as is the case these days, cell phone data. The defendant is Cooper Ouellette of Harwington, Connecticut. He was 18 on the night of May 20, 2023. He is now 21. The victim, this is her, Sophie Grace Ringquist of Burlington. She was 17, a junior at Lewis Mills High School. And at the request of the judge's ruling, and because she is a minor, we will now refer to her as Sophie only by her first name. Let me explain this. Her name has been everywhere. Everywhere. You can find it. Normally, when we report these, we use their last name, Daybell or whatever. Maybe use first and last name. The judge has asked that during the trial, when we live stream the proceedings, has asked all parties to only use her first name, Sophie. Now, we, on Courtroom Insider, we're not bound in our reporting to, that only applies to the live stream. So, what is said in the courtroom, I should say. That applies to what is said in the courtroom. All the parties will be referring to her as Sophie. And because of that, we're going to do that here on Courtroom Insider, too. We don't have to, but we're going to. And again, her name's out there, but that's just what the judge has said. Wollett is charged with manslaughter in the first degree and delivery of alcohol to a minor. He's pleaded not guilty. He is presumed innocent. He's been free on $50,000 bond since 2024, when he was arrested. He was arrested in July of 24. Grace Wong, as I mentioned, will be there every day. Let's be precise about this charge, because it matters. It's not murder. This is not a murder case. This is a manslaughter case, and there is a difference. The state is not alleging that he intended to kill Sophie, that he did it on purpose, that that was his whole, you know, motive here. First degree manslaughter under this theory means prosecutors must prove that he acted recklessly, created a grave risk to death, of death, created a grave risk of possibly causing death, and did so under circumstances showing extreme indifference of human life. So murder, as you did it on purpose, manslaughter, it was an accident. He was reckless, that he was careless, that he just, you know, because of his actions, he caused this death. In Connecticut, this is a class B felony. If he's found guilty, he could serve 10 to 20 years in prison. So he's not looking at life in prison with this trial if he's found guilty. Here's what investigators say happened, according to the arrest warrant and Connecticut State Police. Around 6 o'clock p.m. on May 20th, 2023, Willette picks Sophie up at her house. Between 7.17 and 7.35, he stops at a liquor store in Bristol. He's 18. He can't legally buy liquor, and the state is later named in a civil lawsuit filed by Sophie's mother. Not the state, the store. The store is then sued in a civil lawsuit by Sophie's mom because they sold him alcohol. Around 8.30, they arrive at a party in Terryville. That's a village in the town of Plymouth. Police say Willette distributed alcohol to other teenagers at the party. Witnesses describe an argument between the two, Willette and Sophie, that escalated. They tell police Willette kicked Sophie with his boots and shoved her against the side of his truck. One witness says Sophie was calling people trying to find another ride home, and Willette took the phone out of her hands. Another says Sophie called to say he was drunk and following her around the party. Sophie ends up not getting another ride, and she gets into the truck with Willette. Around 11.20 p.m., they leave together. So about four hours after they arrived. It's about a 10-minute drive, 10-mile drive, 10-minute, give or take, back to her house. According to police, the data shows erratic driving. There was speeding. There was hard braking, hard acceleration, revving, squealing of tires. On Locust Road, the truck pulls over. Sophie is reportedly recording on her phone. Investigators say the recording captures a door sounding, and then the sound of her getting out, trying to get out, and then Willette stomping on the gas. There's a thud. Police say she's knocked to the ground, and on the video, she can reportedly be heard gasping for air and sobbing. That video will be shown in court. Phone data, police say, shows Sophie on foot. The truck comes back, and she gets back in. There may also be video from Willette's phone, too. It's unclear who and how many videos were taken while they were on the drive, but we do know that there is at least the one. Police say they also have a text to a friend. Sophie wrote two words. I'm scared. At 11.38, she takes selfies. She's crying. Her nose is bloody. She sends one to a close friend. There's going to be a lot of eyewitness testimony in this trial. Police say the truck then drives past her house without stopping and then passes again. On Field View Drive, during what the warrant calls an abrupt stop, Sophie separates from the truck. Investigators allege Willette accelerated while she was outside of the truck and one of the tires ran over her. And then he put her in the back, put her back in the truck in the passenger seat. Around 11.50 p.m., the home surveillance camera at Sophie's house records the truck pulling up beside the garage. Investigators say Willette lifts Sophie out of the passenger seat. She appears limp. He opens the garage, calls for her family. Willette did not ever call 911. A family member tells police they heard Sophie moaning in pain and calling out one word, Coop. Cooper is his first name. Her parents drive her to Bristol Hospital. Sophie is pronounced dead at 12.51 a.m. the next morning. The office of the medical examiner rules the cause of death was blunt impact injuries of the torso and the manor homicide. Now for the defense, Willette told police he was going only about 10 miles an hour and Sophie jumped out of the truck. But witnesses said they heard other versions from him over the years, over the time, that she felt sick, opened the door and dove out head first. Then she fell out when the truck almost stopped. Then she opened the door while the truck was moving and fell out. He didn't stop. Investigators also wrote that he initially refused to hand over his phone until they got a warrant. The defense will argue this is a tragic accident, not reckless indifference. And they've aimed their sharpest attack at the technology that the state is using to tell the story. And that brings us to Life 360, pivotal part of this trial. If you're a parent, you may already have it on your phone. Life 360 is a family location sharing app. How many of you have got it? We don't have that particular program, but we have family sharing on our phone, you know, find friends, that sort of stuff. It runs on iPhones and Androids. Families join a shared circle and everybody in the circle can see where everyone else is in real time on a map. But it does more than just show a dot. When its driving feature is turned on, it logs each drive, where it started, where it ended, the route, the roads, the top speed, all the data you need. And then it flags when there's unsafe events like hard braking, rapid acceleration, the phone use behind the wheel. According to prosecutors, the app has about 100 million users. It's been in business for 18 years. So it's a reputable company. It just didn't start up yesterday. In both cases, in this case, both Sophie's phone and Willett's phone had Life 360. Connecticut State Police sent the data from both devices to the New England State Police Information Network. Analysts combined it with surveillance video messages and witness statements and then built a forensic examination of that night. The truck's speed, its locations, its movement, all of that. The defense moved to keep this all away from the jury. Of course they did. They don't want the jury to see this. Willett's attorneys argued that reconstruction relies on technology that is not reliable, that there can be mistakes and the calculations aren't valid. They pointed to something specific, an 11-minute gap in Willett's Life 360 data, during which the defense says is a pivotal, critical period that night. Prosecutors pushed back. They argued that animation reflects data from both phones, not one, and that surveillance footage corroborates it. Superior Court Judge Chris Pelosi heard the arguments and he ruled from the bench that the jury will see the Life 360 information. That ruling settles whether that evidence is coming in, but it doesn't settle what it's worth if it's going to make a big difference. I think, though, it's going to be pivotal. Expect the defense, I would think, to return back to that 11-minute gap again and again and again when the state's analyst takes the stand. What was happening during that 11-minute gap, we're going to hear. Or we're not going to hear because we don't have it on tape, and that's what they're likely going to focus on. Expect the state to answer about everything around the gap. Sophie's video, her texts, her selfies, the camera at the house, all of that. And then there's also one thread running underneath this criminal trial. Sophie's mom, Lynn, filed a wrongful death lawsuit as an administrator of her daughter's estate. It names Ouellette, his insurer, the Bristol liquor store accused of selling him alcohol that I talked about, the 18-year-old who hosted the party, and that young man's parents. They're all being sued as part of this lawsuit. When Ouellette was arrested, Sophie's family thanked state police for 14 months of work. Then they asked something of everyone listening. They said, if you've been a victim of domestic violence or a witness to it, stand up for the victim and report it to police. I think we're going to hear about allegations of domestic violence in this case. That message is aimed squarely at the kind of night her parents say this was. A party full of teenagers, people who saw a girl being kicked and shoved, a girl trying to find a ride home, and in the end, much of this case will be built around Sophie. What was on her phone, her video, her location, her last words. Starting tomorrow, a jury in New Britain will begin deciding what the evidence proves. In this jurisdiction, as I mentioned, there's no opening statement. So we're going to begin with witness one, directly with witness one. We don't know who it's going to be. Normally, each side will see, they'll paint a picture, they'll give their roadmap, their narrative for the jurors, but this one, it's straight to the evidence, it's straight to the people, and expect a lot of young people to be on the stand during this trial. In Sophie's obituary, her loved ones wrote the following, Sophie tragically passed away Sunday, May 21st, as a result of a senseless accident. In Sophie's journal entries, she wrote that she wanted to, quote, "I want to be remembered as fierce. I want to have a beautiful and a healthy family. I want to be a good person with pure intentions. I want to be a good wife and mother. I want to be happy." We grieve as a family, as those dreams were tragically, suddenly taken. We remember Sophie as a loving, hardworking, joyous, goofy, passionate, fierce, and compassionate young woman with a talent for putting others into her writing that we all find so difficult to say aloud. When she spent her free time at the gym, hanging out with friends, and during the summer, teaching local kids how to swim. Sophie was on the path to graduate high school a semester early and began taking college classes. Sophie lived by her personal model. Leave the motto, "Leave the past where it belongs." We thank you for our privacy as we negotiate our grief as a family. And so that will begin tomorrow morning. Tune into the Courtroom Insider or East Idaho News YouTube channels. We'll begin streaming. I believe it starts at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, which is 7:00 Mountain. So we'll start our live stream around 6:30 a.m. You can log in. We'll actually have a notification up today, probably a little bit later, that you can go on and click on that. And then, of course, we'll be breaking it down for you every night here on Courtroom Insider. So very sad story involving some beautiful young people. And we, you know, pay tribute to Sophie tonight.