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Mary Winkler--who shot her husband in the back and then refused to aid him or call 911 as he slowly bled to death for 20 minutes--walked away a free woman last year after serving a farcically brief "sentence" for her crimes. Mary Winkler’s claims of abuse were largely uncorroborated during the trial. According to the testimony from Matthew Winkler's oldest daughter, Patricia, the dead father--who as he lay dying looked at his wife and asked "why?"--was a good man and did not abuse her mother. Mary Winkler has been in a custody battle with Matthew Winkler's parents, who have been...

Background: In June 2006, Darren Mack (pictured), a wealthy Nevada father who was involved in a divorce, stabbed his estranged wife to death and then executed a well-planned murder attempt on a Nevada judge. Mack shot and wounded the judge but failed to kill him. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, when police searched Mack's residence they found he "had bombmaking materials in his bedroom" as well as "several boxes of firearm ammunition." At the time of Mack’s murder spree, I wrote:“I condemn without qualification the crimes allegedly committed by Darren Mack in Nevada last week. Mack was angered by his...

Background: In June 2006, Darren Mack, a wealthy Nevada father who was involved in a divorce, stabbed his estranged wife to death and then executed a well-planned murder attempt on a Nevada judge. Mack shot and wounded the judge but failed to kill him. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, when police searched Mack's residence they found he "had bombmaking materials in his bedroom" as well as "several boxes of firearm ammunition." At the time of Mack’s murder spree, I wrote: “I condemn without qualification the crimes allegedly committed by Darren Mack in Nevada last week. Mack was angered by his...

As many of you know, Mary Winkler recently appeared on Oprah. To watch the show in its entirety, click here.Oprah was annoyingly sympathetic to Winkler, and seemed to buy her abused wife shtick. My opinion of her claims is as follows: 1) Winkler provided no substantive evidence for her claims--no medical reports, no police reports, no 911 calls, nothing. 2) The defense did put a few people on the stand who testified as to various indirect indications that Winkler might have been abused. A couple of these were of some value. For example, a doctor said Winkler visited her one...

"The monster that you have painted for the world to see, I don't think that monster existed...for everything you've accused him of, there never was proof, just accusations. I think that's sad because he can't speak for himself."-- Diane Winkler, Matthew Winkler's motherMy new co-authored column, No child custody for husband-killer Mary Winkler (World Net Daily, 9/14/07), argues that Winkler got off with a slap on the wrist, is psychologically disturbed, and shouldn't be granted custody of her three children. No child custody for husband-killer Mary Winkler By Glenn Sacks and Ned Holstein, M.D. A killer shoots his spouse in...

The Tennessee Supreme Court this morning refused to hear an appeal from Mary Winkler in her case involving a custody battle over her three children. The full court issued the denial without comment. Winkler, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing her preacher husband last year, is seeking to regain custody of her three young daughters who now live with her husband’s parents. Dan and Diane Winkler of Huntingdon, Tenn., are seeking to terminate Winkler’s parental rights and to gain permanent custody of the girls. Mary Winkler asked the state’s high court to intervene by ordering a Juvenile Court...

McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — The wife of a West Tennessee minister convicted in his death still professes her love for him, a friend says. Mary Winkler, 33, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting of her husband, Matthew, at the Selmer parsonage where the couple lived with their three young daughters. He was shot in the back as he slept. She was given a three-year sentence on June 8, but was required to serve only 67 days in custody because of credit for time in jail before her trial, the nature of the offense and no previous criminal record....

Murderess Mary Winkler--who shot her husband in the back and then refused to aid him or call 911 as he slowly bled to death for 20 minutes--walked away a free woman this week after serving a farcically brief "sentence" for her crimes. Winkler scammed the court with uncorroborated claims that Matthew (pictured with his wife and three daughters) abused her. According to the testimony from Matthew Winkler's nine-year-old daughter, Patricia, the dead father--who as he lay dying looked at his wife and asked "why?"--was a good man and did not abuse her mother. Winkler at first claimed the shooting was...

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.

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SELMER, Tenn. — 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...

SELMER, Tenn. - A woman convicted in the shooting death of her preacher husband was moved from a county jail to a mental health facility, officials said Thursday. The judge approved the move for Mary Winkler on Wednesday, said Sue Allison, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. The name and location of the facility were not disclosed. Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her Church of Christ minister husband, Matthew, in the Selmer parsonage where the family lived. She was sentenced June 8 to three years, but she will be eligible...

SELMER, Tenn. - 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 with time served could be released on probation in a little more than two months. Mary Winkler must serve at least 210 days of her sentence but gets credit for the 143 days she has already spent in jail, Judge Weber McCraw said. That leaves 67 days, and McCraw said up to 60 days of the sentence could be served in a facility where she could receive mental health...

True Crime-Youths attack a train. The mystery of the abandoned ship, the Johnson Space Shooting, some thoughts on Va Tech and the mad man named Cho. Lots of detail on the joke of a Winkler trial. For why divorce your husband when you can just kill him?

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...

SELMER, Tennessee -- A preacher's wife told authorities she shot her husband after a long buildup of domestic problems, according to an audiotape that prosecutors played Friday at her murder trial. SNIP Investigators have said she admitted shooting her husband on March 22, 2006, and that it had something to do with his constant criticism. On the tape, she says the couple's domestic problems had reached a boiling point after many years of conflict. "It's just a lot of stupid stuff," she said. "I love him dearly, but gosh, he just nailed me in the ground. ... The first of...

A preacher's wife accused of murdering her husband testified Wednesday that she doesn't remember picking up the shotgun or pointing it at her husband, but she said she did not pull the trigger. She heard a "boom" as the shotgun fired, she said. "Something went off," Mary Winkler said, crying on the witness stand. She said she just wanted to talk to her husband, Matthew, when she went into their bedroom, but she was terrified. Her husband was physically and sexually abusive, she said. That day, she said, she just wanted to stop him from being so mean. Her depiction...

SELMER, Tenn. (AP) _ Bank tellers testified Saturday that a preacher's wife accused of murdering her husband was in financial trouble and that the bank had caught her trying to deposit bad checks. Prosecutors said the Winklers' bank account at Regions Bank in Selmer was overdrawn by $5,000, and that bank employees called Mary Winkler several times in the days before her husband's death. Diane Hollingsworth, a teller at Regions Bank, said she talked with Mary Winkler on March 21, 2006 _ one day before Matthew Winkler was found shot to death in the church parsonage in this west Tennessee...

A woman and her preacher husband, whom she is accused of murdering after they argued over money, may have been taken in by a common scam that strained their finances and their marriage. "I had gotten a call from the bank and we were having trouble, mostly my fault, bad bookkeeping. He was upset with me about that," Mary Winkler told police, according to a statement read at her bail hearing. "He had really been on me lately, criticizing me for things -- the way I walk, what I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I...

SELMER, Tenn. — A woman accused of shooting her preacher husband to death after they argued over money may have been taken in by a remarkably common scam that strained their finances and their marriage. Mary Winkler, who is charged with murder, had gotten tangled up along with her husband in a swindle known as an advance-fee fraud, or the "Nigerian scam," in which victims are told that a sweepstakes prize or some other riches are waiting for them if they send in money to cover the processing expenses, her lawyers say. "They were always kind of living on the...

Some of the people closest to Mary Winkler talk about their daughter's tumultuous marriage to her minister husband Matthew Winkler. In March, the 32 year-old was charged with the shooting death of her husband. Investigators say when Mary was questioned the day after the shooting, she confessed to the crime. They say Winkler told them she snapped. Winkler is now out on bail and is working at a Selmer, Tennessee dry cleaning shop. She is also busy preparing for her trial. Mary Winkler's father, Clark Freeman, says Matthew Winkler abused her physically and mentally. He says the abuse became more...

SELMER, Tenn. — A judge has ruled statements that a minister's wife gave to authorities shortly after she was arrested will be admissible in her trial on charges of killing him. Attorneys for Mary Winkler filed a petition on Aug. 9 to suppress statements she made to police, including one authorities describe as a confession. Judge Weber McCraw on Tuesday denied the petition, but did agree to the defense's request to postpone the trial date from Oct. 30, The Jackson Sun reported. No new date was set. "If this motion had been granted, it would have decimated the prosecution's case,"...

A minister's wife accused of killing her husband got out of jail Tuesday on $750,000 bond. Mary Winkler, 32, is charged with killing Matthew Winkler with a blast from a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in bed at the parsonage in Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee....Defense lawyers have implied Mary Winkler was emotionally abused by her husband.

A Tennessee woman accused of fatally shooting her preacher husband is expected to be released from custody, but not until Thursday, a defense attorney told CNN. Mary Winkler had been expected to be released from jail in McNairy County, Tennessee, Wednesday after her attorneys posted bail. But defense attorney Steve Farese said the judge wanted to review the agreed-upon conditions for her release. She is now expected to be released between 10 a.m. and noon (11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET), Farese said. Earlier, defense attorney Leslie Ballin had declined to say how much the bail was, but a judge...

SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- For three months, the 4,500 souls of this God-fearing town have been left to wonder if a demure preacher's wife shot her husband in the back and ran off to the beach with their three girls. ....... Here, third-generation preacher Matthew Winkler, a strapping 31-year-old with a booming voice and charisma to burn, was beginning to make his mark after little more than a year. He had a knack for connecting with younger members, who called him "Wink." On March 22, four church members -- including a doctor and the town undertaker -- let themselves in...

SELMER, Tenn. - Mary Winkler was the quiet, unassuming wife of a small-town, by-the-Bible preacher, seemingly devoted to church and family. But now her husband, Matthew, is dead and she is charged with shooting him in the back with a shotgun. Authorities won't discuss a motive, and church members say they didn't see any indication she was unhappy. But experts say preachers' wives often struggle with depression and isolation, expected to be exemplars of Christian virtue while bearing unique pressures on their private and public lives. Gayle Haggard, author of "A Life Embraced: A Hopeful Guide for the Pastor's Wife,"...

Ashland attorney Steve Farese, who heads Mary Winkler's legal defense team in Selmer, Tenn., says he and her other attorneys want a psychiatric evaluation for their client. Tennessee authorities claim Winkler has confessed to killing her husband, a Church of Christ minister, in their Selmer residence last week. The couple's three children reportedly were in the house at the time of the slaying. Winkler apparently fled with her children to southern Alabama, where she was arrested late last week. They have been placed in the custody of their maternal grandparents. Farese, in a telephone interview after an arraignment in Selmer...

Slain Minister's Wife to Be Charged With Murder Friday, March 24, 2006 MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The wife of a Tennessee pastor found shot dead in his house Wednesday will face first-degree murder charges, authorities announced Friday. Mary Winklerwas found Thursday night with the couple's three daughters in Orange Beach, Ala., about 400 miles south of their home in Selmer. Investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said she was interviewed during the night and the charges were being prepared. "We've interviewed her and she was cooperative," said Jennifer Johnson of the TBI, adding that once a warrant with the charges...

SELMER, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued a statewide Amber Alert this morning after a West Tennessee minister was found shot to death and his family missing. The children, ranging in age from 1 to 8, are missing from Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis in McNairy County. <A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://adsremote.scripps.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=2028632&AdID=2035647&TargetID=2011448&Targets=2011020,2003385,2011361,2011448,2017830,2011669,2011703,2013366,2017874&RawValues=&Redirect=http:%2f%2fwww.advertisersite.com"><IMG SRC="http://images.scripps.com/1x1.gif" WIDTH=336 HEIGHT=280 BORDER=0></A> Their father, Matthew Winkler, 31, was found dead in a bedroom of the parsonage of Fourth Street Church of Christ, where he was the minister, Selmer Police Chief Neal Burks said. The missing children were identified as Breanna Winkler, age 1; Mary...