So glad to hear... 
it wasn’t Henry!
Posted on 04/19/2007 3:34:30 PM PDT by SmithL
SELMER, Tenn. — After a day of deliberation a jury found Mary Winkler guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the March 2006 killing of her minister husband, Matthew.
The judge said he will return "very soon" to give further instructions. Winkler, a Knoxville native, faced up to 60 years in prison for first-degree murder.
Winkler testified Wednesday that her husband had abused her physically and sexually, but she said the shotgun went off accidentally as she pointed it at him. She said she had just wanted to talk to him.
The prosecution called the notion of an accidental shooting "ludicrous" and urged the jury to find her guilty of first-degree murder. Deliberations began Thursday morning after six days of testimony.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Winkler, 33, could be sentenced to 60 years in prison, but the jury could decide to convict her of a lesser charge.
Defense attorney Steve Farese said in his closing argument that the prosecution "absolutely, positively" did not prove Winkler intended to kill Matthew Winkler — something required for a conviction of first-degree murder. But Farese left open the possibility that she could have been guilty of a lesser crime.
"Have they proven any crime? Well — and this is hard for me to say — maybe," Farese said. "Maybe she was negligent."
Mary Winkler testified that she just wanted to talk to her 31-year-old husband when she went into their bedroom that day in March 2006, but that she was too terrified. "He just could be so mean," she said.
Winkler said her husband had punched her in the face, kicked her at times, refused to grant her a divorce and forced her to perform sex acts she thought were unnatural. Shortly before the shooting, she said, he held his hand over their 1-year-old daughter's mouth and nose to make her be quiet.
But Winkler also said under cross-examination that her husband did "nothing" for which he deserved to die.
Mary Winkler's depiction of her marriage was at odds with the description by the prosecution, whose witnesses described Matthew Winkler as a good father and husband. The couple's 9-year-old daughter, Patricia, testified that she never saw him mistreat her mother.
A day after Matthew Winkler was fatally shot in his back, his wife was arrested 340 miles away on the Alabama coast, driving the family minivan with their three young daughters.
Mary Winkler said she planned to return to Selmer but wanted time alone with her daughters. She also said she still loved her husband.
A psychologist testified that Mary Winkler could not have formed the intent to commit a crime because of her compromised mental condition. She suffered from mild depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which started at age 13 when her sister died and worsened as she endured her husband's abuse, Dr. Lynne Zager said.
Mary Winkler said she remembered holding the gun that day but not getting it from the closet. She said she heard a "boom," but said she did not pull the trigger, prompting prosecutor Walt Freeland to ask whether she understood how a trigger worked.
"You know that pulling a trigger is what makes it go boom?" Freeland asked.
"Yes, sir," Mary Winkler replied.
The prosecution said in closing arguments that there was no medical evidence of abuse. Mary Winkler had testified that she was too ashamed to tell anyone. The two had met at Freed-Hardeman University, a Church of Christ-affiliated school in Henderson where Matthew's father was an adjunct professor and Mary took education classes.
Farese, the defense attorney, said: "If you look up spousal abuse in the dictionary, you're going to see Mary Winkler's picture looking back at you."
Your right,very right. We reap what we sow. If we can allow millions of babies to be killed and not think a little thing like a woman killing her husband might happen,well what can anybody say. Sad. And on one of those cable shows,their legal eagles said according to the law she has the right to get her kids back.Watch movies and tv and the women are doing the killing and saving the men,well sometimes they save the men,and sometimes they kill them because their meaner and badder. Sick. A lot of women in the lib movement wanted to be men,and that is what it is now. Don’t need men to have babies,that’s if we want,don’t need a men to take care of us,we make good money,we can do anything a man can do and do it better. So they say. Me I like those strong,muscle fireman type.lol Sad to say but I think my daughter is one of those liberals and men don’t seem to stay long in her life.I actually have sympathy for the young liberal women today because it is going to come back and bite them hard on the butt.
I’ll never think of The Fonz the same way ever again.....
I watched every minute of that trial...First time I've ever seen a Christian defendant and attorneys tell so many lies and get away with them.
Nothing but pure MENDACITY!
Dan & Diane Winkler & their family are the dearest people! Easy to see Jesus Christ lives deep within their souls.
In my heart of hearts, I do believe Mary Winkler and her attorneys will be held accountable in the hereafter for the blatant mendacity they displayed in that court room.
“She’s a murderer, and based on the facts about her husband, she is a filthy liar as well.”
I agree, and it makes me sick that she won’t, at the very least, get life in prison!
I have a few choice names for her....I'll refrain from stating them, for obvious reasons. :)
They are good people, the whole family is. Dan’s father was my bible teacher at my Christian college. I go to church with Matthew’s cousin. The poor family is in shock. It was horrible that she killed their son, but even worse that she murdered his good name.
http://www.goodmanoakschurchofchrist.com/sermons/winklerwma.html
Ordinarily, I’m a far-right conservative and proud of it, but, in this case, I would hesitate to call Mary Winkler a murderer. We just have no sure way of knowing what went on in that home when the door shut behind them. I wouldn’t put too much stock in what the children reported, either; they sometimes get trained from birth to keep some painful secrets. Years of serious spousal abuse went on at a house in my neighborhood, and only one neighbor guessed what was happening. Unfortunately, she kept quiet until it was too late. My guess is that the jury got this sentence about right.
Sorry, I think I said that the jury probably got the SENTENCE about right, I should have said VERDICT.
This doesn't even make sense. What a bunch of garbage.
I don’t know if Mary is lying or not, but the Winkler’s turned me off with their smirky smiles while Mary was testifying.
This local for us.
Good for the grandparents. Glad to hear they have the kids. And not having money will probably bother this woman more than anything. Hope she has to live under a bridge. (sorry, hobos) (oops, for the PC, homeless)
Thanks for posting...
The key word in your statement appears in your last sentence. It starts with "g" and ends with "s". All I can say is that from what I know of the family, if half of what was said in that trial was true, then he was sure the exception.
How devastating that must have been for his parents to have to sit through that trial.....
Pissy’s picture of Fonzie right above your post has me laughing SO hard!
So glad to hear... it wasn’t Henry!
Yes, that was a funny coincidence.
Sit on it, Potsie!
I wonder if Mary will now face charges for the bank thing?
She sure as heck did. The prosecution presented one pretty damning piece of evidence that I see wasn’t mentioned in this article and was ignored by the mostly female jury. She claimed that shortly before she killed him, he had gotten out of bed and put his hand over the baby’s mouth and nose but in the autopsy he had a huge amount of urine in his bladder. He would have had to go to the bathroom really bad. Wouldn’t have been likely to go back to bed and back to sleep having to pee really bad.
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