To outsiders, the college sweethearts seemed to be a loving, Ken-and-Barbie couple.

He was pulpit preacher at Selmer's Fourth Street Church of Christ, a conservative denomination that takes the Bible literally.

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But behind their public façade, the Winklers had a troubled relationship and severe financial problems.

After her arrest, Mary Winkler told police that she accepted abuse from her husband "like a mouse" for many years. Then she said, her "ugly came out."

"It was just building up to this point," she said. "I was just tired of it. I guess I just got to a point and snapped."

Mary Winkler, in college

College friends of Mary Winkler said she had gone from vivacious, attractive and personable to plain, mousy and emotionally blank during her nine-year marriage to Matthew Winkler.

Winkler appeared to have regained some of that spark during her trial. She dressed conservatively but with modest flair, and she was clearly engaged by the proceedings.

Mary Winkler won over the jury during her emotional testimony at trial.  She revealed that her husband pressed her to engage in kinky and demeaning sex, insisting that she dress up "slutty" in an Afro wig, miniskirts and footwear fit for a hooker.

In a brilliant show-and-tell gambit, defense attorneys Farese and Ballin entered the wig and shoes into evidence. During her testimony, Winkler abashedly held up the objects for jurors to see, gripping one of the white platform shoes with an eight-inch stiletto heel.

Winkler said her husband forced her to look at pornography on the family computer before they had sex, including oral and anal sex that she regarded as unnatural.

She said he had punched and kicked her and once threatened to "cut you into a million pieces" if she sassed him. She said didn't reveal the problems to anyone.

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

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