The latest news about Mary Winkler - admitted killer of her husband, Matthew Winkler.  

This is from THE TENNESSEAN.

By TONYA SMITH-KING The Jackson Sun, SELMER, Tenn. — The minister’s wife accused of killing her husband shot him in the back as he lay in bed the morning after the couple argued about financial woes stemming from a check-kiting scheme, according to testimony at a bail hearing Friday.A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent read from a statement authorities said Mary Carol Winkler gave TBI agents in Orange Beach, Ala., shortly after her arrest. “I’d gotten a call from the bank, and we were having troubles, mostly my fault. Bad bookkeeping,” Mary Winkler’s statement said. “He was upset with me about that. I was upset at him because he had really been on me lately, criticizing me for things, the way I walk, the way I eat, everything.“It was just building up to this point. I was just tired of it. I guess I just got to a point and snapped.”Mary Winkler appeared Friday before McNairy County Circuit Judge Weber McCraw and asked for bail; the hearing lasted almost three hours.Mary Winkler’s attorney, Steven Farese Sr., said he expects McCraw to make a decision on the bail request by some time next week.Winkler, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Matthew Winkler, pastor at Selmer’s Fourth Street Church of Christ. Her trial is set for Oct. 30.It is not clear whether prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty. They have until 30 days before the trial to decide.Church members found Matthew Winkler’s body March 22 in the bedroom at the parsonage after the Winklers failed to show up for an evening church service. A nationwide Amber Alert was issued for Mary Winkler and the couple’s three young girls. They were located the next day in Orange Beach.TBI Special Agent Brent Booth read Mary Winkler’s statement Friday, revealing chilling details about the shooting.

Winkler said in the statement that there had been increasing problems in the last year and a half of the couple’s 7-year marriage. The alarm clock went off at about 6 a.m. or 6:30 a.m. the morning of the shooting, the statement said.

Mary Winkler said she got up, and, while her husband was still in bed, she went to the closet and removed his 12-gauge shotgun from its case.

“I don’t remember going to the closet or getting the gun,” the statement said. “The next thing I remember was hearing a loud boom. I remember thinking it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be.

“I heard the boom and he rolled out of the bed onto 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 I went and ran. I do remember me holding the shotgun, hearing the boom and then a smell.

“He asked me, ‘Why?’ I just said I was sorry. I was scared, sad and wanted to get out of the house.”

The statement went on to say Mary Winkler fled with the couple’s three girls in the family’s van.

She headed to Orange Beach because she wanted to take the girls to the beach to play with them as long as she could, the statement said.

“I planned on coming (back) when we were through,” the statement said. “I knew we would be caught … I didn’t tell the girls the truth that I had shot daddy. I said he was in the hospital, just anything to make up him not being with us. I eventually got stopped and arrested by the police.”

Booth revealed during his testimony that Mary Winkler had multiple bank accounts and that some checks going through those accounts were unusual.

Booth said Mary Winkler had “deposited into accounts in Canada, Nigeria … totaling $17,500.”

Checks had been deposited in Regions Bank in Selmer and First State Bank in Henderson, Booth said. The account in Henderson had been set up in her name only, he said.

Assistant District Attorney Walter Freeland asked Booth if he was familiar with the term, “check kiting,” and Booth said he was.

“Where a check is written on one bank, deposited into another account at another bank and then withdrawing funds from the bank where the check was deposited before it cleared the bank it was written on,” Booth said.

“Did you observe any such irregularities in your investigation in the bank records of Mary Winkler?” Freeland said.

“Yes,” Booth said.

“She was writing checks on the bank, First State Bank in Henderson, Tennessee, depositing those checks into Regions Bank in Selmer, Tennessee, and then withdrawing funds through the ATM on Regions Bank in Selmer, Tennessee, and also First South Bank in Selmer, Tennessee.”

The bank discovered what was going on and phoned Mary Winkler about it the day before her husband was shot.

Defense attorneys said Mary Winkler had been the victim of a Nigerian check scam.

Defense attorneys presented witnesses who testified they believed Winkler would obey any rules she was given if she was released on bond.

Kathy Thomsen of McMinnville testified Mary Winkler would stay with her family and work at a dry cleaner, where a job has been secured for her.

She fell for the Nigerian check scam?! That’s the one, isn’t it, where you get an email telling you that some rich guy died and left millions of dollars — and that all you have to do is send the writer of the email a few thousand dollars and you’ll get part of the millions. Is there REALLY anyone who would fall for such idiocy?

I have to take back most of what I’ve written before about Mary Winkler. I’ve lost my sympathy for her. The woman is not only dishonest in the check-kiting thing, but she’s apparently stupid, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 7:08 am and is filed under Headlines/Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.