Teen Found Guilty, Sentenced for Death of Mother’s Lover

1997-11-06

A teen-ager accused of stabbing her mother's lover to death was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday in Potter County

Dana Marie Contreras faced the murder charge for the January 1996 death of 36-year-old Eddie Neal Winegar. Contreras, now 17, was 15 at the time of the stabbing. She was certified to stand trial as an adult, records show.

Contreras will have to serve 20 years of her prison term before she is eligible for parole.
Murder is a first-degree felony that carries a punishment range of five to 99 years or life in prison. Contreras was eligible for probation because she had no felony record.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated about an hour in the guilt-innocence and about 1½ hours on punishment. Contreras, who had been free on bond, was taken into custody after the guilty verdict.

During the punishment phase, defense attorney Bill McKinney's voice cracked with emotion after making a plea for probation for Contreras.

About three days before the stabbing, chief prosecutor Paul Herrmann said the defendant wrote I haven't killed Neal yet in a letter to her boyfriend. The defendant testified that the statement was a figure of speech and that she wasn't planning to kill him.

Winegar, who was living with the defendant's mother in the 900 block of North Florida Street, had graduated from high school in Borger and had done electronics work for the city of Amarillo, testimony showed. He was unemployed at the time of the murder, testimony also showed.

Winegar was killed in his sleep after he rolled over in bed during the early morning of that Jan. 11, 1996, according to testimony. Dr. Randall Frost, who performed the autopsy, testified that the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest that penetrated the right ventricle of Winegar's heart and also his liver. The weapon was described as a large carving knife.

The defendant's mother, Kena Jean Andrews, testifying for the prosecution, said at about 3 a.m. Winegar rolled against her in bed, moaning. She said she unsuccessfully tried to wake him up. Moments later, she noticed
“blood all over her gown” and that Winegar "was laying there in bed in a pool of blood."

He never regained consciousness, she said.

According to defense testimony, the defendant did not remember for months that she had
been sexually abused by Winegar due to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Contreras, crying during much of her testimony, said she believed Winegar “was doing sexual things to my little sister and had the same intentions towards me”

“i wanted him to stop molesting my little sister, and I didn't want him to come after me. I was afraid he was going to be sexual with me, and I didn't want bim to . . . Iwas afraid of him. I was afraid for my little sister. And no one cared . . . My own mother didn't even lis-ten. I just wanted it to be over.”

The defendant's younger sister, who also testified in tears and paused to collect herself at one point, said that Winegar never sexually assaulted her and that she liked him. She also said that she loves her sister, who she said took care of her every day when her mother was at work and came into her bedroom at night to tell her she loved her.

Herrmann attacked defense expert testimony about sexual molestation by Winegar as lacking any credibility. Is stated in part that the defendant didn't say anything about being sexually assaulted to a homicide investigator who specifically inquired into that, and that her written statement to authorities made no reference to being molested.

Hermann also pointed out that the defendant told police the day of the killing that she stabbed Winegar.

He repeatedly suggested that sexual-abuse W testimony was concocted because Contreras didn't have a defense.

In a written statement about the stabbing, Contreras said Winegar made her mad by telling her that she needed to go to bed on the night in question. Her mother then talked to her about “getting smart.”

“I was thinking about Neal and the things that he does to make me mad," Contreras statement said. ..

I got up and went to the kitchen. I got a drink of water. There was a knife sitting there on the cabinet. I got some water. I took the water and the knife back to my room."

About an hour later, the defendant's statement says she went into the bedroom where the victim was sleeping. Wearing a mask and gloves, she saw him lying on his stomach, according to the statement

“I stopped to see if he was going to wake up. I heard him start snoring. I went up to the bed. I was thinking that I was not going to put up with it anymore. I stabbed him in the chest with the carving knife. I left the knife in him.”