Mary Winkler gets Manslaughter
Last night, the jury came back with voluntary manslaughter for Mary Winkler.
With that, I wanted to read the police report again, because I remembered something else that was a hot spot for me. But instead of finding the police report, I found Mary’s confession — which was transcribed as she spoke. You can find it here.
I find this document to be interesting. What Mary says seems to be inconsistent with a woman who accidentally shot her husband.
(1) “I don’t know of anything he specifically said or did to me to upset me, but I had an uneasiness about me. I remember not sleeping well.”
Usually when women reach their breaking point with their husbands, especially when they are abusive, there is a breaking point. There is a moment, a memorable moment that sets them off, that makes them snap. This is odd. Either this isn’t the truth, or perhaps she didn’t snap – but premeditated this?
(2) “The next morning, the alarm went off 6-6:30 and I got up. He was still in bed. I don’t think I left the room. He had a shotgun he kept in the closet just in case. I don’t remember going to the closet or getting the gun. The next thing I remember was hearing a loud boom, and I remember thinking that it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be.”
If you shot your husband by accident, you don’t have any preconceived notions about how loud a gunshot would sound if you didn’t anticipate discharging it, would you? Doesn’t this hint at premeditation?
(3) “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 the smell. He asked me why and I just said I was sorry.”
She was so calm, she just wiped away the blood — as if she was resolved to the outcome, wouldn’t you say? She obviously wasn’t in shock about what she just did, was she?
If she was truly boiling over from abuse when her husband asked her why she did what she did — would you expect that she would tell him? “You were a bastard! You deserved this!!” Perhaps she did — but she wasn’t going to admit to it?
Furthermore, if she shot him “by accident” — and he was still taking — why didn’t she call the police? She left him to die, knowingly.
(4) “Patricia came to the hallway and asked what was going on, and I told her Daddy was hurt and I told her we were leaving.”
She even has enough reason about her to talk rationally to her daughter and say that daddy is hurt. It obviously registered what she had done.
(5) “That Tuesday night, we had also talked about our finances that night. I had gotten a call from the bank and we were having troubles, mostly my fault, bad bookkeeping. He was upset with me about that. I was upset at him because he had really been on me lately, criticising me for things, the way I walk, what I eat, everything. I was just tired of it. I guess I just got to a point and snapped.”
I find the choice of the word “guess” interesting. You know you either snapped or you didn’t. You don’t guess that you did — for no apparent reason.
Does this sound like a woman whose husband was horrible to her? As I have seen this morning, Mary was involved in a check fraud scam of sorts — and if her husband knew about it as she suggests above — if he was abusive — don’t you think he would have really let her have it here? She is admitting it was mostly her fault, and she doesn’t say he hurt her in anyway. Earlier she even says “I don’t know of anything he specifically said or did to me to upset me, but I had an uneasiness about me. I remember not sleeping well.” This is a complete contradiction.
What a complete tragedy.
I have to admit, I double-checked the documents source — it seems so unreal.
