Matthew Lewinski’s statements to detectives survived an appellate challenge before a jury convicted him of killing Courtney “Jerri” Winters.
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Long before a Michigan judge sentenced Matthew Lewinski to life without parole for murdering his former girlfriend, the prosecution nearly lost one of its most consequential pieces of evidence: statements Lewinski made while lying in an intensive-care hospital bed as detectives questioned him about Courtney “Jerri” Winters.
The dispute over that July 2021 interview became a defining legal chapter in a case that did not reach a jury until May 2026. A trial judge suppressed Lewinski’s incriminating statements after finding problems with questioning that began before detectives advised him of his Miranda rights. Prosecutors appealed, and the issue traveled through Michigan’s appellate system. The Court of Appeals ultimately reversed the suppression order in October 2024, allowing the statements back into the case. Less than two years later, a jury convicted Lewinski of first-degree premeditated murder, disinterment and mutilation of a dead body, and concealing a death.
On July 14, 2026, Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Rachel Rancilio sentenced Lewinski, 42, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Winters, 52. He also received a minimum of 23 months for disinterment and mutilation of a dead body and 365 days for concealing a death. The sentences brought a trial-court conclusion to a prosecution that had been pending since 2021, when Winters’ remains were found in the basement of Lewinski’s Clinton Township condominium.
The circumstances that produced the disputed interview began outside the homicide investigation. On July 26, 2021, neighbors reported that Lewinski was wandering around the condominium complex wearing only underwear and appearing confused or incoherent, according to the published Court of Appeals decision. Emergency personnel took him to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital. He was admitted to the intensive care unit for medical evaluation. Police had not taken him there as a homicide suspect, and the appellate record says the original concern involved his erratic behavior and possible medical causes.
While Lewinski remained hospitalized, his sister and other family members entered his condominium. According to later testimony, they had gone inside while looking for a ceramic Christmas decoration. In the basement they instead found human remains and contacted authorities. Police identified the victim as Winters, Lewinski’s former girlfriend. Prosecutors said she had been killed in December 2020 and that her body had remained inside the home for roughly seven months. Authorities said Lewinski initially kept the body in a bathtub before moving it downstairs and later removed portions of the remains in an effort to conceal or dispose of them.
Detectives Michael Chirco and Joseph Burns arrived at Lewinski’s hospital room on July 28. The Court of Appeals described Lewinski as lying in bed in a hospital gown with intravenous fluids and medical monitoring equipment attached to him. He was not handcuffed. The detectives stood near the end of the bed, and one stood between the bed and the doorway. They began asking questions without first giving Miranda warnings. During the interview, Lewinski described choking Winters until she was unresponsive and discussed keeping her body inside the condominium, according to the appellate decision.
About 40 minutes into the interview, one detective contacted an assistant prosecutor. Burns then advised Lewinski of his Miranda rights. Lewinski signed a waiver and continued talking. That sequence created the issue that would occupy the courts for years: whether Lewinski had already been in police custody, in the constitutional sense, when the detectives obtained incriminating statements before reading him his rights. Lewinski argued that a patient confined to an intensive-care bed, surrounded by equipment and questioned by armed detectives, would not reasonably believe he could simply end the encounter and leave.
The trial court agreed with the defense and suppressed the statements. Prosecutors challenged that decision, but the path to appellate review was lengthy. The Michigan Court of Appeals initially declined to hear the matter. The prosecution then went to the Michigan Supreme Court, which in 2024 sent the case back to the Court of Appeals for consideration. The litigation effectively placed the homicide prosecution on hold while judges addressed the constitutional question raised by the hospital interview.
In its Oct. 28, 2024, published decision, the Court of Appeals reversed the suppression order. The court acknowledged circumstances weighing toward Lewinski not feeling free to leave, including his medical condition, the placement of the detectives and the fact that he had not initially been told he could terminate the interview. But the panel separately examined whether the setting carried the inherently coercive pressure associated with custodial interrogation. It concluded that the questioning was not unduly coercive and that Lewinski was therefore not in custody for Miranda purposes during the pre-warning portion of the interview.
That ruling did not decide whether Lewinski was guilty. It resolved whether the prosecution could use the statements at trial. The criminal case later proceeded before Rancilio. Macomb County prosecutors said the evidence showed Lewinski strangled Winters inside his condominium in December 2020 after the former couple argued. Law&Crime reported that prosecutors said the two had ended their relationship about a month before the encounter. The killing was followed by months in which Winters’ death was not reported and her remains stayed inside Lewinski’s home.
A one-week jury trial culminated May 21, 2026, when jurors returned guilty verdicts on every charge. First-degree premeditated murder carried a life-without-parole sentence. The jury also convicted Lewinski of the two crimes tied to what happened to Winters’ body after her death. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Carmen DeFranco handled the case for the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. By the time of the verdict, Lewinski had been jailed without bond since July 30, 2021.
At sentencing, the legal argument over the hospital interview gave way to the consequences of the crime for Winters’ family. Rancilio told the courtroom she had “never seen anything like this,” according to Law&Crime. Lewinski did not address the court. Winters’ brother, Jeremy Winters, spoke about the loss his family had carried. Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido later said the sentence marked the final chapter in a long pursuit of justice and expressed hope that the resolution would provide some measure of closure.
Now subject to a sentence that does not permit parole on the murder conviction, along with the additional terms imposed for the treatment and concealment of Winters’ remains, Lewinski was also ordered to have no contact with her family. A prosecution once stalled by a constitutional fight over questioning in an ICU ultimately ended with the challenged statements restored, a jury verdict on all three charges and a sentence requiring Lewinski to remain imprisoned for life.
Author note: Last updated August 21, 2026.