A Westmoreland County judge has rejected a claim that a battered woman defense should have been used in the trial of a woman serving life in prison for a murder in Manor nearly two decades ago.
Jennifer Vinsek, 44, of Greensburg, was one of five people convicted in the 2006 fatal shooting of William Teck. Prosecutors contended the killing, along a secluded stretch of railroad tracks, was retaliation for an alleged threat of sexual assault and robbery.
Following a 2008 jury trial, Vinsek was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole. In an appeal filed in 2019, Vinsek claimed her trial counsel failed to present evidence that she suffered from battered woman’s syndrome, which she argued could have mitigated her involvement.
Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger disagreed, denying Vinsek’s request for a new trial.
“Given her trial defense, the defendant’s history of alleged abuse was not relevant nor can it form the basis for a defense at trial,” Krieger wrote in his opinion.
According to court records, Vinsek never discussed the alleged abuse with her trial lawyer. She only disclosed a history of being abused as a child and young adult during interviews with a forensic psychologist in 2020 and 2021 as part of her appeal.
The doctor, whose services were taxpayer-funded, diagnosed Vinsek with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and borderline personality disorder. The psychologist suggested Vinsek disassociated and was coerced at the time of the murder.
However, prosecutors maintained that Vinsek concocted a story that Teck had ransacked her home and threatened her with rape. Police claimed the story was devised to convince her boyfriend, Jason Maple, and three other men to lure Teck to the railroad tracks behind a Manor restaurant.
Maple, prosecutors said, chased Teck down the tracks and shot him. Vinsek’s defense at trial was that she did not participate in the shooting and was not at the scene.
Maple, 44, of Penn Township, was convicted of first-degree murder and also is serving a life sentence. Three other men pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and received lesser sentences in exchange for their cooperation.