Judge: Winkler can have limited contact with three daughters {Rewarding Murder}

AP via Commercial Appeal ^ | 9/20/7 | Woody Baird

[SmithL]

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. -- A woman who killed her minister husband with a shotgun can begin supervised visits with her three young daughters on Sept. 29, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Ron Harmon said he will draw up rules and locations for the visits within a few days and Mary Winkler can phone her children every other day.

The visits will be supervised because of worries about Winkler's mental health, Harmon said, and physical security for the children will also be provided if needed.

Winkler, 33, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April for shooting husband Matthew Winkler, a Church of Christ minister, at their residence in Selmer, Tenn., in March 2006.

A psychologist at Winkler's trial testified she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome because of domestic abuse coupled with emotional damage from the death of a favored sister years earlier.

Winkler told the judge she wants to be reunited with her daughters to help them deal with the emotional trauma of their father's death.

"We can begin healing together and let God guide us," Winkler said.

The children are in the temporary custody of Matthew Winkler's parents, who want to adopt them over their mother's objections. Daniel and Diane Winkler have filed suit to terminate Mary Winkler's parental rights, and Harmon gave no indication when he expects to rule on the overall custody battle.

Keith Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist, told the judge that Winkler's mental condition is still unstable, although she has undergone counseling since her conviction and is taking medication.

"I have no confidence that we know where Mrs. Winkler is clinically today, let alone six weeks from now or six years from now," said Ablow, who has a syndicated TV show bearing his name.

Winkler testified that she has seen her daughters only twice since her arrest last year, though she was allowed at first to phone the children weekly and write to them.

The children, 10, 8, and 2 years old, live with their grandparents in Huntingdon, a small town about 130 miles northeast of Memphis.

Winkler testified at her trial that she doesn't remember getting a shotgun from a closet but remembers the sound of it firing and her husband rolling out of bed. She said she had endured years of physical and emotional abuse and "just snapped."

Ablow said the violence unleashed by Winkler and her reports of memory blackouts should prevent unsupervised visits with the children.

"Fresh from killing their father, to take the girls in her van with ammunition and a shotgun and to say, 'I just wanted to take them to the beach for a little more time,' raises the question whether they were in grave danger," Ablow said.

She drew a three-year prison sentence and got probation for most of it, spending just over five months in jail and two months in a mental health facility.

She said she is now competent to care for her children thanks to counseling and drugs for anxiety and depression.

"My children need 100 percent of their family," Winkler said.

[SmithL]

Mary Winkler (left) hugs attorney Kay Farese Turner after testifying in court Wednsday to try to regain custody of her three daughters. While the girls remain in the custody of Winkler's in-laws, a judge ruled she can begin supervised visits.

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Winkler, 33, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April for killing husband Matthew Winkler, a Church of Christ minister in Selmer, Tenn. She is on probation from a three-year prison sentence after serving seven months in custody. She is now fighting to regain custody of her children.

[traditional1]

""My children need 100 percent of their family,"

Yeah, well what about that part of their family that will never be there, thanks to you?

What a sad commentary on the state of our legal system and the Juries that we have today.

Less than 6 months of jail-time for a woman who blows away her husband with a shotgun blast to the back?

[theDentist]

"My children need 100 percent of their family," Winkler said.

Well, I'd say she's whittling that 100% down.... didn't they need Dad too?

[Halls]

The judge is obviously not going to terminate Mary’s right’s seeing he gave her supervised visitation. The grandparent’s will not be allowed to adopt.

I forsee Mary will not regain full custody, but work her way up to a more stable unsupervised visitation plan after a while of supervised visitation.

Do I think this woman deserves this? Not sure and lean more towards no way!

[Monterrosa-24]

The more I read “her side” the more it looks like she just blasted her sleeping husband and walked right past the courts to freedom.

[Monterrosa-24]

Yep, its just open season on men. Where are the photographs of her bruises? None of the the “psychological abuse” sounds worse than the usual spouse to spouse manipulation and bickering that is done by both wives and husbands. The more she talks the more petty her complaints sound. She should be in prison convicted of murder because murder is what happens when you take a shotgun and shoot birdshot into a sleeping person.

[Rudder]

Do I think this woman deserves this? Not sure and lean more towards no way!

There's only one consideration here, the safety of the children---no visitation. She deserves nothing.

[Sybeck1]