Mary Winkler Case: Abuse Defense, Verdict, and Custody Fight

The Mary Winkler case is the 2006 killing of Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler by his wife Mary in the parsonage of their Selmer, Tennessee church, a first-degree murder prosecution that ended in a voluntary manslaughter conviction in April 2007 after Mary testified to years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Sentenced to three years, she served roughly 12 days in jail and about 60 days in a mental health facility before being released in August 2007.¹

The Shooting and Arrest

On the morning of March 22, 2006, Matthew Winkler, 31, was found dead of a shotgun blast to the back inside the parsonage of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, a small town in McNairy County in western Tennessee. Mary Winkler and the couple’s three young daughters were missing, and authorities initially feared the family had been kidnapped.²

About 24 hours later, police in Orange Beach, Alabama, pulled over the family’s minivan. Mary and the three girls were inside. The shotgun used in the killing was recovered from the trunk.² She was charged with first-degree murder and returned to Tennessee, where Judge Weber McCraw of the McNairy County Circuit Court set her bond at $750,000.³

Who the Winklers Were

Matthew Winkler came from a line of Church of Christ preachers. He had served as a youth minister in McMinnville before being hired as the pulpit minister at Fourth Street Church of Christ in January 2005.⁴⁵ By 2006 they had three daughters: Patricia, Mary Alice (Allie), and Brianna, who had been born only a year before the shooting.

The Financial Scam Behind the Case

Investigators quickly found that Mary Winkler had been caught up in a fraud that was unraveling in the days before the shooting. She had fallen victim to a “Nigerian scam” advance-fee fraud, depositing fraudulent checks, including one for $6,455 drawn on a nonexistent “Canadian Trust Bank,” into the family’s Regions Bank account.⁶ Prosecutors said she deposited fraudulent checks totaling $17,500 and moved funds between accounts to cover the shortfalls, a practice known as check-kiting.⁷

On March 20 and 21, 2006, Mary made 16 telephone fund transfers. On March 21, a Regions banker called to say the account was nearly $5,000 overdrawn and warned she could face criminal charges. An appointment was scheduled at the bank for the following morning.⁸ Matthew was shot before that meeting took place. Mary Winkler herself was never charged with any financial crimes.²

The Prosecution’s Theory

Prosecutors sought a first-degree murder conviction, which carried a potential life sentence. District Attorney Walt Freeland and District Attorney General Michael Dunavant argued that Mary shot her sleeping husband in the back to keep him from discovering the depth of her financial fraud, pointing to her own statements to police about her thoughts before the shooting and to the mechanical steps she took to prepare the shotgun as evidence of premeditation.⁹ They also pressed the point that Mary controlled the household finances and that no one in the community had ever heard her disclose abuse.²

The Abuse Defense

Mary was represented pro bono by Steve Farese Sr. and Leslie Ballin, a Memphis criminal defense attorney with roughly 30 years of experience and about 150 homicide cases.¹⁰ Farese described the Winkler marriage as a “living hell” behind closed doors and argued that Mary had endured a decade of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.¹¹

Mary testified that Matthew threatened her with a shotgun “many times,” pointed it in her face, and told her he would “cut me into a million pieces” if she talked back. She also testified that he forced her to wear a wig and white platform heels and coerced her into sexual acts she described as “unnatural” and contrary to their church’s teachings. Her father, Clark Freeman, testified that he had confronted her about appearing to be a “battered” woman. Her sisters testified to seeing bruises and a change in her demeanor after she married Matthew.²

Forensic psychologist Dr. Lynne Zager testified that Mary suffered from untreated post-traumatic stress disorder tied to the death of her sister Patricia when Mary was a teenager, worsened by the abuse in her marriage. Zager said Mary experienced “dissociative episodes” during crises, entering a “fog” in which she could not think clearly or form intent. Mary told Zager that on the morning of March 22 she was in the kitchen making coffee when she “stopped” and then “remembered hearing the sound of the gun shooting.”⁵¹²

Farese argued Mary had not intended to kill Matthew. She had taken the shotgun, he said, only to hold him at gunpoint and force a conversation about his behavior toward the infant Brianna, and the gun discharged accidentally because she did not know how to operate it properly.¹¹ When the wig and the white platform shoe were displayed in the courtroom, reporter Jamey Tucker noted an audible gasp and said “everything turned” in favor of the defense.²

The Verdict

The trial lasted ten days. On April 19, 2007, the jury, which included a Baptist minister and a woman who identified as a domestic abuse survivor, rejected first-degree murder and convicted Mary Winkler of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser offense carrying a maximum of six years.¹³¹¹

How She Served Only About Two Months

On June 8, 2007, Judge Weber McCraw sentenced Mary to three years. He ruled she had to serve at least 210 days, credited her with 143 days already spent in jail, and left 67 days remaining. He then ordered that up to 60 of those 67 days could be served in a mental health treatment facility, meaning she faced as little as one additional week behind bars.¹⁴¹⁵ McCraw denied full probation and denied judicial diversion, which would have cleared the conviction from her record, noting that the victim had been shot in the back and left without medical attention.¹⁶

She was released on August 14, 2007, after 12 days in jail and the remainder in a mental health facility, and began three years of probation.¹¹⁷

Reaction to the Sentence

Prosecutor Walt Freeland, who had argued for the six-year maximum, compared the penalty to what someone might receive for forging a prescription or smuggling a cellphone into jail, emphasizing that the shooting occurred close to the children’s bedrooms.¹⁸

Matthew’s family objected sharply. His brother Daniel accused Mary of murdering both Matthew’s body and his reputation. His mother, Diane Winkler, addressed Mary directly at sentencing: “The monster you have painted for the world to see, I don’t think that monster existed.” She said Mary had never apologized to the family or spoken truthfully to her own children about their father’s death.¹⁸¹⁶ Legal analyst Lisa Bloom, covering the case for Court TV, said that while legal professionals viewed the evidence as a strong first-degree murder case, the local community appeared to accept Mary’s account.¹⁹

Ballin defended the outcome, saying it meant Mary could “get out and fight the battle she wants to, and that is to get her children back.”¹⁶

The Custody Fight

After Mary’s arrest, Dan and Diane Winkler were granted temporary custody of the three girls. They filed a $2 million wrongful death lawsuit against Mary and moved to terminate her parental rights so they could adopt the children. Under Tennessee law, a judge may terminate the parental rights of a parent convicted of killing the other parent, though the law generally favors biological parents. To prevail, the grandparents needed to show that Mary posed a “substantial threat of harm” to the children and that ending her rights was in their best interests.²⁰

Court filings cited reports that the girls suffered nightmares, sleepwalking, and urination accidents after phone calls with their mother, and one expert reported that the oldest daughter, Patricia, had said, “My mother killed my father and I don’t know if she will kill me.” The grandparents’ appeal seeking to overturn Mary’s supervised visitation, or to require professional supervision, was denied.²¹

The dispute ended without a court ruling. On August 1, 2008, under an agreement between Mary and the grandparents, she picked up her three daughters and took them to her home in Smithville, Tennessee. Dan and Diane Winkler retained visitation rights.²²²³

Where Mary Winkler Is Now

After her release, Mary moved to McMinnville, Tennessee, where she lived with friends and worked at a dry cleaning shop, a job she had held while free on bail before trial.¹⁷ Reports indicate she was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In April 2024, when ABC News correspondent John Quinones contacted her for a retrospective report, she declined to discuss the case: “We’ve moved on. I’m busy taking care of my three daughters.”²

1
CBS News. Minister’s Wife Who Killed Husband Freed
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ABC News. What Made a Preacher’s Wife Kill Her Husband
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Christian Chronicle. Bond Set at $750,000 in Winkler Case
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The Restoration Movement. Matthew Brian Winkler
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NBC News. Mary Winkler Trial Coverage
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NBC News. Winkler Trial Financial Details
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Action News 5. Winkler Attorney Says Shooting Stemmed From Check Scam
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CNN. Winkler Trial Financial Evidence
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Action News 5. DA in Winkler Case Says Evidence Against Her Was Awfully Good
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Super Lawyers. Murderous Spouses, Media Frenzies, and a Client Named Snake
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CBS News. Defense: Minister’s Wife Was Abused
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Christian Chronicle. Mary Winkler Trial Updates
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Action News 5. Mary Winkler Convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter
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CBS News. Wife Sentenced for Killing Preacher
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Telegram & Gazette. Winkler Sentencing Details
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Christian Chronicle. Mary Winkler Ordered Behind Bars for One Week
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Action News 5. Mary Winkler Keeps Low Profile in McMinnville After Release
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Memphis Flyer. Winkler Gets 210 Days Plus Probation
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Oprah.com. Mary Winkler’s First Interview
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ABC News. Winkler Custody Dispute
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CNN. Winkler Custody Battle
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Christian Chronicle. Reports: Grandparents Return Winkler Children to Their Mother
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Action News 5. Mary Winkler Receives Custody of Children