Fontana, CA–Background: Mary Winkler–who shot her husband in the back and then refused to aid him or call 911 as he slowly bled to death for 20 minutes–walked away a free woman last summer after serving a farcically brief “sentence” for her crimes.
Mary Winkler”s claims of abuse were largely uncorroborated during the trial. According to the testimony from Matthew Winkler’s oldest daughter, Patricia, the dead father–who as he lay dying looked at his wife and asked “why?”–was a good man and did not abuse her mother.
To learn more about this horrendous injustice, see my co-authored column No child custody for husband-killer Mary Winkler (World Net Daily, 9/14/07), or click here.
I think Bertha Martinez (pictured) is going to need Mary Winkler’s defense attorney–she was arrested and is being held on suspicion of murdering her disabled husband and her two kids.
Police say the couple had financial problems and had had trouble in their marriage, separating a year ago and then getting back together. I can hardly wait to hear Bertha explain how that monstrous 58-year-old disabled man beat, abused, and imprisoned a healthy 35-year-old woman, and why that necessitated her killing him and, um, killing their kids, too.
I bet her family is sitting there getting their stories straight right now–“OK, let’s practice–Bertha came over here screaming because…because…her husband was…uh…beating her, yes, that’s it, that’s what works–all together now ‘He was beating her’…”
Mom arrested in triple slaying
1/21/08
By RICHARD BROOKS
The Press-Enterprise
FONTANA – A 35-year-old Fontana woman is behind bars on suspicion of murdering her 58-year-old disabled husband and her two daughters, ages 7 years and 8 months, Fontana police said this morning.
Bertha Martinez went to a friend’s home about 10 a.m. Sunday and said her children were purple from the neck up, Sgt. Jeff Decker said. Officers were dispatched to check on the family and found the bodies of Marcelo Martinez and the couple’s children, 7-year-old Amy Martinez and 8-month-old Yomay Martinez.
The children were dead in their beds, apparently victims of strangulation or suffocation, Decker said. Their father was dead on the family room floor with head injuries from an apparent beating, the sergeant said.
Marcelo Martinez was a former warehouse worker who was disabled by a back injury, police said.
The motive for the killings remains unclear, Decker said.
The family lived in the rear unit of a modest duplex on Orange Way. A swing set with a red slide is in the backyard.
Alicia Camacho, who lives in an apartment complex next door to the Martinez home, said she met Marcelo Martinez once when he came over to tell her that her children were throwing rocks and balls at his house.
Speaking through her daughter Laura Camacho, who translated from Spanish, Alicia Camacho said that, despite the situation, he was pleasant. She never met Bertha Martinez and said the family kept to itself. She never saw the children playing outside.
Camacho, 45, said she heard no disturbances from the house except for Friday, when she heard what appeared to be an argument.
Another neighbor, 30-year-old Alejandra Mendosa, who also spoke through Laura Camacho, said her daughter went to school with Amy. She used to see Bertha Martinez walking to school with Amy, holding her hand. The little girl always had a doll in her arm, she said.
“She was like a real pretty little girl,” Mendosa said.