Slain minister’s wife says gun went off accidentally

A preacher’s wife testified at her murder trial Wednesday that her husband had abused her physically and sexually, but she said the shotgun fired accidentally as she pointed it at him in their parsonage bedroom.

Mary Winkler said she heard a “boom” but did not pull the trigger, prompting prosecutor Walt Freeland to ask her later whether she understood how a trigger worked.

“Yes, sir,” Winkler replied. She said she remembered holding the gun but not getting it from the closet.

She said that she had just wanted to talk to her husband, Matthew, when she went into their bedroom that day in March 2006, but that she was too terrified. “He just could be so mean,” she said.

Her depiction of her marriage contrasted radically with the description by the prosecution, whose witnesses described Matthew Winkler as a good father and husband.

Matthew Winkler, 31, was fatally shot in the back. A day later, his wife was arrested about 340 miles away on the Alabama coast, driving the family minivan with her three young daughters inside.

Mary Winkler testified that her husband punched her in the face, kicked her at times and refused to grant her a divorce.

Speaking about their sex life, Winkler spoke quietly and hesitantly, with eyes downcast. She said her husband forced her to view pornography, dress “slutty” and have sex she considered unnatural.

The defense showed the jury a pair of white platform shoes and a wig Winkler said her husband wanted her to wear during sex. She described a skirt he wanted her to wear as “very, very short.” Pornographic photos she identified as coming from their home computer were entered as evidence.

The jury was expected to begin deliberations today.