By Beth Rucker

(Continued)

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Check-kiting scheme

The prosecutor said bank managers were closing in on a check-kiting scheme that Mary Winkler wanted to conceal from her husband. He said Mary Winkler had become caught up in a swindle known as the "Nigerian scam," which promises riches to victims who send money to cover the processing expenses.

"This was beginning to catch up with Mary," Freeland said. "The house of cards she had set up was falling down."

Victim of abuse?

But the defense attorney said Mary Winkler handled the family finances only because she did everything her husband told her. She was abused verbally, emotionally and physically, Farese said.

"Matthew and Mary Winkler had what appeared to everyone — those on the outside — to have had a marriage made in heaven. But behind closed doors it was a living hell," he told the jury. "She lived a life where she walked on eggshells."

Farese said Mary Winkler did not know how to load or fire a shotgun, and that she was afraid he would grab it from her. But the prosecutor said an expert will testify that the shotgun could not be fired accidentally.

The 31-year-old minister was found fatally wounded at the parsonage of his Fourth Street Church of Christ in March 2006. His 33-year-old wife was arrested a day later some 340 miles away on the Alabama coast with their three young daughters.

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