Tenn. Town Gets Closer to Answers in Killing

Apr 09, 05:18 AM

Current Headlines: By Leon Alligood

SELMER, Tenn. -- Like many other small towns, this west Tennessee community is steeped in predictability. Its 4,600 residents like it that way.

But one year ago, life in Selmer, 80 miles east of Memphis, became unpredictable.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 22, 2006, a shotgun blast reverberated from 174 Mollie Drive. Matthew Winkler, 31, was fatally shot.

The death of the popular minister of Fourth Street Church of Christ was unsettling enough. Then came the news that Mary Winkler, 33, his soft-spoken wife and the mother of their three children, had been charged with the killing.

All year, locals have been asking, "Why?" Today, they'll move closer to an answer as jury selection begins in a trial that could send Mary Winkler to prison for at least 51 years.

"There's a whole lot that's been said, but there's not a whole lot known about the situation in the public," said Barry Pivinski, who lives a few streets from Mollie Drive.

"I guess Monday we'll know something, but I don't know that we'll like the answer."

All year, theories about the preacher's killing have abounded in town, as well in blogs and Internet chat rooms. There has been worldwide media interest, and Court TV will cover the trial live.

Authorities have indicated in court documents and testimony that Mary Winkler had been the victim of a scam that caused financial problems for the family. Mary Winkler had shifted $17,500 from one local bank to another in what Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent Brian Booth called a "check-kiting scheme."

Her lawyers, Steve Farese and Leslie Ballin, said their client was duped by a scam initiated by an e-mail.

According to Booth, who testified at a pretrial hearing, the Winklers had a heated argument about finances the evening before the shooting.

Booth testified that Mary Winkler told him, "I guess I got to a point and snapped."

Her lawyers have said the couple's marriage will be central in the trial. The say the examination will portray Matthew Winkler in an unflattering light.

"The things that led up to March 22 need to be told to the jury," Ballin told reporters after a hearing several months ago.

The people of the town will be watching closely.

One day last week, kindergartners from Selmer Elementary School scurried around a park carrying Easter baskets as they searched for hidden eggs.

As Sequoia Hively watched her son, Lucas, from a distance, she said there was one thing in particular about the Winkler case that really bothered her.

"I'm not going to ever do anything that's going to take myself away from my kids. There's always another way to take care of a situation like that," she said.

Meanwhile, over at Fourth Street Church of Christ, the new pulpit minister, Jeremy Weekley, said several members of the congregation have been called to testify.

"The next two weeks are going to be rough, but the last year has been rougher," he said. "It's not something you get over. It's something you get through."

Alligood reports daily for The (Nashville) Tennessean (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.