Mary Winkler Released After Only 67 Days

After serving a mere 67-day sentence, Mary Winkler, the Tennessee wife who shot and killed her husband over one-year ago, has been set free.

On March 22, 2006, Matthew Winkler, a 31-year-old preacher, was due at an evening service at the Church of Christ on Fourth Street. When he did not show, his fellow clergymen headed over to his house to make sure that he was alright. The last thing they expected to find was the sight that awaited them... Winkler was lying dead on his bedroom floor with a gunshot wound on his back. Matthew had a wife and three children and they were nowhere to be found.

The next day, Mary Winkler was located and arrested near Alabama. She had her three daughters with her. Mary confessed immediately to the murder of her husband of ten years. The woman openly 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." Mary Winkler admits that she aimed the gun at her husband while the two were arguing over a financial matter, but claims that she did not intend to kill him and does not recall pulling the trigger. She did remember her husband looking up at her after he was shot and asking her why she had done it. She told him that she loved him and that she was sorry.

She was charged with first-degree murder and was held in the county jail while she awaited her trial, which would begin on April 9, 2007. She did not spend the entire pre-trial term in prison; her father mortgaged his house and bailed her out of jail for $750,000.

Walt Freeland, the prosecutor, was hoping for a first-degree murder conviction and a sentence of no less than 51 years in prison. Many witnesses testified about Matthew's good moral character and the lack of apparent problems in the Winkler marriage. Mary Winkler had been involved in several scams involving fraudulent checks and the prosecution emphasized the issue, as they believed it was the motive for her husband's murder.

On the other side, the defense was hoping that Mary Winkler would walk free. The defense claimed that she was the victim of spousal abuse and they depicted her late husband as a dominant, possessive and controlling man. In her original statement to police, Winkler maintained that she was not abused in any way. When she subsequently changed her story, she was asked why she had not mentioned it initially. Her response was, "I was ashamed. I didn't want anybody to know about Matthew." Some believe that Mrs. Winkler really did endure over a decade of psychological abuse from her husband, whereas many others feel that she fabricated an abuse story as part of her defense.

The trial closed on April 18, 2007, when the jury found Mary guilty of voluntary manslaughter. On June 8, 2007, she was sentenced to an extremely short term of 210 days in prison. Even more disturbing than her light sentence was the fact that she was given credit for the five months that she had served while awaiting her trial. She was only required to serve the remaining 67 days, which she spent at a mental facility. She is now serving the remainder of her probation in McMinnville, which is approximately 65 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, where she murdered her husband.

The three children have been under the care of their paternal grandparents, Dan and Diane Winkler, since Mary's arrest. Earlier this month (August 2007), Winkler's request to regain custody of her three girls was rejected. Dan and Diane are working on obtaining permanent custody of their grandchildren. They have also filed a civil lawsuit against their former daughter-in-law for $2 million. Both the civil action and custody cases are still pending at the time of this writing.

There is much controversy and many mixed feelings regarding the matter. It is needless to say that there are many people who are outraged by the leniency of the verdict and the sentence. Many feel that the verdict/sentencing is comparable to that of Orenthal James "O.J." Simpson. In the end, she served even less time than he did.

According to one of Mary's defense attorneys, Leslie Ballin, "She (Mary) plans on living a law-abiding life and resuming the battle for custody of her three daughters."