Winkler v. Superior Court
In this proceeding, the People requested the trial court remove retained defense counsel, David Weiner (retained counsel), from representing petitioner Todd Winkler (defendant) because the People believed retained counsel had an “appearance of [] conflict.†Retained counsel was representing defendant on charges he had murdered his wife.
A possible witness at the murder trial was Dean Essenmacher. Essenmacher spoke to the victim the evening before she was killed and told him the following: she was planning to fax divorce papers to her lawyer the next day; she was afraid of defendant; and she needed to get a restraining order because one week prior, defendant had told her she would end up like his second wife. Many months prior to this conversation, the victim told Essenmacher she thought defendant killed his second wife.
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