Winger trial breaks family ties
Anne Warfield
Winger trial breaks family ties
Emotions mixed for once-close in-laws
By SARAH ANTONACCI
STAFF WRITER
Some of the most compelling aspects of the recently completed Mark
Winger murder trial had nothing to do with the performance of the
lawyers, what witnesses had to say or even decisions made by the judge
or jurors.
The dynamics of the families involved were riveting.
At one point, the families of Mark and Donnah Winger were in-laws, and
close ones at that.
The killings of Donnah and airport shuttle driver Roger Harrington at
the Wingers' Westview Drive home on Aug. 29, 1995, for a while made
the families even closer in some ways since both had suffered a
horrible loss.
For four years, Donnah's parents and family thought Roger had
violently murdered their daughter. Members of Donnah's family readily
accepted Mark's new wife and happily baby-sat for Bailey, the infant
daughter Mark and Donnah had adopted before her death.
In 1999, however, police began to suspect that Mark Winger had lured
Harrington to the couple's home, shot him and bludgeoned his own wife.
The revelations shattered what once was a complicated family - both of
Donnah's parents had divorced and remarried - but a loving one, united
by the grief that Donnah's relatives assumed they shared with Mark
Winger.
New alliances became apparent during the three weeks of day-after-day
testimony in Winger's trial, which ended in Mark Winger being
convicted of the two killings.
Donnah's family - her mother, stepfather, father, stepmother, two
sisters and others - sat in the front row of the courtroom behind the
prosecutors every day.
Roger Harrington's mother, father, sister and others sat in the row
behind them.
Every now and then they'd exchange a touch, a look, a kind word that
showed they were sharing the pain of a lost loved one.
"When we came here in August and met them on the fourth floor of this
building, I felt so much compassion for the Harringtons. They are
wonderful people with so much pain," said Sara Jane Drescher, Donnah's
mother, after the verdict Wednesday.
"People feel compassion for us, but we feel it even more for them,"
said Ira Drescher, Sara Jane's husband. "For them to go through such
pain and agony related to their son was horrendous, and this was
justice."
Ralph and Helen Harrington shed a lot of tears after the verdict but
said little publicly - other than that they were relieved and that
they felt seven years was a long time to wait for their son's name to
be cleared.
On the other side of the courtroom for those same three weeks, Mark's
brother, mother, father, mother-in-law, current wife and
brother-in-law sat in the first row behind the defense table.
Few glances and even fewer words were exchanged between them and
Donnah's family.
"Before we came, my family was anxious about seeing Mark," said Jenny
Levin, Donnah's sister. "I wanted to have him look at us and say, 'I
didn't do this. I love you. Help me. I'm on your side.' He never did.
He never looked our way."
After the verdict, Mark's family left the courtroom through a rear
exit. They have said nothing about the decision.
The Dreschers said they came to the trial hoping the evidence would
clear their former son-in-law of the crime - that they'd be able to
think of him the same way again.
"We were hoping against hope all of this could be explained," Sara
Jane said. "There's so much sadness here.
"The Winger family, I feel sorry for them. They were wonderful people,
wonderful to Donnah. I loved them for loving her."
Levin and Donnah's other sister, Michelle Hansen, thought of Mark as
their brother, Sara Jane said, even after Donnah's death.
In fact, Levin said, Mark's current wife, Rebecca, was thinking about
becoming a teacher, and Mark told Rebecca to call Levin for advice
because Levin is a teacher.
When Mark and Rebecca went on a vacation to celebrate their wedding,
Hansen baby-sat for Bailey, who was 3 months old when Donnah was
murdered.
Cash Brown, Donnah's father, and his wife, Elayne, said they didn't
harbor the same sentimental feelings for Mark after Donnah died.
"I didn't think he showed any remorse for Donnah after her death. It
bothered (Elayne and me) from the start," Cash said. "I can understand
what Jenny and Michelle did because they loved Mark like a brother."
Levin said she was shocked in 1999 to find out Mark might have been
involved in her sister's death, but that the news was initially
overshadowed.
"When my mother told me about this, she started telling me about the
affair and then said Mark is a suspect in the murder," Levin said.
"The fact that he was a suspect went right over my head.
"I always said that my sisters got the last two great guys, and I felt
so betrayed that he'd do that to Donnah," Levin said.
"The affair" Levin mentioned was one between Mark and DeAnn Schultz,
who Donnah had considered one of her best friends.
Schultz told police in 1999 that she was having an affair with Mark
when Donnah was killed and that he'd made what she felt were
incriminating comments to her about Donnah's and Roger's deaths.
Schultz also stayed close to Donnah's family for several years. She
had plans to visit them in Florida about the time Donnah's family
found out about the affair.
The trip was canceled.
For the past several years, Donnah's family has thought about the fact
that Schultz kept in touch with them even after betraying Donnah with
the affair. It was a hard pill to swallow.
It was strange, then, for Donnah's family when Schultz came to figure
so prominently in Mark's murder trial. The prosecution put her on the
stand to talk about the affair and statements Mark made to her. Her
testimony spoke to Mark's character.
"I felt betrayed by her and also was hoping she'd do a good job,"
Levin said of Schultz's testimony. "She did such a great job. It must
have been extremely difficult for her to do."
Levin said she considers Schultz's testimony a kind of repayment to
Donnah in death for what Schultz had done to her while she was alive.
But it didn't redeem Schultz in Levin's eyes.
"I think it makes it better. I don't know if I believe in redemption,
but it makes it better."
Sarah Antonacci can be reached at 788-1529 or
sarah.a...@sj-r.com.
© Copyright 2002, The State Journal-Register
http://www.sj-r.com/extras/winger/0610.htm
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/