Mary Winkler

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Mary Carol Winkler is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, Matthew Winkler, the pulpit minister at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in the small town of Selmer, Tennessee. She was arrested and incarcerated on March 23, 2006. On August 15, 2006 she was released on bond. She is currently awaiting trial.

Mary Winkler - March 2006

Mary graduated in 1992 from South-Doyle High School, part of the Knoxville public school system. At the time of her arrest, Winkler was a part time student at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, the same institution from which her husband graduated with a degree in Bible Studies. She was working toward a Bachelor's degree in Education.

[edit] Criminal Case

According to police, Mary Winkler had confessed to the March 22, 2006 shooting of her husband, whose body was discovered in their home by church members after he missed that night's services. He had been shot in the back with a 12 gauge shotgun.

The couple had been married since 1996 and -- according to friends and church members -- were seemingly the perfect family, though one neighborhood family reported that Matthew Winkler had repeatedly threatened to shoot that family's dog after it strayed onto the Winklers' lawn. After police issued an Amber Alert due to fears of kidnapping, Mary Winkler and the children (Patricia, 8; Mary Alice, 6; Breanna, 1) were discovered in Orange Beach, Alabama, where she was placed into custody and later extradited to Tennessee to stand trial.

The police did not release motive, leading to rampant speculation in the media as to what could have gone wrong with this apparently perfect couple.

A grand jury decided to indict Mary Winkler on Monday, June 12th, 2006, accusing her of first-degree murder.

On Friday, June 30, 2006 Mary's bond hearing was held. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent read a statement Mary Winkler gave to authorities in Alabama, where she was arrested a day after her husband's body was found. In it Winkler says she did not remember getting the gun but she did know her husband kept a shotgun in their home. The next thing she heard was a loud boom. Matthew Winkler was shot in the back as he lay in bed. He rolled from the bed onto the floor and still alive he asked his wife "why?" to which she responded "I'm sorry". When she left the home Matthew Winkler was still alive.

According to the statement she and her husband had been arguing throughout the evening about many things including family finances. She admitted that some of the problems were "her fault". Furthermore she said "He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things — the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped,".

Authorities believe that Mary Winkler had been a victim of a financial scam. She had deposited checks totalling $17,500 in bank accounts from unidentified sources in Canada and Nigeria in what agents described as a check kiting scam, also known as an Advance fee fraud or a 419 scam.

Bond was later set at $750,000, an amount defense lawyer Steve Farese claimed was excessive and "tantamount to no bond at all". A plea for reduction of bond was filed and subsequently denied.

Mary's lawyers have also filed motions to throw out her confession on a technicality, to require prosecutors to state whether or not they will seek the death penalty, to give potential jurors an extensive questionnaire, and other motions relating to voir dire.

Winkler made bond on August 12th, 2006 and was set for release from jail. Initially, problems stemming from a 1999 suspension of her bail bond company kept her in jail. However, she was able to post $750,000 bond and was released on August 15, 2006, on the stipulation that she live with friends in McMinnville, Tennessee. Questions surrounding her post-release behavior became prominent when photos of Winkler with friends at a bar on New Year's Eve surfaced in the media in February 2007. ^[1]

Winkler's trial was to begin sometime in February 2007^[2]. However, the Court has yet to rule on several motions and a new trial date has not been set. A motion day has been set for February 22, 2007.^[3]

The trial has been set for April 9, 2007.