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Susan Winters case: coroner changes cause from suicide to undetermined

An Oklahoma City couple who never believed their daughter killed herself 2 years agone is now looking ahead to a court date for her husband, who was arrested recently in connectedness with her murder.

They published their daughter's photo in an advertizing Tuesday in The Oklahoman marking what would have been her 51st altogether.

On January. 3, 2015, only before vii a.m., police officers and medical personnel in Henderson, Nevada, were dispatched to the dwelling of Susan Winters, a 48-year-old University of Oklahoma graduate who became a lawyer and moved west to take a job with the Clark Canton District Attorney's function in Las Vegas.

They constitute Winters unresponsive and not breathing in the home she rented with her hubby, 54-year-one-time psychologist Gregory Brent Dennis, who grew up in Blanchard and played defensive back for the University of Tulsa from 1980 to 1983. The couple had been married for 19 years, separated on at least ane occasion, and were rearing two daughters.

As emergency responders worked to salve Winters' life, Dennis told them she was depressed and threatened to commit suicide, according to a Henderson Police Section declaration of abort.

Dennis speculated that his wife may accept ingested anti-depressant drugs and antifreeze, according to the declaration. Medical personnel were able to become her pulse, and Winters was transported to a local hospital. She later on was pronounced dead.

The Clark County Coroner's Office ruled officially that Winters, a graduate of Blanchard Loftier Schoolhouse, killed herself with a deadly cocktail of prescription painkillers and antifreeze, which contains the poisonous ingredient ethylene glycol.

Dennis after told authorities he and Winters had been drinking throughout the previous mean solar day, and he suspected his wife had mixed her drinks with anxiety medication. A detective found on the family computer several searches related to the ingestion of antifreeze.

Her parents, Avis and Danny Winters, who run several Sonic Bulldoze-in franchises, refused to believe their girl, who had get a office-time approximate in North Las Vegas, would accept her own life.

She didn't leave a suicide note. There were no medication bottles in her bedroom, and there were no antifreeze bottles in the sleeping room or the house, according to the arrest report. Subsequently on the same twenty-four hours, Dennis speculated that peradventure a previous resident left the antifreeze behind. He went to the garage and showed a detective two bottles of antifreeze and said he found them after he returned from the hospital, according to the report.

Suspecting their son-in-constabulary, the grieving parents hired private investigators to track Dennis in the months afterwards their girl'south death. As they pushed for law enforcement to take another look at the case, the couple too filed a lawsuit confronting Dennis, blaming him for their daughter'due south decease, saying his motives were financial in nature, and seeking to recover $two 1000000 in life insurance and inheritance coin he had collected later on Winters died.

"Nosotros were disappointed at the legal organisation, we were disappointed that the people in accuse do non read testify before them, we were disappointed that the Henderson law did not practice any investigation, and the Clark County Coroner'south Part but accepted what they were told past Brent," Avis Winters said.

In Baronial, Dennis received discover that he was the subject of a m jury investigation. In December, Henderson police used search warrants at Dennis' home and his Boulder Metropolis health dispensary. Prosecutors began calling witnesses in the grand jury investigation.

On February. ii at 7:xxx a.m., during a traffic stop near his habitation, police arrested Dennis on suspicion of open murder with a deadly weapon. Winters' parents say the abort was the fruit of their persistence, later on regime had closed the instance soon after their daughter's death.

"There was no investigation by anybody, and it'southward solely because my husband Danny and I knew Susan wouldn't do this," Avis Winters said.

'He wanted her money'

Susan Winters was built-in in Altus on March 14, 1966. She played softball for the 1983 Class 3A land softball champion Blanchard High School Lions.

Winters earned a caste in political science from OU, and went on to written report law at that place. She briefly skilful law in Oklahoma Urban center before moving to Nevada and taking a task with the Clark County District Attorney'southward part in Las Vegas. She after entered individual exercise and became a office-time judge.

Both having emerged from divorces, Winters married Dennis in August 1995 and the couple had 2 daughters by the spring of 2002.

Known for her love of family, good books, and Elvis Presley, Winters oftentimes returned to Oklahoma to visit relatives and friends. She was an avid runner, and was quick-witted, her female parent said. Before her decease, she started working equally an attorney for the family unit business, Winters Restaurant Grouping.

Described by her family as full of life and devoted to her children, her wedlock to Dennis had been fraying. In 2013, the couple separated and Dennis moved out of the family unit home while they discussed divorce. Winters sought counseling from licensed professionals. The couple somewhen reconciled.

Police Det. Ryan Adams noted in his annunciation of arrest that Winters, based on a psychiatrist'due south reports, battled low and feet. Friends related that Winters periodically discussed suicide, but never acted on those thoughts. Family unit and friends reported that Winters was in a good frame of mind during Christmas 2014, simply before her death.

In group text messages to friends on Oct. 14 and Oct. fifteen, 2014, an plain upset Winters claimed that Dennis was either having an affair or was gay, because he did non desire to have sex with her, according to the arrest announcement.

After Winters' expiry, her parents hired a retired FBI special agent and licensed private investigator to track Dennis. From Jan. ix, 2015, to March 27, 2015, the agent and other investigators observed Dennis on 15 dissimilar days.

Investigators watched Dennis travel to a hotel on 4 occasions, meeting with convicted drug dealer Jeffrey Crosby, sitting in his own vehicle with his head down, coming up and rubbing his nose, deportment investigators establish "consistent with a person using drugs," Adams wrote. Like conduct occurred from Aug. 18, 2015, to Sept. four, 2015, co-ordinate to the arrest written report.

During a 13-month menstruation leading into February 2015, nearly a month after Winters died, Dennis' telephone records showed more than 3,900 contacts between his phone and Crosby'southward telephone, according to the declaration.

Adams said in his report that an investigation into Crosby led to his July 2016 arrest for trafficking cocaine, and that he had often supplied Dennis with the drug. Dennis was not shy virtually discussing his "recreational" drug utilise with the Winters family, and even asked members for their prescription narcotics, Adams wrote.

Dennis allegedly received prescription painkillers from his ain patients. When he was arrested, Dennis had iii painkiller pills in his right front end pants pocket, according to Adams.

"It was well known among family and friends that Dennis had a substance corruption addiction," Adams wrote in his proclamation of arrest.

Avis Winters said Dennis knew he was on the brink of losing everything.

"I believe that Susan learned that Brent was using their money to do the drugs," Winters said. "Susan said she was going to plow him in to the psychology board and he would lose his license, and he didn't desire that, and he wanted her money."

The declaration of arrest draws heavily from a special private investigative report prepared past former Clark Canton District Attorney David Roger. On April 18, 2016, the written report was delivered to Adams, the detective. The report was attached to an affidavit of Anthony Sgro, a constabulary partner of Roger's, and lawyer for Avis and Danny Winters.

The report claimed to prove the motives Dennis had for allegedly murdering his wife. Henderson police reopened their investigation.

On Jan. 5, 2015, ii days after Winters died, Dennis chosen the insurance visitor three times to study her death and collect benefits, co-ordinate to the arrest written report.

Winters had a checking account with BancFirst in Oklahoma. Her family says dividends from her interest in Sonic were deposited in the accounts past Winters' family, and Dennis was not a signatory on the business relationship, according to the proclamation of arrest.

Half-dozen days afterwards his married woman's death, Dennis withdrew $180,000 from the bank account, according to the arrest report. According to Adams, a check was made payable to "1000. Brent Dennis and Susan Winters," and was dated months out of sequence. On Jan. 9, 2015, Dennis deposited the $180,000 into his account, Adams wrote.

On Feb. 27, 2015, the insurance company issued a check for a little more than than $1 million payable to Dennis. He deposited the proceeds into a T.D. Ameritrade Investment account, the written report said.

'Probable cause'

Dennis has given conflicting statements on what happened leading up to his married woman's death, according to the declaration of arrest.

For instance, Dennis was awake the previous dark and in the early morning hours before Winters' death, and he met with Crosby, the drug dealer, around 3 a.thousand., when he claimed to be sleeping next to his married woman, Adams wrote.

As well, a claim that Winters searched the abode computer on "how to kill yourself using antifreeze," was imitation, according to the report. Adams wrote that Dennis later admitted it was he who conducted the search, subsequently returning from his visit with Crosby, and about an hr before he chosen 911 concerning his wife.

Later that twenty-four hours, as Winters was on life back up, Dennis allegedly fabricated several attempts to contact his "reckoner guy." The computer expert, Todd Emond, was bedevilled in 2011 on a felony conspiracy to commit mail service, wire and bank fraud.

Emond had set upward Dennis' computer at his mental wellness clinic in Bedrock Urban center, with a network connexion attainable from the psychologist'southward home. When questioned by police, Emond said in the bound or early summer of 2016, Dennis asked him to come to his dwelling and deport a forensic search on the computer to find anything related to antifreeze, according to Adams' report.

The computer skilful said he constitute a virus on the computer, dismantled the car and sent the hard drives to a friend who owns a business back east, and who could "mirror the hard drives and conduct a search." Emond claimed no evidence of anything related to antifreeze was establish on the computer, according to the arrest declaration.

"Emond had no explanation every bit to why Dennis was asking him to tamper with the show which had been demanded past Winters' parents' lawyers on multiple occasions and that Dennis' lawyers had represented they had asked for," Adams wrote.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Emond'southward defence lawyer said his client was involved in data recovery, not scrubbing, and if Emond tampered with evidence, "it was unknowingly." His attorney said Emond cooperated fully with investigators, co-ordinate to the Review-Journal.

Adams wrote in his declaration that it is non known exactly how the deadly substances entered Winters' trunk, merely that Dennis could not have known what he initially claimed when showtime contacted past authorities.

"Based on these facts, in that location is probable cause to arrest Gregory Brent Daniels for the murder of Susan Winters," he wrote.

'Every 24-hour interval is a trial'

Dennis has since been released on $250,000 bail. The Nevada Lath of Psychological Examiners has suspended his license. The civil case has been halted temporarily in light of the criminal example. A preliminary hearing for the criminal case is scheduled for August.

Dennis' lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, said he looks forrard to defending his client in court.

"The preliminary hearing will exist the offset opportunity to present evidence that's favorable to Mr. Dennis," Schonfeld said. "The Clark County Coroner's Part and the Henderson Police Department reached the conclusion that Susan Winters' death was a suicide."

Equally for Avis Winters' insistence that Dennis is guilty, and that their girl did not commit suicide, Schonfeld said such is common.

"Her parents would not have that decision," he said. "And every bit a effect they hired the one-time DA as one of their lawyers in an attempt to have the investigation reopened. It is consistent with other families that deal with suicide. It is something that people tend not to have."

The bail amount, agreed upon by lawyers on both sides, was adequate, Schonfeld said.

"Given the circumstance that the suicide was two years old, and was determined by police and the coroner to be a suicide, the prove that exists that is favorable, to me, is Mr. Dennis' lack of criminal history and his outstanding community ties," Schonfeld said. "It is a reasonable bail setting."

Attorneys for Avis and Danny Winters could not be reached for comment.

Avis Winters said her one-time son-in-constabulary is a sociopath who will forever claim not to have murdered her girl.

"Every mean solar day is a trial," she said. "And we don't get to see the granddaughters. He has told them we're evil people. As long as we're getting justice with Susan, we will do what needs to be washed. We want to accept a relationship with our granddaughters. Nosotros want them to remember Susan as she was. And we desire them to remember us every bit the loving grandparents nosotros are."

Susan Winters case: coroner changes crusade from suicide to undetermined

Source: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/columns/2017/03/18/oklahoma-city-couple-seek-justice-in-daughters-death/60607536007/