SELMER, Tenn. — The wife of a Tennessee preacher who claims she killed her husband after enduring years of abuse received a three-year sentence Friday, including probation.

Because of allowances for probation, time served and some confinement in a mental health facility, Mary Winkler could spend little more than a week in prison.

Judge Weber McCraw ordered that Winkler be confined for 210 days of her sentence, but allowed 60 of those days to be spent in a mental health facility.

Because Winkler already served five months in prison while awaiting trial, she might only serve the final 60 days of her sentence in a mental health facility. (VIDEO)

Winkler, 33, was convicted in April of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Matthew Winkler in the back while he was in bed. The jury opted not to convict her of first-degree murder, which could have carried a 55-year sentence.

Story continues

McCraw delivered his sentence before a standing-room-only courtroom filled with members of the community and relatives of Matthew and Mary Winkler.

Addressing the court, Winkler apologized to her in-laws and urged others suffering from domestic abuse to seek outside help.

"I didn't feel like I had anywhere to turn. I wasn't strong enough and I think about it every day, how I failed him," Winkler said, reading from a yellow legal pad, as her lawyer stood next to her.

Addressing the judge, Winkler said she would accept his decision, even while asking for mercy.

"Whatever sentence you give me cannot punish me enough for what I've been through," Winkler said with her lawyer standing next to her. "I've lost my children, I've lost my freedom and had my life put on public display."

Winkler's statement in court marked the second time she has spoken in her defense since her trial began earlier this year.

Taking the witness stand in her trial, Winkler accused her husband of using mental and physical abuse to control all aspects of her life, from what she did to how she dressed. She also accused him of subjecting her to sexual acts against her will, including anal sex and role playing.

Juror Amy Mullins, a college student, said she attended the sentencing hearing to "show support" for the defendant. She said she thought the sentence was fair, but would have preferred that McCraw spare Winkler time in custody.

"She served time already before the trial and plus, she'd been in her own prison, so to speak, for so many years during the marriage," Mullins said. "I believed that she did not plan the shooting, that it was her way of protecting herself."

McNairy County assistant district attorney Walt Freeland asked for the maximum sentence of six years, emphasizing the vulnerability of the victim, who was lying in bed when his wife shot him in the back, and her abuse of a "position of trust."

"Here we have a situation where a man is asleep in his marital bedroom with his children in the house," Freeland said in closing remarks to the judge. "Surely there was a situation of trust."

Winkler's lawyers asked the judge to consider alternatives to incarceration, such as full probation or judicial diversion, which would have spared Winkler incarceration and resulted in her conviction being expunged from her record.