The New Detective Talk

Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- A preacher's wife told authorities she shot her husband after a long buildup of domestic problems, according to an audiotape that prosecutors played Friday at her murder trial.

"How many times did you shoot him?" asks Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent Stan Stabler.

"I shot him once," says Mary Winkler, 33.

At another point, she says, "My ugly came out."

She can also be heard crying as she is questioned by Alabama officials a day after Matthew Winkler, 31, was found shot dead on March 22, 2006, in the parsonage of his church in this western Tennessee town of Selmer. His wife was arrested a day later on the Alabama coast, about 340 miles away, with their three young daughters.

Investigators have said previously that she had admitted shooting her husband and that it had something to do with his constant criticism. (Watch Winkler react during opening statements )

On the tape Mary Winkler says the couple's domestic problems had reached a boiling point after many years of conflict.

"It's just a lot of stupid stuff, but I love him dearly," she says. "He was real good for quite some time. ... I have been battling this for years. ... That's the problem. I have nerve now, and I have self-esteem. My ugly came out."

Winkler also told Stabler that her husband had threatened her physically. "He said something that really scared me. I don't know, something life-threatening," she said, without elaborating further.

But she also says she doesn't want her husband's name smeared.

"He was a mighty fine person, and that's the thing," she tells the Alabama investigator. "You just say, 'The lady was a moron.' That's fine with me. That's my point of view."

Winkler's lawyer has said she intended to hold her husband at gunpoint only to force him to talk about his personal problems after a situation involving their 1-year-old daughter, Breanna, defense attorney Steve Farese said. The defense did not describe the situation.

A prosecutor has described Matthew Winkler as a preacher, a good father and a man who trusted his wife.

Prosecutor Walt Freeland has said bank managers were closing in on a check-kiting scheme that Mary Winkler wanted to conceal from her husband. He said Mary Winkler had become caught up in a swindle known as the "Nigerian scam," which promises riches to victims who send money to cover the processing expenses.

But Farese said Mary Winkler handled the family finances only because she did everything her husband told her. He said she was abused verbally, emotionally and physically.

Mary Winkler's attorney said she did not know how to load or fire a shotgun, and that she was afraid he would grab it from her. The prosecutor said an expert will testify that the shotgun could not be fired accidentally.

Winkler's trial could last up to two weeks. The jury -- including a Baptist minister and woman who said she had been a victim of domestic abuse -- will spend that time

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/13/winkler.trial.ap/index.html
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Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- The day before a Tennessee preacher was shot to death, a banker tried to reach his wife several times about an account in her name that was nearly $5,000 overdrawn, a corporate fraud investigator testified Saturday.

When Mary Winkler finally returned the calls to Regions Bank late in the afternoon on March 21, 2006, banker Mary Guest told her she was unable to deposit checks from another bank because there weren't enough funds to cover them.

"I told her what she was doing was called kiting checks," Guest testified she told Winkler.

Guest testified she told Winkler the practice could result in criminal charges, and reminded Winkler that she and her husband had an appointment at the bank the following morning to discuss the problem.

"I didn't seem to detect any distress," Guest said.

She said the three joint accounts the couple had at Regions had a positive balance.

Regions fraud investigator Amber Brown said that on March 20 and 21, Mary Winkler made 16 fund transfers by telephone.

Winkler, 33, is accused of using a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun to kill Matthew Winkler in the early hours of March 22, before fleeing to the Alabama coast with the couple's three young daughters.

Matthew Winkler's body was found in the parsonage of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee, by parishioners investigating why he failed to show up for an evening service. He had been shot in the back as he slept.

Prosecutor Walt Freeland has portrayed Winkler as a conniving killer motivated by a need to keep her financial indiscretions secret, while defense attorneys describe her as an abused, belittled and desperate woman.

Police said Mary Winkler confessed to the slaying after her arrest in Orange Beach, Alabama. She is free on $750,000 bond.

Freeland said Thursday in his opening statement that the couple's finances, which were handled by the wife, were in "shambles." (Watch Winkler react during opening statements )

Mary Winkler, he said, had been cashing fraudulent checks sent to her by con artists overseas. She had set up accounts in various banks and was creating false balances by juggling funds between them, he added.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/14/winkler.trial/index.html
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DonnaQ · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:15 am Post subject:

Thanks Cat....I really don't know which way to lean on this one....she differently lost control, just wonder what the real reason was.... Confused

Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

Me too. This is the part that has me wondering....what was the "situation" and his "personal problems"?

Winkler's lawyer has said she intended to hold her husband at gunpoint only to force him to talk about his personal problems after a situation involving their 1-year-old daughter, Breanna, defense attorney Steve Farese said. The defense did not describe the situation.
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Gator Girl · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject:

Oh boy, I know what the first thing I thought of....

heard on Geraldo Rolling Eyes

she was seen in a bar smoking while out on bail, someone called her preacher killer and she answered, you want to be next Shocked

consider the source
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That perches in the soul,
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And never stops at all ~ Emily Dickinson

DonnaQ · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:22 pm Post subject:

Gator Girl · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject:

Found something in print:

Mary Winkler - The Secret Pictures

Feb 8, 2007 02:41 AM

Since August, Mary Winkler has lived and worked in McMinnville, Tennessee.

That's four hours away from the Selmer home where prosecutors say she shot and killed her husband Matthew last March.

We went there to see how Mary Winkler spends her days.

While there we were approached by a man who offered us cell phone pictures of Winkler that - he said -show how she spent her nights.

Many say it's behavior unbecoming of a preacher's wife.

For months, Mary Winkler has lived the life of the accused.

She's out on bond, working at a local dry cleaners.

It's just one way Winkler bides time while waiting for judgment on charges she killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back last March.

But working at Cleaners Express isn't the only way Winkler stays busy.

In the pictures featured above, you can see her bellied up to a bar, cigarette in hand and a bottle of beer in front of her.

She's seated on the left, next to the blonde. Picture after picture shows the same thing.

Luis Correa says he was shocked when he saw Winkler sitting across the bar from him and his wife.

He took the photos with his cell phone and shared them exclusively with Action News 5. "She was, you know, having a good time, with everybody in the bar," he told us.

It's a far cry from the meek widow we saw protected by her attorneys the day she bonded out of jail in McNairy County.

Winkler's been living and working in McMinnville ever since.

It's part of her pre-trial supervision and apparently it's not all work and no play.

"I think perhaps, maybe, she exercised some poor judgment," said Correa's wife Libby St. John, who recognized Winkler at the bar because she'd seen her on the front page of the paper the very same day.

It was New Year's Eve and McMinnville's most popular downtown hangout had a special guest.

"She was smoking and drinking and appeared to be pretty light-hearted," she said.

The couple left the bar around two o'clock on New Year's morning and - they say - Mary Winkler was still seated at the bar, smoking and drinking.

"I would be too upset about being separated from my children--that sort of thing--to be able to go out and celebrate in such a fashion," said Libby St. John, who adds the encounter has given her second thoughts about the woman she once pitied.

"I think it's important for other people to see who they're supporting."

Members at McMinnville's Central Church of Christ have given Winkler money while she awaits trial.

The editor of McMinnville's Southern Standard says others have given Winkler gifts and jewelry. "People seemed to have opened their arms to her, for whatever reason," said James Clark.

Luis Correa believes his cell phone pictures may change things. "I don't know if the people in the congregation still support her--but they got to know where they spend their money."

On this night - witnesses say - it was at a bar near McMinnville's town square.

We paid Luis Correa for his cell phone pictures, just as we would any other amateur photographer.

The owner of the New York Grill, where those pictures were taken, tells us Winkler has had drinks at the bar three of four times over the past few months.

A patron told us Mary Winkler celebrated her birthday there.

Winkler did sign a pre-trial supervision order, agreeing not to drink alcohol in excess or to enter an establishment that primarily sells alcoholic beverages. You can read it here.

The New York Grill is licensed as a restaurant and Winkler's probation officer says it doesn't appear she broke any rules of supervision.

Pics:

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5996728
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all ~ Emily Dickinson

Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- The 9-year-old daughter of a Tennessee preacher's wife testified Monday at her mother's murder trial that she heard a "big boom" coming from her parents' room, then saw her father on the ground.

"I went to mama and daddy's room to see what had happened. I saw daddy laying on the floor face down," Patricia Winkler said.

The girl kept her composure as she described her father's death, but just after taking the stand, she looked to her mother, Mary, and started crying when the prosecutor asked her for her name and birthday. Mary Winkler and several jurors also began weeping. (Watch how emotions in the case run high )

Matthew Winkler, a 31-year-old preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in this west Tennessee town, was found dead in the parsonage where the family lived in March 2006. A day later, Mary Winkler was arrested on the Alabama coast 340 miles away, driving in the family minivan with Patricia and her two younger sisters.

Prosecutors have described Matthew Winkler as a good father and husband. But Mary Winkler's attorneys have said the evidence will show he was a dictator at home who terrorized his family and criticized his wife's every move.

Patricia testified he was a good father and she never saw him mistreat her mother. Later, under questioning from a defense attorney, the girl burst into tears after trying to explain why -- after one visit -- she stopped seeing her mother after Mary Winkler's release from jail.

"Because I didn't want to see her. Well, I mean, I still love her," Patricia said.

The girl recounted hearing a loud noise followed by a thump the day her father was killed.

"Well, at first I heard this big boom, or something, and it seemed like somebody fell on the ground," Patricia said.

Earlier Monday, a forensic pathologist testified that Matthew Winkler was killed by a shotgun blast in the middle of his back. Staci Turner, who conducted the autopsy, said shotgun pellets fractured his spine and ribs, damaging multiple organs.

Turner said she removed 77 pellets from his body.

The defense has said Mary Winkler, 33, intended to hold her husband at gunpoint only to force him to talk about his personal problems after a situation involving their 1-year-old daughter, Breanna. The defense did not describe the situation.

Defense attorneys have also called the shooting accidental.

Last week prosecutors played an audiotape in which Mary Winkler acknowledges shooting her husband, telling investigators her "ugly came out."

But Mary Winkler also told an Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent on the audiotape that her husband had threatened her. "He said something that really scared me. I don't know, something life-threatening," she said, without elaborating further.

She said her husband criticized her for "the way I walk, what I eat, everything. It was just building up to this point. I was just tired of it. I guess I just got to a point and snapped."

The prosecution has said the Winklers were in financial trouble and that bank managers were closing in on a check-kiting scheme that Mary Winkler wanted to conceal from her husband.

Defense attorney Leslie Ballin has hinted Mary Winkler could take the stand.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/16/winkler.trial.ap/index.html
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Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

(CNN) -- Mary Winkler told a Tennessee jury on Wednesday about her volatile marriage to a preacher she said berated her, forced her to watch pornography and to wear "slutty" costumes for sex.

She said she shot him accidentally after he tried to suffocate their infant daughter. He had wanted a son, she told the jury.

She got the shotgun, which was kept in a bedroom closet, because she was afraid and wanted to force him to talk through their problems, she testified. "I just wanted him to stop being so mean," she said through tears.

She denied pulling the trigger, but told the jury "something went off." She heard a boom, then ran from the house because she thought he would be mad at her. (Watch Winkler describe the smell of gunpowder )

"You know that pulling a trigger is what makes it go boom?" prosecutor Walter Freeland asked in his cross-examination. "Yes, sir," Winkler replied.

But she said she never meant for him to die. "I don't want this at all. I don't want any of this to be, at all,' she said.

Winkler, 33, is testifying in her own defense at her murder trial. She is charged with killing husband Matthew, pastor of the Fourth Street Church of Christ, with a shotgun blast to the back in March 2006.

The couple had argued about money the night before, according to Winkler's statement to police. "I guess my ugly came out," she told investigators.

On the witness stand in front of Winkler was an extremely high white platform shoe and a wig she said her husband bought for her to wear during sex. She blushed crimson, bowed her head and cast her eyes downward when she talked about the items.

But Winkler smiled when defense attorney Steve Fares' questions turned to her daughters, and the "good times" the family sometimes enjoyed. She often spoke of her husband in the present tense, and grinned broadly as she recalled his intelligence, talent as a preacher and easy way with people.

But behind closed doors, the charismatic preacher also had a dark side, Winkler testified. Soon after they were married, he ordered her to stop socializing with her family and friends, she said.

"He just sat me down and told me I was his wife and we were family now," she recalled.

She told the jury that her husband "screamed and hollered" at her, pointed his finger in her face, pushed her and used his belt on her.

"He just flailed. He's a big guy and he was just all over," she said. "He'd point his finger inches away from my nose. Whatever he was upset about, it was my fault."

"I was fat, my hair wasn't right, the girls, if something went wrong, it was my fault. If it rained, it was my fault. I didn't know when it was coming. "

She said she never asked him what she had done wrong. If she disagreed with him or stood up for herself, "he would say my ugly was coming out and just needed to be put away," she testified.

He also made her watch pornography on the family's computer and perform sex acts that made her uncomfortable, she said. She he submitted to the mood swings and sexual demands because, she added, "I'd just do anything to help him stay happy."

The defense, which rested Wednesday, is portraying Winkler as an abused spouse. Prosecutors argue that she is a cold-blooded killer who disconnected the phone and left her husband to die with 77 shotgun pellets in his body.

After her husband's death, Winkler drove with her three daughters to Orange Beach, Alabama, where she was arrested. She explained that she took her girls to the beach because she knew "Nobody would believe me, and they'd take the girls away and put me away."

The couple's daughter, Patricia, testified for the prosecution last week. The child told the jury she heard a "big boom" and a thump, ran to her parents' bedroom and saw her father lying on the floor.

She also said she never say her father mistreat her mother, whom she hadn't seen since October.

Winkler's three daughters are living with her in-laws, who have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/18/winkler.testimony/index.html
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Hol · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7444

I have no idea whether to believe her or not... Confused

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Gator Girl · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:55 pm Post subject:

She said:

DonnaQ · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 2:46 am Post subject:

I'm still up in the air about this one.....after watching her on CTV yesterday, I started believing her story but now these pictures of her at a bar.....could it possibly be someone else??

Gator Girl · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:46 am Post subject:

It's certainly a mess and doesnt look good for her. I'm not sure the defense took the right approach on this. If there is a right approach. Confused

Her behaviour is definitely bizarre to say the least. Bizarre now, was it prior as well. What caused her to be this way. The check kiting, maybe she was desparate and definitely didn't make the right choices on how to get out of her sitch.

I just don't know, but she will have to pay with jail time I believe, even if the jury believes her to some degree, she's not going to walk on this one.

I wish I would have folllowed the trial now.
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all ~ Emily Dickinson

Cat · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 7342

BREAKING NEWS.........

The jury in the trial of Mary Winkler finds her guilty of the voluntary manslaughter of her preacher husband.
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Gator Girl · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject:

yup....3-15 yrs possible Confused

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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all ~ Emily Dickinson