Jury deliberations are expected to begin Thursday in the trial of former Pleasure Ridge Park High School football coach Jason Stinson.More defense witnesses were called to the stand Wednesday. Stinson is on trial for reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in last year's heat stroke death of sophomore player Max Gilpin.Stinsons' defense team contends Max Gilpin's heat stroke could have been caused by illness or a prescription drug.Among those who testified Wednesday morning was Lois Gilpin, the teen's step-mother at the time of his death who's now separated from Max's father, Jeff.She told jurors that Max complained of being ill the morning of August 20, the day he collapsed, but he went on to school at the urging of his father.She bristled at a proseuctor's suggestion that she was testfiying in favor of Stinson because they attend the same church."I lost someone that I felt was my own child. I loved him, I took care of him when he was sick, I fed him. And when I kissed him and he was hot that morning, my biggest regret is that I didn't fight Jeff on it. he should not have gone to school," Gilpin said.Judge Susan Schultz Gibson told jurors Wednesday that the defense will call one final witness Thursday.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.