www.justiceforchandra.com

[jane]

I was wondering - does anyone feel they have any insight into the slaying of pastor Matther Winkler? He was killed by his wife, according to the prosecution, with a single shotgun wound to the back. Doesn't sound like an act of rage. There's no indication of infidelity. Offhand, the most likely explanation seems to be a desire to put an end to abuse?

[gozgals]

Jane:


I really have no insight at all Jane except I have speculated a bit too. I think because she is such an innocent looking woman we are all looking for an excuse for this horrific crime and why shouldn't we? We don't expect a cold blooded murder from a kind looking woman.

I have heard maybe Post Partum Depression after the birth of her last child as one cause being thrown out there. I have heard being a minister's wife may have been a job in itself and she had to portray being perfect all the time which put much stress on her. I have read the victim was controlling.

What I seem to think is she may have been abused or the children were involved only because I guess this theory seems to be one I like instead of thinking this woman just killed him because she was stressed out and felt controlled. Maybe he abused his kids, her, or other children.

I think we want to blame this victim for some reason due to who committed this murder.

I wish her attorney would give the why. Till then, I guess we are all going to speculate why she would take his life. I hear she is confused and out of it, but seemed to be able to get in her vehicle and drive away with the children. I just don't know. The answer could be simple. Maybe she was just tired of being married like many men are when they commit murder.

It sure is a fascinating case. I'm sure answers will be coming.

GG)

[propria]

i agree with you both that there must be some kind of abuse involved, and i have to wonder if she found out about, maybe witnessed, one of the girls being molested. i wish we knew when she made the reservations at the alabama shore, as that could at least indicate whether this was something she planned in advance or she made them after she shot her husband.

in any case, i strongly suspect the reason had something to do with wrongdoing by the husband, since i heard at least one report that the motive was not being released because law enforcement wanted to avoid hurting his family. that sounds to me like there was something going on that was shameful, which any form of abuse would certainly be for anyone, and especially for a pastor.

my only real concern at this point is that the kids are with his parents, and abusive parents are generally the children of their own abusive parents. i can't even begin to imagine what these little girls are going through right now ... my mother died of cancer when i was twelve, and that has touched every minute of my life since then ... and i pray every day that they will somehow survive losing their father at their mother's hand and their mother to prison.


nanci
_________________
the Truth has a name, and there is power in that Name!

[MrRich]

Why is it that when a man commits a murder we default to the position that he's a cruel vicious monster who should be put away but when a woman does it we default to the position that she's a victim? There is no excuse for shooting somebody in the back. If it was anything remotely resembling self defense why not simply call the cops afterward? Instead she grabbed the kids and headed for the coast. That indicates to me consciousness of guilt. And she reportedly apologized afterward. Why apologize if your husband was a child molester or a wife beater? I don't really care what her "motive" was. She shot a defenseless man in the back and that sounds like cold blooded murder in my book.

-Rich
_________________
All things being equal, the simplest answer is usually best.

[propria]

Why is it that when a man commits a murder we default to the position that he's a cruel vicious monster who should be put away but when a woman does it we default to the position that she's a victim?


ummmm, because women are victimized by men more often than men are victimized by women??? and because women who are victimized by men sometimes snap and retaliate with deadly passion, while men who are victimized by women are more inclined to be wimpy little guys who gradually wither away as they shuffle their way through life muttering 'yes, dear. whatever you say, dear.' the murderous men who are 'cruel vicious monsters' aren't generally the victims in a relationship, they're more often the abuser whose need to have power over another person goes out of control and their victim ends up dead.

obviously, there is a wide range of exceptions to both those generalities, but the relevant point in this case, or any others like it, is the fact that there is a reason for everything, including the murder of a spouse, but no one i have heard of yet has suggested that there is any excuse for mary winkler's murder of her husband. even if her reason for shooting her husband in the back is an extremely understandable one ... like catching him molesting one of their daughters, for instance ... she had many other options available to her that would certainly have been of more benefit to her children than the reality they must live with now.


nanci
_________________
the Truth has a name, and there is power in that Name!

[MrRich]

I hate to say I told you so, but ....

[jane]

Shooting her husband was harsh indeed - a permanent 'solution' to what may have only been a temporary problem.

Seems Mrs. Winkler has suffered some losses in her life - there is speculation post-partum depression could be involved.

....Few if any [members of the Winklers' church] knew that she had a father from whom she was estranged for many years or a younger sister Patricia who died at eight years of age from spinal meningitis.... [National Enquirer] reporter Alexander Hitchen who has been following the Mrs. Winkler saga ... tells us that the tragedy brought daughter and father together.... Because Mrs. Winkler never spoke of her father when her mother died of cancer in 1999, people assumed that he too was dead.... [Defense attorney Farese] introduced the theory of postpartum depression as the reason for the alleged murder....

http://speechwriting-ghostwriting.typepad.com/speechwriting_ghostwritin/2006/04/mary_winkler_no.html

[gozgals]

There is no excuse for Mary to have shot her husband, plain and simple.

She should be tried without any EXCUSE such as PPD. A double standard does not exist, (in my opinion) in this case. We all suffer losses in life, it does not preclude her from knowing right from wrong.

I hope she gets the proper punishment for this heinous crime committed.

Goz

[gozgals]

I guess when all is straightened out, Mary will get bail. How sad she is to be free to walk around till her trial date after she killed her husband!


Slain preacher's wife to get out on bond
Attorney says she's lined up a job at dry cleaner

Thursday, August 10, 2006; Posted: 8:16 a.m. EDT (12:16 GMT)


(CNN) -- A Tennessee woman accused of fatally shooting her preacher husband is expected to be released from custody on Thursday, a defense attorney told CNN.

Mary Winkler had been expected to be released from jail in McNairy County, Tennessee, Wednesday after her attorneys posted bail. But defense attorney Steve Farese said the judge wanted to review the agreed-upon conditions for her release.

She is now expected to be released between 10 a.m. and noon (11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET), Farese said.

Earlier, defense attorney Leslie Ballin had declined to say how much the bail was, but a judge last month set a $750,000 bond and refused a reduction request.

Winkler, 32, pleaded not guilty last month to a charge of first-degree murder after she was indicted by a grand jury. She is accused of killing her husband, Matthew Winkler, 31, minister of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee.

Church members who came looking for him when he failed to turn up for a service found him dead in his bedroom on March 22, shot in the back.

At a bond hearing in June, an investigator testified that Winkler said she shot her husband because she "snapped" after what she told authorities was repeated criticism and stress over issues including the couple's financial situation.

In court, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent Brent Booth read from Winkler's initial statement to police: "I heard the boom, and he (Matthew Winkler) rolled out of the bed on the floor, and I saw some blood on the floor and some bleeding around his mouth. I went over and wiped his mouth off with a sheet. I told him I was sorry and that I loved him. And then I went and ran.

"He asked me, 'Why?' and I just said I was sorry," Booth read. (Full story)

Winkler's attorneys have also asked the judge to suppress statements she made to police in Alabama and Tennessee after her arrest. In those statements, Ballin said, she told officers she did not want to smear her husband's name in public.

She told Alabama officers that the killing was not planned and that she had been verbally and emotionally abused by her husband. She also said she had been through a life-threatening event in the past year, Ballin said, but would not elaborate.

Winkler told police that in the past year, the emotional and verbal abuse from her husband had worsened.

In addition, she told Tennessee officers details about the murder and about becoming involved in a Nigerian check scam, in which she lost $17,000, Ballin said. (Full story)

Winkler's father was expected to pick her up from jail after her release and take her to McMinnville, Tennessee, where she is to live with Kathy Thomson, an old friend, he said. The Winklers lived in McMinnville before moving to Selmer last year.

Ballin said Winkler has a job lined up at a dry cleaner, but did not know when she would start.

Under terms of her bond, Winkler is not allowed to leave the county except for meetings with her attorneys, court appearances and visits with her children -- Patricia, 8; Mary Alice, 6; and Breanna, 1.

After the shooting, Winkler fled with the children to Orange Beach, Alabama, where she was arrested the next day.

Ballin said Winkler's defense attorneys plan to talk with attorneys for Matthew Winkler's parents and arrange visitation with the children, who have been living with them. Since her arrest, Winkler has seen her children once.

CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report


http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/09/minister.slain/index.html

[gozgals]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/11/winkler.bond.ap/index.html



<SNIP>

Minister's wife stays in jail

Friday, August 11, 2006; Posted: 7:28 p.m. EDT (23:28 GMT)



SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- Despite indications that she would be released, a minister's wife charged with killing her husband will remain jailed because of problems discovered with her bonding company, a judge ruled Friday.

Mary Winkler, 32, is charged with killing Matthew Winkler with a single blast from a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in bed at the Church of Christ parsonage following a night of arguing over strained family finances and other matters.

Cont. on link

[gozgals]

Mary is out on bond.

She is to work at a dry cleaner. Let us hope she is just laundering clothes, not anything else.


I feel a Double Standard existed here as Mary should not have been released as a man who shot his wife in the back would not have been bonded out if he attempted to flee afterward.

Information at the link below.......

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/21390.asp