NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (Court TV) — A panel of jurors is now deliberating the fate of a man accused of killing his girlfriend by running her over with his truck on the way home from a party.
Cooper Ouellette sits in court on Nov. 6, 2026. (Court TV)
Cooper Ouellette, 21, was 18 when his girlfriend died after the two returned home from a party on May 20, 2023. When Ouellette dropped off his girlfriend, 17-year-old Sophie Ringquist, at home, she was slumped over in his truck with a bloody nose and a chipped tooth.
Ouellette is charged with vehicular manslaughter and delivering alcohol to a minor.
“The defendant’s conduct created a risk of death. He acted recklessly,” prosecutor Christian Watson said Friday in his closing argument to the jury. “He evinced an extreme indifference to human life and he caused Sophie’s death.”
Prosecutors say the evening, and the alleged crimes, began late in the afternoon on May 20 when Ouellette purchased alcohol and packed it in a cooler for the party the couple attended. Receipts presented in court tied Ouellette to buying the alcohol, which was found in a Yeti cooler in his truck.
Witnesses testified that at the party, Ouellette and Ringquist began to argue. Friends said they saw Ouellette kick Ringquist, shove her into his truck and knock his girlfriend’s phone out of her hands when she tried to find another ride. The two left the party together, and one witness described Ouellette speeding away.
Prosecutors introduced data from Ringquist’s phone and Ouellette’s truck, showing that the two separated twice while en route to the victim’s home. Investigators said that video captured the first time Ringquist got out of the truck. Played again in court on Friday, Ringquist’s cry of pain could be heard amid a vehicle’s acceleration. Watson said that was the moment Ouellette’s vehicle struck her.
But Ouellette’s defense attorney, Martin Minnella, said there is no evidence to suggest that happened. Minnella argued that Ringquist got out of the vehicle voluntarily and that her yelp could have come from clumsily landing and hurting her ankle.
According to the data, Ouellette’s vehicle and Ringquist’s phone eventually came back together, and Ringquist got back into her boyfriend’s truck. Minnella questioned why Ringquist would have willingly gotten back into the vehicle if the prosecution’s theory of the evening were true.
Prosecutors said Ringquist left the truck again, this time after she sent a photo of her bloody nose to a friend. While investigators said the bloody nose was the result of being hit by Ouellette and his truck, Minnella suggested that she could have been hit by branches while stumbling, drunk, through the woods.
Watson said Ouellette was drunk and angry on May 20, and was behaving dangerously and recklessly behind the wheel. “Hold him accountable for his actions, ladies and gentlemen,” he said.
Minnella called Ringquist’s death a tragedy but said the lead investigator twisted facts to turn an accident into a crime. “He tried to take a tragic accident and incident and turn it into a crime,” he said. “That’s what took 12 months to get a warrant. That’s what took 12 months, putting all the pieces together.”
Six jurors are on the panel deciding Ouellette’s fate.
