Had it been a gay preacher, she would never see the light of day.
Why did that worthless prosecutor allow 10 women on that jury?
Good grief!
Man I’d better hide my guns cause my wife may get ideas.
this is so disgusting.
Wow! kills her husband in cold blood and gets 3 only 3 years and release on probation is possible in 7 months? What the...?! Does the judge know the man is dead..brains blown out ?! Something is seriously wrong in a system that gives this women only 3 years....I’m sure liberalism, morals are relative way of thinking and taking God out of public life have nothing to do with it. /s
I’m suprised the judge didn’t include a “yep, it’s open season on
spouses, provided they are male, a preacher, and have talked in
a mean way to their wife sometimes.”
Jun 8, 2007 11:50 am US/Pacific
Preacher’s Wife Sentenced To 210 Days In Prison
CBS News Interactive: Crime In The U.S.
(AP) SELMER, Tenn. A woman who killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay in bed got a three-year prison sentence Friday, but she may be allowed to serve her time in a mental hospital.
Mary Winkler, convicted of manslaughter in April, could have received up to six years for killing her husband, Matthew, in the parsonage where the family lived in March 2006.
The preacher’s mother, Diane Winkler, told Mary Winkler from the witness stand that the couple’s three daughters 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, 33, went on trial for first-degree murder in April, but a jury found her guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter after she testified she was physically and emotionally abused by her husband, Matthew Winkler.
She 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.
“The monster that you have painted for the world to see? I don’t think that monster existed,” Diane Winkler said.
Mary Winkler faces a maximum of six years in prison, but her lawyers have asked for diversion, which would keep her out of prison and eventually clear her record.
She would be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent of her term and get credit for five months already spent in jail while awaiting trial.
Winkler and her defense team arrived about 45 minutes early for her sentencing hearing Friday morning, but she did not talk to reporters.
Church members found Matthew Winkler’s body and reported his wife and children missing. They were located the following day in Orange Beach, Ala.
Winkler is fighting with her husband’s parents for custody of the children, ages 9, 7 and 2.
Mary Winkler’s sister, Tabitha Freeman, called her “the best example of a good person I can think of” and asked the judge to give her a chance to be reunited with her children.
“She just needs them. She’s not complete without them,” Freeman said.
I do not agree with this sentence, it is way to lenient.
It is more of our government REWARDING criminals with time off for 'good behavior'.
The only good thing in his ruling is that she can't have her record expunged.
At least we’re safe from Paris Hilton....
I think the blame here goes mostly to the jury, not the judge. They acquitted her of murder and convicted her only of some petty charge.
The judge and prosecutor both live in my county.
Good thing for her, her name last name wasn’t Hilton.
This sentence makes me so angry. The Winkler family (Matthew’s parents, his grandparents and uncles) are very nice caring people. Even she admitted when she was first caught that she did something wrong! Sickening
Exactly! Her daughter testified that she never saw her father mistreat her mother. They ignored her testimony. She changed her story 3 times. She left him to die. She knew he was still alive and she jerked the phone out of the wall to keep him from calling for help. There was never any proof whatsoever other than her testimony and inuendos from her friends that she had been abused. She was involved in criminal activity that he was going to find out about the very day she shot him. She was on the phone talking and agitatedly pacing at her job the day before she killed him. She violated her bond by being out drinking New Years Eve and the judge and parole board ignored that, too. It was premeditated murder pure and simple. Her employer and the people she lives with just love to shove it in our faces that she is getting by with it. The day she was found guilty of manslaughter, they had a big sign on the marqee of the drycleaners where she works. It said “Welcome Home, Mary. Its just sickening. Meanwhile, Matt is dead and can’t even defend himself.
Too bad Paris couldn’t have had Winkler’s lawyers.
Let’s see 60 days for cold-blooded murder, 45 days for driving while intoxicated