By David Lohr

August 15, 2007

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Crime Library) — Unfortunately, the headline you just read is not a spoof. Mary Winkler, the Tennessee woman who captured headlines across the nation for gunning down her preacher husband last year, completed her sentence yesterday. All totaled, Winkler, 33, spent a whopping seven months in custody. OJ Simpson would certainly be proud. He may have been found "not guilty," but in comparison, Winkler served less time. No need for an "if I did it" book in this case.

The Winkler Family

On March 22, 2006, Matthew Winkler, 31, a "pulpit preacher" at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, failed to show up for an evening service. Concerned, church elders went to check on Matthew at his house. Inside, they found him dead on the floor of his bedroom — a gunshot wound to the back. Matthew's wife and children were nowhere to be seen.

The following day, police arrested Mary Winkler on the Gulf coast of Alabama. She was on the run from the law with the couple's three children. Winkler did not waste much time implicating herself.

"He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things — the way I walk, I eat, everything," Winkler said in a statement to police. "It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped."

Winkler claimed she does not remember pulling the trigger; however, she did say that, after the shooting, her husband looked up at her and asked, "Why?" Her response: "I told him that I was sorry and that I loved him."

Mary Winkler's Mugshot

Charged with first-degree murder, Winkler was remanded to the county jail pending trial. In August 2006, after having served just five months behind bars, Winkler's father mortgaged his home and posted his daughter's $750,000 bail. Upon her release, she moved to McMinnville, Tennessee, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville.

The trial began on April 9, 2007. Prosecutor Walt Freeland made no bones about the fact that he was seeking a first-degree murder conviction and a 51-year sentence. Despite that fact that there were numerous witnesses that could testify about the type of person Matthew was — a man many described as having a good character and high moral values — and the fact that there were no visible problems in the marriage to those on the outside, the prosecution focused on fraudulent check scams in which Winkler was involved. They did so because they believe these scams formed the motive behind the murder.

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Contact David Lohr  at           crimewriter74@adelphia.net

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