The New Detective Talk

[Cat]

SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- A Tennessee jury on Thursday found Mary Winkler guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the shotgun killing of her husband.

Winkler showed no emotion when the verdict was announced.

A manslaughter conviction could send Winkler to prison for between three to six years.

Winkler, a 33-year-old mother of three girls, was convicted in the the March 22, 2006, slaying of her husband, Matthew, 31, a popular preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer.

The 10 women and two men began deliberations at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday.

She was charged with first-degree murder. Early in the case, prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty.

Assistant District Attorney Walter Freeland said Matthew Winkler was a good father and husband who did not deserve to die. According to testimony, 77 shotgun pellets were recovered from his body, which church elders discovered in the parsonage bedroom after he missed a weeknight service.

Freeland told jurors that Mary Winkler showed her intentions when she went to a bedroom closet, got a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, and pointed it at her husband.

The gun did not go off on its own, he said during closing arguments Wednesday, calling the defendant's version of events "ludicrous."

The defense portrayed Mary Winkler as a victim of physical, sexual and psychological abuse who shot her husband by accident during an argument.

Defense attorney Steve Farese said prosecutors did not prove Winkler fired intentionally. But he left open the possibility she might be guilty of a lesser charge.

"Have they proven any crime? Well -- and this is hard for me to say -- maybe," Farese said. "Maybe she was negligent."

The jury includes housewives, a secretary, a teacher's aide and a computer designer. The two men are a machinist and a factory worker. All are white and their ages range from 20 to 62. Eight are Christians; four listed no denomination.

Some of the jurors wept when the Winklers' oldest daughter, Patricia, testified for the prosecution about her father's slaying. The 9-year-old said she heard a loud boom and a thump. When she ran into the bedroom, she saw her father's body lying on the floor.

The child said she had never seen her father mistreat her mother.

But Mary Winkler described nearly a decade of marital abuse when she took the witness stand on Wednesday. She said he struck and kicked her, "screamed and hollered" at her, criticized her, blamed her when things went wrong and made her watch pornography and wear "slutty" costumes for sex.

She also said he forced her to submit to sex acts that made her uncomfortable.

A wig and a tall, white platform shoe were placed on the witness stand during her testimony. Blushing crimson and staring at the floor, she said her husband bought them for her to wear to get him in the mood for sex.

She testified that his sex drive was much stronger than hers, referring to it as "a weakness of his."

"This is not about religion, but I suggest to you that a Church of Christ preacher's wife does not wear those shoes," Farese argued.

A defense psychologist testified that Mary Winkler was depressed, showed classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and was unable to form the intent to kill because of years of abuse.

Mary Winkler testified that "something went off" as she pointed the shotgun at Matthew Winkler during an argument. She said she was terrified of him, and pointed the weapon at him to force him to talk through their problems. But she denied pulling the trigger.

She testified that she never wanted him to die, nor would she ever have wished to go to jail, lose custody of her daughters or testify about private matters at a public murder trial.

After shooting her husband, police say, Winkler packed her girls into a minivan and drove 340 miles to Orange Beach, Alabama where she was arrested.

She has been free on bail, staying with friends and working at a dry cleaner's shop in McMinnville, Tennessee. The children have been staying with their paternal grandparents in Henderson, Tennessee.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/19/winkler.trial/index.html
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[Gator Girl]

3-6 yrs
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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

[Uberwitch]

Sounds like the jury was just as conflicted as we are. The main thing - is she a danger to anyone else? I don't think so, but women who are in abusive situations usually get back in abusive relationships unless there is a lot of strong will and therapy. I would love to see what happens when she gets out.
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I think - therefor I am dangerous

[Cat]

SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- A woman who killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay in bed was sentenced Friday to three years in prison, but she may end up serving only 60 days in a mental hospital.

Mary Winkler must serve 210 days, or about seven months, of her sentence before she can be released on probation, but she gets credit for the five months she has already spent in jail, Judge Weber McCraw said.

That leaves only two months, and McCraw said up to 60 days of the sentence could be served in a facility where she could receive mental health treatment. That means Winkler may not serve any significant time in prison. (Watch the judge sentence Mary Winkler )

Winkler, 33, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April and could have received up to six years for killing her husband, Matthew, in the parsonage where the family lived in March 2006.

At her trial she testified she was physically and emotionally abused by her husband, but at her sentencing hearing Friday she said, "I think of Matthew every day, and I'll always miss him and love him."

She pleaded to the judge for leniency, and asked to be reunited with her three daughters, who are now in the custody of Matthew Winkler's parents. The judge denied Winkler's request for full probation or judicial diversion, which would have eventually cleared her record of the conviction.

Prosecutors had sought a murder conviction against Mary Winkler, who they alleged had been trying to keep her husband from learning about a check-kiting scheme. They claimed she 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.

Winkler, however, testified during her trial that her husband hit and kicked her, forced her to look at pornography and demanded sex she considered unnatural. Jurors were shown a pair of tall, platform shoes and a black wig Winkler said she was pressured to wear during sex.

Matthew Winkler's family said at the sentencing hearing that Mary Winkler's allegations amounted to a second attack on her husband, a popular 31-year-old preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer.

"The monster that you have painted for the world to see? I don't think that monster existed," said Matthew Winkler's mother, Diane Winkler.

When Mary Winkler took the stand, she turned to her husband's family and told them she was "so sorry this has happened." She said she understood they were angry with her and that she prayed every night for them to have peace.

Mary Winkler was arrested a day after shooting her husband. She was found 340 miles away on the Alabama coast, driving the family minivan with her daughters inside.

Diane Winkler testified that the girls, ages 9, 7 and 2, were having nightmares about people with guns breaking into their house.

"You've never told your girls you're sorry. Don't you think you at least owe them that?" she asked.

Mary Winkler's sister, Tabitha Freeman, asked the judge to give her a chance to be reunited with her children, and called her "the best example of a good person I can think of."

"She just needs them. She's not complete without them," Freeman said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/08/winkler.sentence.ap/index.html
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Wow
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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

[Hol]

I just can't decide whether I believe her or not...
_________________
Raising children is a lot like being
pecked to death by a chicken.


Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

[Cat]

Wife who killed preacher set free




(CNN) -- After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back was released on Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN.

Mary Winkler, a 33-year-old mother of three girls, was freed from a Tennessee mental health facility where she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, lawyer Steve Farese said.

"She is out," Farese said.

Farese said his client will not talk to the news media because she continues to wage a legal battle to win custody of her girls and faces a $2 million civil suit filed by the parents of her slain husband, Matthew Winkler.

Except for her oldest daughter's brief testimony at her trial, Winkler hasn't seen her children in a year, the lawyer said.

Winkler will return to work at the dry cleaners in McMinnville, Tennessee, where she worked before the trial, Farese said. She is living with friends.

Winkler served about five months in county jail as she awaited trial, then spent two months undergoing therapy at the mental health facility following her conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

Winkler never denied shooting her husband, Matthew, the popular new preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, a town of 4,500 people about 80 miles east of Memphis.

On March 22, 2006, church elders found his body -- with a shotgun wound to the back -- in the bedroom of the parsonage after he failed to show up for an evening service. His wife was arrested the next day with the couple's three young daughters in Orange Beach, Alabama, on the Gulf coast.

Mary Winkler was charged with murder, which could have sent her to prison for up to 60 years, but a jury found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter following an emotional trial in which she testified about suffering years of verbal and physical abuse.

In a statement to police after her arrest, Winkler said she didn't recall pulling the trigger .She said she apologized and wiped the blood that bubbled from her dying husband's lips as he asked, "Why?"

Prosecutors and Matthew Winkler's family members said he was a good husband and father.

But on the stand, Mary Winkler described a hellish 10-year marriage during which, she said, her husband struck her, screamed at her, criticized her and blamed her when things went wrong. She said he made her watch pornography and wear "slutty" costumes for sex, and that he forced her to submit to sex acts that made her uncomfortable.

She testified she pointed the shotgun at her husband during an argument to force him to talk through their problems, and "something went off."

A defense psychologist testified that she was depressed and showed classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mary Winkler initially received a three-year sentence in June. But Circuit Court Judge J. Weber McCraw required that she serve only 210 days, and allowed her to serve the rest of the time on probation.

She also received credit for five months she spent behind bars awaiting trial, which left only about 60 days to her sentence. McCraw ruled she could serve the time in a mental health facility.

Since Mary Winkler's arrest, the couple's three children have been cared for by Matthew Winkler's parents, who have filed court papers seeking to terminate her parental rights.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/14/preacher.slain/index.html
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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