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…