‘I saw my dad stabbing my mom': Eight years after grisly California killing, son testifies at trial

San Francisco Chronicle​

4 days ago

STOCKTON — As the first witness in the long-awaited trial of accused killer Daniel Winkler took the stand Tuesday, his eyes rested on the defendant, his father, who he hadn't seen since the night he watched his mother die nearly eight years earlier.
The 13 year old told the court about how, on the night of Aug. 12, 2017, he was watching YouTube in his parents' bed and heard his mother yelling.
'I got up and walked over to see what was happening,' he testified, his voice barely a whisper over the courtroom speaker.
'What did you see?' the prosecutor asked.
'I saw my dad stabbing my mom,' the teen said.
Angenai Terlouw, according to the autopsy report, was stabbed 21 times in the shower as her then 5-year-old son watched. Their daughter, 3, was with grandparents that night. Police arrested Winkler the next day. He has been in custody since.
Winkler has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
The case has been beset by delays for the past eight years, frustrating Terlouw's family, who said the wait for justice in her killing has left them unable to mourn the sister, daughter and mother. Nearly 100 hearings and countless procedural issues have dragged the case out, but as the Chronicle reported in April, it's one of many across California that stretch on for years despite a state law guaranteeing speedy trials for victims and their families.
The cases take a heavy toll on victims' families and the judicial system, waste taxpayer funds and undermine public faith in the ability of the courts to effectively mete out justice.
In Winkler's case, many of the delays stem from claims of delusions and other symptoms of mental illness that judges have twice determined he was faking or exaggerating. But there have been other delays, including inefficiencies in scheduling, unavailability of experts, three different county district attorneys overseeing the case, vacations and COVID.
Three previous trial dates were set over the years, only to be cancelled.
The case is one of the most gruesome cases in recent memory in San Joaquin County.
Terlouw was stabbed twice in the chest, 12 times in the stomach and five times in the face and neck, the knife slicing through her larynx. A wound to her right wrist exposed the bone, and her left palm was slashed. She had cuts and bruises from the top of her head to her toes.
Officers summoned to the home found blood on the bathroom walls and pooled in the tub. About 1½ miles away, police found Terlouw's body. She had been folded in half, bound with duct tape in a tarp and a pink baby blanket, and stuffed face down in a green trash bin.
Winkler's father led police to the garbage can after his son showed him where he had put her body, according to witness statements in 2017.
On Tuesday, three of Terlouw's six siblings were present to watch the trial start. Two others were expected to take the stand later and were barred from the courtroom until then.
The oldest sibling, Thea Michelle Earl, said all the pre-trial hearings and the waiting felt like torture and the first day of trial was 'a relief.'
At the same time, watching her 13-year-old nephew take the stand tied her stomach in knots.
The teen testified that his dad had blood all over his shirt, which he put in the washing machine. The boy also said he remembered walking close to the shower and seeing his mom there.
'She was dead,' he testified Tuesday. 'I saw her body.'
He testified that his dad then started crying.
'Was your dad saying anything at the time?' the prosecutor asked.
'He said, 'What did I do?'' the teen responded from the witness stand.
While the teen remembered many of the significant parts of what happened that night, he said he didn't remember many of the details he told investigators two days after the murder.
He remembered hearing his dad say, 'I killed Angi,' to his Grandpa Winkler, but he didn't recall his father telling him not to tell anyone what he saw — which was in his statement in 2017.
'I don't remember,' he said.
'I have no memory of that,' he said to questions about his father saying he had a mess to clean up.
He repeated that he couldn't remember several times on the witness stand.
Earl said that watching her nephew testify that he couldn't remember 'just felt like it wasn't fair.'
'If this had come sooner, he would have been able to answer,' she said. 'It's not fair to him. It's not fair to us. How can you remember something eight years later when you're a kid?'
Daniel's father, Gary Winkler, took the stand later in the day, describing the hours he spent with his son before Terlouw's death and then the hours the next morning driving around Stockton trying to convince Daniel to tell him what happened to Angi. But the elder Winkler's memory also lapsed at times given the intervening years, with no recollection of what he told investigators in 2017.
He testified he couldn't remember whether Daniel was acting out of the ordinary that evening.
Gary Winkler testified that he didn't remember the exact words his son used when he came back early on the morning of Aug. 13.
'Maybe Angi's dead or something,' he said.
But he also testified that Daniel told him he murdered Angi and that he 'believed' he said 'he had stabbed her.'
After driving around the city, Daniel eventually directed his father to a street in North Stockton and pointed to a garbage can, the elder Winkler testified.
'I just saw the trash ca as we were driving by,' he said in court. 'I did not stop.'
He testified he then convinced his son to turn himself in to police, which he said he did.
The trial is expected to last through at least mid-July, with planned breaks for scheduled vacations and holidays.
In opening statements earlier Tuesday, the prosecution said they would be arguing for a first degree murder conviction.
'This case is about choices,' the prosecutor said, 'before, during and after he killed his fiance and mother of his two children, stabbing her over 21 times.'
The defense, in opening statements, did not claim Winkler had not killed Terlouw, but rather that he has been plagued by delusions, paranoia and hallucinations for most of his life and has recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
'Keep your mind open,' the public defender told the jury.