Looks like she might allege battered wife's syndrome or PTSD.
Trial to open for pastor's wife accused of murdering her husbandMary Winkler, seen during a pretrial hearing in February, allegedly confessed to investigators that she shot her husband.
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
To the congregants of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tenn., Pastor Matthew Winkler and his schoolteacher wife, Mary, represented the model Christian family.
That image was shattered on March 22, 2006, when church elders found Matthew Winkler lying face-up in his parsonage bedroom, dead from a gunshot to the back. His wife and their three young daughters were gone.
The following day, authorities announced they had arrested Mary Winkler in Alabama after she allegedly confessed to shooting her husband, a third-generation minister who had moved his family to Selmer the year before.
According to court documents, Winkler told agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations that she "snapped" under the pressure of her husband's constant criticism of "the way she walked, what she ate, everything."
In the months that followed, Mary Winkler's relatives spoke out on her behalf on national television, accusing her husband of emotional, physical and sexual abuse during their 10-year marriage.
But prosecutors claim Mary Winkler shot her husband in cold blood as he lay in bed, after he confronted her over a check-kiting scheme in which she had allegedly become entangled.
Beginning Monday, a 12-person jury from McNairy County will be selected and tasked with deciding whether Mary Winkler intentionally shot her husband after careful premeditation, as prosecutors allege. She faces 51 years in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
Lawyers for Mary Winkler, who is out on bond, would not comment on their trial strategy. But court records indicate they intend to call at least three mental health experts to testify about issues arising from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.The defense has filed a motion asking the judge to allow the jury to consider the lesser charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or reckless homicide, which indicate a lesser degree of culpability and could mean a reduced sentence.
A proposed defense jury questionnaire, which was subsequently rejected by the judge, also provides some insight into issues Winkler's defense will likely raise during the short trial.
Questions such as, "Have you known anyone who stayed in an abusive relationship?" and "Have you ever personally known someone accused of spousal abuse?" specifically address abusive marriage. Another question asks potential panelists if they believe that a personal who suffers from battered wife syndrome, "Can use the syndrome to establish they were forced to use self-defense?"
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning. If the court cannot find a fair and impartial jury, Judge J. Weber McCraw could reconsider the defense motion for a change of venue.
With gender roles in the Winker marriage likely to emerge as a focal point for the defense, much of the trial testimony is expected to focus on the couple's relationship, which began in 1993 at Freed-Hardemann University, a Christian university in Henderson, Tenn.
Mary Carol Freeman, as she was known at the time, was a member of the same Phi Kappa Alpha Social Club as the aspiring preacher.
The couple married in 1996, shortly after Matthew Winkler completed his studies. The two moved throughout Louisiana and Tennessee before finally settling in Selmer in 2005 with their two young daughters, Patricia and Mary Alice.
After arriving in Selmer, Mary Winkler gave birth to the couple's youngest daughter, Brianna.
Even in her statements to authorities, Mary Winkler seemed reticent to speak unkindly of her husband, whom she called "a mighty fine person." She denied he had physically abused her and described their marriage as "good."
The substitute teacher told authorities she did not remember when she got the shotgun from the bedroom closet or what provoked her to shoot her husband at that moment.
She allegedly said she was at a loss to answer her husband when he asked, "Why?" as he lay on the bedroom floor with blood flowing from his mouth.
Instead, she allegedly told her husband that she loved him and that she was sorry before her daughter called out from the hallway. She allegedly told her daughter that "Daddy was hurt" and packed up the children and the gun in the family minivan and left town.
Authorities used her cellphone signal to track her to Orange Beach, Ala., where she was stopped for making an illegal U-turn and apprehended in a Winn-Dixie parking lot with her daughters.
The children currently live with Matthew Winkler's parents, who recently filed a wrongful death suit against their daughter-in-law.
In court documents opposing the defense request to suppress her statements, prosecutors noted the defendant's politeness with her interrogators, whom she thanked for treating her so well in spite of the fact she had done "something very bad."
Judge McCraw denied the defense motion, paving the way for the jury to hear her audiotaped statements once the trial begins.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/winkler/040607_background_ctv.html
