SELMER, Tenn. — One day after Mary Winkler allegedly shot her pastor husband in the back, the Tennessee housewife said there was "no excuse" for what she had done in a statement that jurors heard Friday in her first-degree murder trial.

"He was a mighty fine person, and that's the thing. There's no sense, you know, Fox News saying some hick town lady did this because he was mean," Winkler sobbed in an audiotaped statement taken the night she was arrested for the death of her husband, Matthew Winkler. "There's no poor me, I'm in control."

Winkler, 33, sobbed quietly at the defense table as she listened to the hour-long statement, which she gave to investigators in Orange Beach, Ala., on March 23, 2006.

McNairy County prosecutors claim that Winkler intentionally shot her husband in the back as he lay in bed on the morning of March 22, 2006, the same day the couple was supposed to meet with bank officials about a check-kiting scheme that Winkler allegedly became involved in.

But lawyers for Winkler claim the gun went off accidentally during a moment of extreme emotion stemming from her husband's constant physical and emotional abuse.

Story continues

During testimony Friday, defense lawyer Steve Farese spent four hours dissecting the statement, in an apparent attempt to extract examples of Winkler as a remorseful widow and concerned mother instead of the cold, calculating killer that prosecutors have sought to portray her as.

The difference between the two could mean a conviction on a lesser charge for Winkler, who faces 51 years in prison before she is eligible for parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

The former substitute schoolteacher was arrested in a Winn-Dixie parking lot more than 400 miles from the town of Selmer, Tenn., where she had lived with her husband and three daughters in the parsonage of the Fourth Street Church of Christ.

In the back of the vehicle, among a jumble of toys, baby seats and backpacks, authorities found the 12-gauge shotgun belonging to her husband that Winkler used to kill him.

During the interrogation, Winkler told the investigators that she wanted to spend time with her three young daughters on the beach for one last "happy day" before handing them over to her in-laws and figuring out where to go from there.

At the beginning of the interview, Winkler said her marriage was "good" and denied that her husband abused her.

She was reluctant to provide specifics about the shooting, which she described as a "blur," responding "I don't know" or "no comment" when asked what provoked the incident.

"There's no sense in blaming some, on somebody else," Winkler said, explaining her reluctance to elaborate. "No matter what, in the end ... I don't want him smeared."