BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A woman charged with killing her live-in boyfriend by bashing his head with a bowling ball was physically abused, a psychologist says.
Beverly K. Taylor, a clinical psychologist, testified Wednesday that Glendon Wininger, 41, was a battered woman who was retaliating for the beatings she had received.
'What happend to Glendon Wininger Jan. 4 was a result of increasing fear of violence,' Taylor said. But she added Wininger did not intend to kill Steven Detmer, 37, when she repeatedly dropped a bowling ball on his head.
'She was exhausted due to stress and not able to make good judgments. I do not believe, from my clinical assessment, that she thought the action through before dropping the ball the first time.'
Wininger also testified during the trial in Monroe Superior Court.
She told a jury of seven men and five women repeatedly that she loved Detmer even though she was freightened of his actions.
'I just wanted him to feel a little of my pain. I thought that might make him stop,' Wininger said.
Wininger also described a childhood during which she was beaten by her mother for staying out too late and being married at 16 to get away from home.
The marriage, she said, lasted 23 years but ended in a friendly divorce when her husband met another woman and she met Detmer.
Wininger said a $10,000 settlement received in the divorce just 'dwindled away' during an 18-month relationship with Detmer. The relationship began to deteriorate when he bagan to emotionally and physically abuse her, she said.
