In Michigan, Matthew Lewinski was convicted after a case that began with a 2020 killing and included a lengthy dispute over his hospital statements.

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — A Michigan man convicted of strangling his former girlfriend and keeping her remains inside his Clinton Township condominium for months was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, closing a case that stretched from the discovery of the victim in 2021 to a jury verdict nearly five years later.

Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Rachel Rancilio sentenced Matthew Lewinski, 42, on July 14 after a jury found him guilty in May of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of 52-year-old Courtney “Jerri” Winters. He was also convicted of disinterment and mutilation of a dead body and concealing the death of an individual. In addition to the life sentence, the judge imposed a minimum term of 23 months on the disinterment and mutilation conviction and 365 days on the concealment count. Lewinski was also ordered to have no contact with Winters’ family.

The sentencing hearing focused not only on Winters’ death but on what happened afterward. Prosecutors said Lewinski killed Winters inside his home in December 2020, initially left her body in a bathtub and later moved her remains to the basement. Authorities said he removed portions of the remains over the following months in an effort to conceal and dispose of them. The body was not discovered until July 27, 2021, when members of Lewinski’s family entered the condominium while he was hospitalized. The prolonged concealment became a central part of both the criminal charges and the family’s statements about the harm caused by the crime.

Rancilio addressed that harm directly in court. Law&Crime, which attended the sentencing, reported that the judge told Lewinski, “I have never seen anything like this.” She emphasized that Winters’ relatives would have to live not only with the fact that she had been killed but also with knowledge of how her body had been treated afterward. Lewinski declined to speak at sentencing. Winters’ brother, Jeremy Winters, told the court that the loss had taken a lasting piece of the family from them.

The case began in December 2020, when Winters went to Lewinski’s condominium after the former couple had been separated for about a month, according to prosecutors and testimony described in court reporting. Authorities said an argument developed inside the home and became physical. Lewinski strangled Winters in an armchair. He then kept her body inside the residence rather than reporting her death. Prosecutors later described a progression from the bathtub to the basement, where the remains stayed through the winter, spring and much of the following summer.

The crime came to light after an unrelated medical emergency involving Lewinski. Court records show that neighbors called police on July 26, 2021, after seeing him wandering around the condominium complex in his underwear while appearing confused or incoherent. Emergency personnel took him to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit. The following day, family members entered the condominium. Lewinski’s sister, Debra Federico, later said the family was looking for a ceramic Christmas decoration. Instead, they encountered human remains in the basement and contacted police.

Detectives Michael Chirco and Joseph Burns went to the hospital on July 28 and questioned Lewinski. Their interview would later become one of the most important legal issues in the prosecution. According to the Michigan Court of Appeals, Lewinski was in a hospital bed, connected to medical equipment and receiving intravenous fluids. The detectives did not initially advise him of his Miranda rights. During the early part of the interview, Lewinski made incriminating statements about Winters’ death and the handling of her body. About 40 minutes into the interview, Burns advised him of his rights after consulting an assistant prosecutor, and Lewinski signed a waiver and continued speaking.

That hospital interview helped delay the case for years. Lewinski sought to suppress his statements, arguing that he had been subjected to custodial interrogation before receiving Miranda warnings. A Macomb County circuit judge agreed and excluded the statements. Prosecutors appealed. The dispute ultimately reached Michigan’s appellate courts, with the Michigan Supreme Court directing the Court of Appeals to consider the prosecution’s challenge. In October 2024, the Court of Appeals reversed the suppression ruling. The appellate panel concluded that, although a reasonable person in Lewinski’s circumstances might not have felt free to leave, the questioning did not create the kind of inherently coercive environment that triggered Miranda protections before the warnings were given.

With the statements restored to the case, the prosecution eventually moved toward trial. Lewinski had been held without bond at the Macomb County Jail since July 30, 2021. A jury trial began in May 2026 before Rancilio and lasted about a week. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Carmen DeFranco tried the case for the county. On May 21, jurors convicted Lewinski on all three charges: first-degree premeditated murder, disinterment and mutilation of a dead body, and concealing a death.

The murder conviction carried the most severe consequence. Under the charge on which the jury convicted him, Lewinski faced life without parole. The other crimes addressed his treatment and concealment of Winters’ remains after the killing. Macomb County prosecutors said the body was first placed in a bathtub and then taken to the basement. They said Lewinski removed portions of the remains while trying to conceal or dispose of them. Those allegations had been part of the case since shortly after the remains were found and were ultimately resolved by the jury’s guilty verdicts.

Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido described the sentencing as the end of a long effort to obtain justice for Winters and her family. The prosecutor’s office noted that the case had remained active for years as the parties litigated the admissibility of Lewinski’s hospital statements before a jury was able to decide the charges. The nearly five-year period between Lewinski’s arrest and conviction was therefore not simply an extended wait for trial; it included a significant appellate dispute over how constitutional protections apply when police question a hospitalized suspect who has not initially received Miranda warnings.

The sentence left no possibility that Lewinski could later be released on parole for the murder conviction. Rancilio imposed the life-without-parole term and the additional sentences after hearing from the victim’s family and reviewing the jury’s verdicts. The court also barred Lewinski from contacting Winters’ relatives. Nearly six years after Winters was killed and five years after her remains were discovered, the trial-court case ended with Lewinski convicted on every charge brought against him and ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Author note: Last updated August 21, 2026.