Mount Clemens — Matthew Lewinski lived with the dead body of his girlfriend in Clinton Township for nearly eight months before a family member discovered it and reported the body to police.
The 42-year-old confessed to police in late July 2021 that he had strangled Jerri Winters a few days before Christmas, left her body to decompose in his basement and cut her body up, disposing of pieces in a nearby restaurant’s dumpster.
Lewinski told police while he was in the hospital that Winters slapped him and when he turned around and straddled her, trapping the woman in the chair, she bit him.
After slapping Winters across the face, “I put my hands on her throat,” Lewinski told police, according to video played during his jury trial, which ended with closing arguments Wednesday. “My intent was not to do what I did. My intent was to really scare her.”
The Macomb County jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon to determine if Lewinski is guilty of first-degree murder, disinterment and mutilation of a dead body as well as concealing the death of an individual.
Lewinski’s attorneys did not contest the second two charges, only the first-degree murder charge.
The jury can choose to find Lewinski guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder. The manslaughter charge carries up to 15 years in prison, while the murder charge leads to a life-in-prison sentence.
Lewinski told police Winters was “egging me on” while he had his hands around her neck for five minutes. Assistant Prosecutor Carmen DeFranco said this couldn’t be the case, as an expert who testified in the trial said Winters would have lost consciousness in seconds with constant pressure.
Clinton Township Detective Michael Chirco testified that a large portion of Winters’ back flesh, from the base of her neck down to her buttocks, had been removed, making organs and bones visible.
Elisha Oakes, Lewinski’s attorney, said he is not guilty of first-degree murder. She asked the jury to convict Lewinski of voluntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder.
Oakes said Lewinski is a victim of domestic violence by Winters, who had been abusing him for months.
“She pushed him to a point, and he snapped,” Oakes said. “It was months of abuse that led up to one poor decision.”
Friends and family said Winters was aggressive, controlling and taking advantage of Lewinski. One said they often saw Winters screaming at Lewinski, but never the opposite. Oakes said two officers testified that Winters threatened to “blow (Lewinski’s) brains out.”
“If you believe she was strangled and that was her cause of death, you need to look at everything,” Oakes said.
Lewinski told police, “I wish I could take the whole thing back with her.”
“It was not my intent for what happened to happen. I was scared…,” Lewinski said. “She made me feel suicidal. … I just snapped.”
To finish his closing arguments, DeFranco put a photo of Winters’ smiling face on the screen in the courtroom.
“He was staring into that face for five minutes, squeezing the life out of her,” DeFranco said. “Is that enough time to reflect? Let’s take two minutes.”
DeFranco set a timer on the screen and stood in silence for two minutes, Winters’ photo on the screen, slowly fading to black.
“In that two minutes, you watched that picture of Jerri fade from the screen. It took more than double that time for him to watch her life fade from her body,” DeFranco said. “That’s premeditation, that’s deliberation, that’s intent to kill, that’s premeditated murder.”
kberg@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Jury to decide fate of Clinton Twp. man who lived with dead girlfriend for 7 months
Reporting by Kara Berg, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
