Mary Winkler To Have Bond Hearing Today in Death of Husband Matthew Winkler
Mary Winkler who has allegedly confessed to the murder of her husband Matthew Winkler is to seek bond today on the murder charge. Mary Winkler has been held in jail without bond since March 23, 2006.
A medical examiner has said Matthew Winkler was shot in the back at close range with a shotgun. No motive has ever been disclosed.
Defense lawyer Steve Farese plans to call members of Matthew Winkler’s church as character witnesses for his client at the hearing.
Farese said a statement Winkler made to police may be presented at the hearing.
Investigators call the statement a confession, though defense lawyers disagree with that description.
(Eye Witness News Memphis)
Mary Winkler appears in Selmer courtroom
Mary Winkler appeared in a Selmer courtroom just after 10:45 Friday morning, as part of a judge’s routine docket.
Winkler is accused of killing her husband, Matthew Winkler, who was pastor of the Fourth Street Church of Christ. Members of his congregation found him dead in the couple’s bedroom at the parsonage on March 22nd after he failed to appear for an evening church service.
(WMC-TV)
Town looks for answers in preacher’s killing
Minister’s wife accused of murder asks for bond
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.
And if she did it, why?
Mary Carol Winkler, 32, pleaded not guilty to killing the charismatic new preacher of the Fourth Street Church of Christ and the congregation has turned the other cheek.
But the residents of Selmer haven’t come close to understanding why it might have happened.
UPDATE: Winkler states that she was arguing with her pastor husband about money before she shot him
A TBI agent today read a statement Mary Winkler gave to police after her preacher husband was found shot to death in Selmer.
Agent Brian Booth quoted from the statement, saying Winkler told investigators she and her husband, Matthew Winkler, had argued about several things, including finances. Advertisement
In the statement, Mary Winkler is quoted as saying she doesn’t remember getting the shotgun from a closet at the parsonage, but recalls holding it and said the blast wasn’t as loud as she had expected.
The statement said Matthew Winkler rolled out of bed onto the floor and asked why she had shot him.
Mary Winkler said she wiped blood from his outh and said she was sorry and that she loved him.
(WBIR)
CNN: Mary Winkler told authorities she didn’t remember getting gun
Booth testified that Winkler told police she knew her husband kept a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in the closet of the home where they lived with their three daughters. She said she didn’t remember getting the gun.
Mary Winkler’s statement of the time leading up to the shooting was as follows:
Winkler said the two had argued throughout the evening about several things, including family finances. The problems were “mostly my fault,” she said, because she was in charge of keeping the family books.
“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,” Booth read to the court.