The Pastor's Wife (23 page)

“To reaffirm that he was in control.”

“How did that make you feel?”

“Scared.”

Farese questioned Mary about incidents when Allie was a baby, and she said, “When she was crying and was supposed to be going to bed, Matthew would suffocate her to get her to go to sleep.”

“What do you mean by ‘suffocate her'?”

“Pinch her nose and hold her mouth.”

“Would you let him do that to your child?”

“I just couldn't stop him.”

“Why?”

“I just couldn't physically do anything.”

Clark Freeman bent his head down and placed his hand over his face. He rocked forward, sliding his hand up to the top of his head.

Farese questioned her about a large check that came to the house. Mary said that Matthew opened it but her name was on the check. She said that Matthew told her to fill out sweepstakes forms for all kinds of prizes, from cash to televisions and cars. She claimed that although she was skeptical about the check, Matthew believed it was winnings from an entry they mailed.

She also claimed that Matthew directed her every move when she shuffled checks from one account to another. It was also his idea that she open an account in her name in Henderson, saying it would be convenient when she was in school. She said that she transferred the home mail to a post office box on Matthew's instructions. He was concerned that their mail would be tampered with by the neighbors because he had threatened their family dog.

The questions moved to the events of March 21, 2006. Farese asked her about the phone calls she received when she was at school. “I was unable to talk, but I could listen because I was in a classroom.”

She said that she talked to Matthew and told him that one of the bankers kept saying that something is illegal. She said that she kept trying to convince him to go to the bank. “He said he would, but he'd been saying that for weeks.”

Farese questioned Mary about the early-morning hours of March 22, leading up to the moment of her final confrontation with Matthew. Farese asked, “Did you go back to the bedroom to talk to Matthew?”

A tearful Mary said, “Yes.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“No.”

Farese asked, “Why?” When he got no response, he said, “Why didn't you talk to him, Mary?”

“I couldn't.”

“What do you mean, you ‘couldn't'?”

“I was too scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Matthew.”

“Do you remember getting a gun?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you remember ever having a gun—holding a gun?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you remember ever pointing a gun?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you remember pulling a trigger?”

“No, sir,” she sobbed.

“Did you pull the trigger?”

“No, sir.”

“How do we know that, Mary?”

“Because I am telling you.”

“Do you remember a gun doing anything?”

“Yes.”

“What do you remember?”

“Something went off.”

“When you said ‘Something went off,' what went off?”

“At the time, I didn't know.”

“What did it sound like?”

“Ka-boom.”

“Did you see, hear or smell anything?”

“Yes, an awful smell.”

“What type of smell?”

“Nothing I've ever smelled before or since.”

Out on the benches, Diane Winkler maintained her blank expression, but the set of Dan's mouth made his anger apparent.

“Do you remember what you did after the gun went off?”

“I ran to get out of the house.”

“Why did you want to get out of the house?”

“Because Matthew would be mad at me. And I didn't know what he would do to me, because he'd think I wanted to do that.”

“And where did you run to?”

“I ran outside to the carport.”

“Was anyone following you?”

“No.” She then told the jury about her return to the bedroom. Farese asked, “How did he look?”

“He looked dead.”

“Did you see any blood anywhere?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where?”

“In his nose, in his mouth and in his ears.”

She described wiping his mouth, but said she did not remember saying anything to him. She said all she could think about was that “I knew something terrible had happened, I knew no one would believe it was an accident. And I'd lose the girls.”

She talked about her flight with her daughters and their ultimate arrival in Orange Beach. After establishing that she hadn't packed or made any reservations or did not remember how the gun got in the van, Farese asked, “Look at the jury, please.”

Mary turned her face toward them.

Farese asked, “Did you intentionally, purposefully, kill your husband?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you love your husband?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you still love your husband?”

“Yes, sir,” she said choking on her words as tears filled her eyes.

“Even after all that?”

“Yes, sir.”

She told her attorney that she didn't tell the whole truth to the police in Alabama because she was ashamed and didn't want them to know about Matthew. Farese asked,
“Have you told this jury to the best of your ability and remembrance the truth of your marriage and what happened on or about March twenty-second, 2006?”

“Yes, sir.”

Now, Mary faced the ordeal of cross-examination. Walt Freeland asked her, “In a statement in Alabama, you stated that Matthew was ‘mighty fine,' did you not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You stated that he was ‘so, so good,' or something of that nature.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What did Matthew Winkler ever do to deserve the death penalty?”

She stared hard at him and then said, “I don't understand that question.”

“What did Matthew Winkler do to deserve to die?”

“Nothing. Nobody made that decision,” Mary said with an edge of sharpness in her tone.

“Matthew Winkler, in fact, did not deserve to die, did he?”

“No,” she said strongly with a shake of her head.

“Not for anything he did to you, did he deserve to die?”

“No.”

Freeland reviewed the banking situation with Mary, bringing up the last large check she deposited and asking her if she was happy to receive it. Mary said that she wasn't but remembered Matthew saying, “It's not a million dollars, but it's something.”

Freeman brought up her testimony about the suspicious dislocation of Patricia's elbow and asked if it had
been investigated. Mary said it hadn't and added, “I think that Matthew didn't know his strength. I don't think that he hurt her intentionally.”

After questioning some of her allegations of abuse, Freeland asked, “Did the shooting of Matthew give you self-esteem?”

“No.”

Freeland went over her testimony about the drug reaction incident in Pegram that caused her to go to Brandy and Glenn Jones' home seeking help. He pointed out that the couple obviously did not realize there was a problem because of your laughter. He asked, “You were able to convince your friends of something that wasn't true?” He moved on to the injury to her jaw and repeated that contention about Dr. Fisher. “You were able to tell him something untrue and he believed you?”

“Yes, sir,” she admitted with reluctance.

The prosecutor addressed the injury in Selmer that caused her to seek medical help from Dr. Eason. Mary responded that later that week, she did, in fact, have a root canal at the dentist. Then, Freeland asked her about the spankings that she claimed got out of hand. “Did you mention anything about this to Matthew?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you mention it to anyone else?”

“No.”

He asked her about the computer in their home, establishing that she was able to operate it, was not denied access and used it frequently. He also got into the record that to Mary's knowledge, the three little girls never saw any of the dirty pictures.

“Were there problems in the marital bedroom, as expressed by Matthew?”

“He wanted to change scenarios, looks and try something new.”

He asked a few more questions about the pornography of the computer and then asked if she had to engage in anything physically degrading like handcuffs or whips.
That gave Mary the opportunity to mention plastic penises.

“Is it safe to say that Matthew's sexual appetite was more than yours?”

“Yes, sir.”

Freeland then set her up for the rebuttal witness he planned to call. “Did Matthew ever take you to the target range to practice using the gun, in case you needed to defend yourself?”

“No, sir.”

Freeland asked her about her flight to Alabama. Mary said, “The stupid gun just went off and no one would believe me. They would take my girls away and lock me up. I just wanted to have a little time.”

He took her back to the night she was questioned by investigators. “Well, were you in a fog or were you not in a fog, Ms. Winkler?” When Mary did not answer, Freeland continued, “When you were talking to these authorities in Orange Beach, Stan Stabler of the ABI and Chris Carpenter of the TBI, were you in a fog or were you not in a fog?”

“I would say I was. I was trying to do the best I could in the situation I was at, and the surroundings where I was at, and everything that was going on.”

“You knew the surroundings where you were at, and you knew what was going on, did you not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Because you, by your testimony, made some sort of conscious decision that you weren't going to smear Matthew, is that true?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, how in the world, ma'am, would it have smeared Matthew to have said that it was an accident, the gun had gone off accidentally? That would not have smeared him.”

“No, sir.”

“You were aware of your circumstances in talking to the police. Why did you not tell Chris Carpenter that the gun accidentally went off?”

“When you're so beaten down, you just don't understand
and you don't think you've got a way up. At that time, I was led to feel like I didn't have a family. I never would have imagined that I would have been able to have any kind of attorney. If I got into talking, I'd have to talk about how he was. And I didn't want to get into that.”

“Well, why in the world would you have to talk about the way he was if it was an accident? What would that have to do with anything if the gun just accidentally went off?”

“It's what led me to get into that position.”

“So something led you into a position of having an accident. Is that what you're saying?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What was it that led you into the position of accidentally shooting Matthew Winkler?”

Mary shook her head.

“All this past you've testified?”

“I just wanted to talk to him.”

“It wasn't an accident, was it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You just wanted to talk to him and he wouldn't listen, so you just shot Matthew in his back while he was asleep. Now, has that memory come back to you, Ms. Winkler?”

“No, sir.”

“You don't have that memory now?”

“I don't have any memory of the way you just said that.”

 

On redirect, the defense asked, “Do you know whether it was an accident or not?”

“Yes.”

“How can you know that if you don't remember when the gun went off?”

“Because I didn't want any of this to happen.”

Farese asked his final question. “Did you say that you didn't tell anyone because you didn't think they'd believe you?”

“Yes.”

Farese made a broad sweep of his arm around the courtroom, bringing his hand to rest where he could point at the prosecution table. “They still don't believe you, today, do they?”

 

Immediately after a lunch break, Steve Farese got to his feet and said, “Your Honor, may it please the court, the defense rests.”

 

The prosecution called two rebuttal witnesses. The first, former neighbor Brandy Jones made her second visit to the witness stand. She testified that in August of 2005, her family vacationed with Matthew, Mary and the girls. Glenn wanted a gun in the home and Brandy was uncomfortable with it. They discussed the issue with the other couple. “Mary said that I'd probably be more comfortable if I went to a firing range and learned how to use it. She told me that Matthew had taken her to a firing range and taught her how to use the gun.”

Leslie Ballin cross-examined the witness, trying to leave the impression in the jury's mind that Brandy fabricated the story. Brandy said that she didn't realize the significance of the information until she listened to Mary's testimony that morning and heard Mary's claim that she did not know how to use a gun.

Not wanting the jury to believe a word of Brandy's testimony, he badgered her about her response to a question about her friendship with the Winklers, asking if she'd said ‘he' or ‘she' was her best friend. Brandy said, “I know I said
she
was my best friend and
he
was like a brother to me.”

Ballin said, “Oh, so now I understand,” leaving the scent of innuendo hanging in the air.

Brandy rolled her eyes in response.

The prosecution called Investigator Howard Patterson of the Tennessee Bureau of investigation, who testified
that the pornographic images on the computer were downloaded on two different dates, once in October 2005 and another date in January 2006.

Another member of the defense team, Steven Farese, Jr., cross-examined this final witness, though no revealing testimony was elicited.