By David J. Krajicek

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(Continued)

She admitted that she pointed a shotgun at her husband's back but said she did not intend to pull the trigger. She indicated she was in a state of near delirium over their marriage. Their checking account was overdrawn by $5,000, and she was under pressure from Matthew over a check-kiting scheme first revealed last year by the Crime Library.

When the gun "accidentally' fired, she said, her instinct was to flee. She packed her daughters and the shotgun in the family van and drove 350 south to Orange Beach, Ala., where she was arrested.

"All I knew was that the stupid gun had went off, and nobody would believe me and they would just take my girls away from me," she testified.

Winkler said she had suffered silently through years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. She demurely reviewed Matthew's sexual tastes—including pornography and anal and oral sex—and said he had punched and kicked her. She didn't reveal the problems to anyone.

"I was ashamed," she said. "I didn't want anybody to know about Matthew."

Prosecutor Freeland later insisted that Matthew Winkler was "a good daddy who didn't abuse anybody." But defense attorney Farese countered, "If you look up spousal abuse in the dictionary, you're going to see Mary Winkler's picture."

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By, David J. Krajicek