Posted on 08/14/2007 9:36:33 AM PDT by Blue Turtle
After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back will be released as early as today.
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 of her slain husband, Matthew Winkler.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Ever heard of DIVORCE ?
So...
She commits a horrific murder and uses the “I don’t recall pulling the trigger” & “he made me wear high heels” defense and now she’s out.
The law thinks it’s a good idea to put someone this imbalanced back on the streets? I wonder if she’ll remember her next murder...?
Let me guess...she found Jesus in the last few months?
And then she disconnected the phone from the wall in case he still had enough energy left to call 9/11 before he bled to death.
She was an embezzler who was running a check-kiting scheme to cover up the money she stole from her husband's congregation. She killed him because he was going to expose her malfeasance.
His murder was a cold and calculated action. She waited for him to go to bed. When she was sure he was asleep, she went downstairs, retrieved a shotgun, and shot him point blank as he slept.
If a man had done the things she did, he would be on death row - not out in 7 months.
And when here trial began, she spit on her husband’s memory with completely unsupported tales of abuse and debauchery. She smeared his name and walked away clean.
this turned battered woman syndrome into a get out of jail free card.
Imagine the conversation that will ensue when one of her daughters asks the inevitable questions about their father.
She had one corroborating "witness."
A friend from her hometown who had only met her husband briefly once or twice.
She spent several weeks crying on the phone to this friend in another town, complaining of abuse.
That several week period likely coincided with her husband's increasingly pointed questioning of her over the bank statements they had begun receiving.
Establishing that timeline more closely would likely reveal that she spent weeks planning the murder.
I don’t recall and I apologized. That makes it all better,,,,right?
which just shows how under brain powered the jury and prosecutor pools are.
I’ve pretty much lost all faith in juries and prosecutors.
Do you have a supporting link you can post?
Also, she had the benefit of her husband's moron congregation who rushed to her support before they even had the facts. And her highly sympathetic parents.
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070420/winkler.shtml
Watching her testify was a joke. When her attorney was questioning her she sniffled and kept her head down and acted like a beaten puppy. When the prosecution cross examined her she was like a different person.
When she was first arrested she denied that her husband abused her and in fact stated he had not. Once she lawyered up all of a sudden he was a monster.
I watched her barely able to control a smirk when she was first sprung from jail on bail. Led out of the jail with an attorney on each side of her, obviously told to keep her head down and look at the ground and say nothing she was smirking.
The evidence presented to the jury that she had been check kiting was irrefutable. Although she claimed her husband knew about it there was no evidence that he had and in fact all of the accounts were in her name. Where she was getting the money to deposit was never made clear. A good guess is that is was coming from the church but that was never mentioned in court. Who knows.
The jury completely ignored the check kiting it seems and focused on the poor downtrodden abused preacher’s wife. They took a woman’s word who would shoot her sleeping husband in the back.
This was not a woman who shot a man in the midst of a heated argument or who was being beaten. Mary had not one bruise on her or broken bone, or black eye when she was arrested.
I guess if you want to get rid of your husband all you have to do is shoot him in the back while he is sleeping, go to walmart and buy a cheap wig and some red high heels, claim that he wanted kinky sex and was mean to you. Then you’ll get 7 months rest in a mental institution where all of your meals are taken care of for you and you can sit and chat about yourself for hours on end. Then you’ll be out and about.
Pictures were snapped of her out celebrating New Year’s Eve after she shot her husband. She was in a bar/restaurant with a friend. The photos are probably still on the internet. She was wearing makeup and long dangling earrings. Drinking, smoking and smiling. The judge said that technically this was not a violation of her probation because it was a restaurant that had a bar and not just a bar. The judge would not allow the photos to be presented in court nor any mention of the incident.
I think she wasn’t enjoying being the preacher’s wife so much and wanted a little bit more. She stole money and was check kiting. Her husband found out and it ruined her plans. He had to go. Her stories about her husbands sexual demands were probably more of her fantasy than the truth of what happened.
She surely wasn’t wearing makeup in court and the only jewelry she had on was a very large crucifix.
People called into the news shows in droves claiming that they were once a member of this church and they too were abused by their husbands. What that had to do with this case is beyond me but it seems that anyone who had ever been abused obviously doesn’t need any stinkin’ evidence to prove it. The case wasn’t about them. It was about Mary Winkler.
Many of the church members and townspeople flocked to her defense. Her husband’s life apparently meant nothing to them. She’ll get her kids back too. That will be the final slap in the face. I don’t know how the grandparents manage to keep sane after all of this. It has to be horrible for them. And now they have to worry and fear for their son’s 3 children too. This case will go down in history as a gross miscarriage of justice just as the OJ case has.
Every once in awhile you get the judicial version of the perfect storm. The right jury, a pathological good liar, inept prosecution etc.
Did you see the pictures of Sweet Mary in the cocktail lounge puffing on a cigarette with a drink in front of her?
This was just before the trial, when she was out on bail for the murder of her husband.
May she rot in hell.
I believe I misspoke about ALL of the bank accounts being in her name. She had accounts at other banks in her name only. Accounts at the bank that were joint had a positive balance. Accounts in her name were overdrawn.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/14/winkler.trial/index.html
Interesting in this case is that the day before he was shot the bank had been calling Mary to tell her that she was breaking the law and that the accounts were overdrawn. Mary & her husband supposedly had an appointment the day she shot her husband at the bank to discuss the problem. I do not believe that she ever intended on keeping that appointment. Either she never told her husband about it or she did tell him that night and an argument followed in which he told Mary that she was going to have to fix this.
She handled all of the banking which I thought was very odd for an abused woman. Abusive husbands do not let their wives handle all of the finances. She made transfers and bank transactions via her cellphone.
The two days before the murder she made 16 tranfers via phone. Many of these phone calls transpired while she was teaching that day.
If Matthew was anything like my husband he probably never looked at the bank statements. My husband doesn’t want to be bothered and leaves all of that up to me. I could be doing the same thing Mary was doing and he wouldn’t even be aware of it.
Yes, she sure looked different than the beaten little meek plain puppy in the courtroom huh? I believe that Mary found that being a preacher’s wife was a bit confining. Perhaps her husband didn’t want her dressing flashy, wearing makeup, drinking & smoking. Maybe that was the criticism that she claimed Matthew directed towards her.
This is just my guess but I think she was trying to amass some funds to leave Matthew and go it on her own. The house of cards she was building for herself fell apart.
It looks like shooting Matthew though is going to work out for her after all. She’s free.
Until her ugly comes back out.
so we have an OJ situation.
Except she actually too the stand and is subject to perjury charges.
Perhaps she will be hit with punative damages too.
Is it true she wanted a divorce and her husband refused? If so, not very wise to be married to someone who wants out. Especially an unstable person.
About like Jennifer Wilbanks' rape story.
*ping*
anyone have the photos mentioned of her in the bar shortly before the trial.
Bet O’Reilly’s all over this judge - as he should be.
There’s some video of a story on it if you go here:
http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5996728
then click on ‘Mary Winkler Part II - the story of the pictures’ to the right of the text story.
So Mary said. All we have is Mary’s say-so. No witness came forth that corroborated that. For some reason alot of people do not seem to think that a person who would shoot the father of their 3 children in the back while he was asleep in bed is capable of also telling a lie. Everything that came out of that woman’s mouth seemed to be swallowed hook, line & sinker.
No one stepped forward to say that Mary’s husband told them that Mary wanted a divorce, no record of any marriage counseling nor did anyone step forward to say that the couple sought counseling for marital problems either through the church or elsewhere. Nor was there anyone who stepped forward to say there were problems in the marriage or that they ever saw or heard Matthew mistreat his wife.
I would think that someone capable of such a cold-hearted murder would not blink an eye about telling a whopper or two.
Thank you, conservativegranny, for a very able summary of the facts of this disturbing case.
This case reminds me of a terrible murder in Australia, where a young boy (8 years old) was beaten to death by his mother and her boyfriend. They went to court - and out came the tears. She claimed that the boy (a child of less than 10!) had sexually abused his sister, and this made her ‘snap.’ There was no evidence but her word, of course. Both she and the boyfriend served only 7 years in prison. Laughable - in Australia you get 17 years for armed robbery, even if no one is injured.
In the Winkler case, it is interested that the wife who killed her husband without ‘knowing’ it had the presence of mind to be kiting cheques, and when leaving the house with the children, to take the bank documents with her.
To me, these cases show that if you are killed by a family member, and they allege sexual misconduct, then they are home free. They are allowed to kill in these cases. Never mind if it is true or not. Never mind if the activity in question breaks no law.
This is the same as honor killing in the Middle East.
So is she not going to be prosecuted on the check kiting charges?
I do not believe so, no. She claimed of course she was a victim of a Nigerian scam and had no idea that what she was doing was illegal or wrong.
reverse the genders,
and the guy would still be in prison.
Guess this is a case where the judgment will have to be left to God.
The whole church, family and all reacted to all of this in the best manner possible for a horrible happening. His parents, and all immediately took action to take care of those children.
In fact, his parents went to see her in jail a day or two after his death and told her they forgave her.
True Christians under fire. They make us proud. I would not expect these fine people to air the dirty linen in public no matter how they feel personally.
Some of the church members gave her money as well. I don’t find that particularly commendable. They should have given it to her children instead.
I don’t believe you have to be a fool to be a good Christian.
Well, if the parents want some justice for their son, they are sure entitled to it. How would you act if your son was killed by a wife, leaving 3 little girls without their father, and then is freed and wants the girls back?
They are very fine people. The great grandmother even quit her job and moved to Tennessee to help with the girls. There is no way they will act in a fashion to dishonor themselves or their religion.
And, the girls would be far better off with the grandparents than an unstable mother.
Well Clancy, I’m not sure where you are coming from. You said with great admiration that the family went to the jail and forgave her but when I mentioned that they couldn’t have forgiven her completely as they are suing her you shot back at me “what would I do?” and that they are entitled to some justice. To me, if they had completely forgave her they wouldn’t be suing her. Just my opinion and was no judgement on whether suing their DIL was right or wrong. Just an observation.
I guess I’m just confused and can’t see what your point is. I don’t begrudge them any justice. I would be seeking to sue her and to keep the children too. I hope they do not end up with their mother. I would NOT have gone to the jail to forgive her.
As far as airing the dirty laundry in public, their daughter-in-law gave up any rights to privacy anyone in that family had when she shot her husband in the back. Indeed, the entire family was summoned to court to testify as to the family’s dirty laundry. I would have gotten on the stand and defended my son’s memory against the lies she was telling about him.
I have great sympathy for the family of Matthew. I agree that they are most likely very good people. They did not deserve the pain that has been visited upon them and neither did those innocent children. God bless them.
You are right though. We will have to have faith that God will deal with Mary and it is now out of our hands. I wouldn’t be giving her money or being nice to her. I would shun her.
Sorry you were confused by my post.
I am a member of the Church of Christ and get a bit tired of the tripe that is printed all over the media everytime something is mentioned about church members. Not that you did that in the least, just explaining where I come from.
When a family is hit with something horrible like this and handle it in the best way possible, it is sad to see their motives demeaned.
This was a horrible act by the wife and the family is handling it to the best of their ability. I know for a fact that the son’s family are Christian people because in Texas there are some that know them. The grandfather is a respected preacher.
Whatever they do by suing her, fine. With a world full of people honoring sinful lives and mocking Christian lives, they are quick to tear down any Christian to their level.
They did go to the jail and forgave her but that was the day after the murder and they were probably in shock. Then to hear their son’s reputation destroyed in order to free her is a little much to bear.
Hope they get the children because the mother is in no way stable and able to raise three girls by herself. Especially if she uses church funds, kiting schemes and murder to do it.
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