Shirley Winters

Case record: Shirley Winters

Identifying information

Shirley Winters was born February 27, 1958. She was an upstate New York resident.

Other details

Winters was incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

Background

In 1966, at age eight, Winters lost three siblings (a 10-year-old brother and two sisters, ages four and 11) as a result of an apparent carbon monoxide leak in the family home. Her brother’s and sisters’ deaths were later investigated as carbon monoxide/asphyxiation from a gas furnace, with an exhaust pipe suspected to be likely damaged by a dog. Winters was away from the home that night, and she was at her grandmother’s a quarter-mile away.

Winters raised near South Onondaga. In 1977, Shirley Baron married Ronald Winters Jr., 21.

Winters lost two other children, Colleen and John Winters, ages three years and 20 months, in a 1979 fire in the family’s cabin on Hyde Lake in Theresa, New York, near Watertown. The cause of the fire was determined at the time to be an electrical defect. The bodies of those children were exhumed in March 2007 along with Ronald Winters III’s; the autopsy showed that Colleen and John suffered blunt force head injuries prior to the fire.

The previous day before the March 2007 exhumations, there had been a fire at the home of Winters’ friend in nearby Hermon, New York in which her friend’s three children died. St. Lawrence County authorities re-opened their investigation into that incident in 2007. The three children were cousins of Ryan Rivers’ parents.

Winters had been in close proximity to 17 fires since the 1979 fire, nine of which had been determined to be arson. She pleaded guilty to criminal mischief in 1981 in relation to two of the fires. In 1997, she was convicted of arson in another fire that burned her mother’s home; she spent eight years in prison and was released in 2005. Her mother was killed in a car accident two months before Winters’ prison sentence began.

Winters rescued her four-year-old daughter and her two-year-old son in an arson fire in Syracuse but lost track of her oldest living child, a five-year-old daughter who rescued herself.

A fire at the home where Winters was staying in Syracuse occurred on November 12, 1989. She rescued her four-year-old daughter and her two-year-old son, but lost track of her oldest living child, a five-year-old daughter, who rescued herself.

The offence

Death of Ronald Winters III (1980)

Ronald Winters III died on November 21, 1980 in Otisco, New York. The death was initially considered to be due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After the body was exhumed during the fourth investigation of the death in March 2007, Winters was charged with second-degree murder on March 28, 2007.

Winters later pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the smothering death of Ronald Winters III in 1980 and admitted she tried to seriously injure him when she smothered him.

Death of Ryan Rivers (2006)

Ryan Rivers drowned in a bathtub at his grandparents’ home during a visit by Winters on November 28, 2006 in Pierrepont, New York in St. Lawrence County. Winters was indicted by a St. Lawrence County grand jury in August 2007 of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child in the Ryan Rivers case.

Winters later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ryan Rivers case, and she pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of 23-month-old Ryan Rivers. She pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the Ryan Rivers death on April 21, 2008.

Investigation

Investigation of Ronald Winters III

During March 2007, the bodies of Colleen and John Winters were exhumed along with Ronald Winters III. The autopsy showed that Colleen and John suffered blunt force head injuries prior to the fire. After Ronald’s body was exhumed during the fourth investigation of his death in March 2007, Winters was charged with second-degree murder on March 28, 2007.

Investigation of Ryan Rivers

The latest reopening of the investigation into Ronald’s death was prompted after Ryan Rivers drowned in a bathtub at his grandparents’ home during a visit by Winters on November 28, 2006 in Pierrepont, New York.

Related 1979 deaths

The St. Lawrence County plea allowed Winters to avoid prosecution for the 1979 deaths of Colleen and John Winters.

Arrest

Winters was pulled over in her pickup truck after police observed that she was swerving. Her shirt was torn and she had deep scratches on her wrist, neck, upper chest and face. She told the police officer that she had not taken her medication for schizophrenia and that she was trying to get to a psychiatric hospital in Ogdensburg but had gotten lost. She mumbled: “The evil has to stop,” and also told the officer: “The evil is trying to get out!”

Trial

Indictments and scheduling

For Ronald Winters III, Winters’ trial for the second-degree murder of Ronald was initially scheduled to begin on March 31, 2008.

For Ryan Rivers, Winters was indicted by a St.

Guilty plea

On April 21, 2008, Winters pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ryan Rivers case. Under the terms of the plea agreement, she also agreed to plead guilty in Onondaga County Court to first-degree manslaughter in the smothering death of Ronald III in 1980.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said he was satisfied with the agreement. In connection with Winters’ plea to killing her son, the Onondaga County District Attorney said Winters was “the face of evil.”

Winters’ guilty plea in the Ronald Winters death included an admission that she tried to seriously injure Ronald when she smothered him.

Sentencing

On June 16, 2008, a St. Lawrence County Court judge sentenced Winters to 20 years in prison.

On June 17, 2008, an Onondaga County Court judge sentenced Winters to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Winters was to serve both sentences at the same time.

Timeline

• February 27, 1958 — Shirley Baron was born.
• 1966 — Winters lost her siblings (Peter, 11; Joyce, 10; Lita, 4) in their beds; investigators decided the children were asphyxiated by fumes from a gas furnace.
• 1977 — Shirley Baron, 18, married Ronald Winters Jr., 21.
• September 12, 1979 — Fire in Theresa (Jefferson County) killed two of the couple’s children.
• November 21, 1980 — Ronald, a 5-month-old baby, died in a trailer in Otisco.
• 1981 — Two separate fires broke out in Winters’ trailer; both were called arson.
• February 10, 1982 — Two more fires at Winters’ trailer; Winters was charged with arson.
• November 9, 1982 — Before that case was disposed of, Winters had another trailer fire and was charged with arson again.
• 1984 — Winters had a daughter, Joy.
• 1985 — Winters had a daughter, Ashley.
• 1986 (November 12) — Fire in Winters’ apartment building in Marcellus; cause: undetermined.
• 1987 — Winters had a baby, Clayton Winters; she divorced Ronald and moved with her children to Syracuse.
• 1989 (November 12) — Arson fire raced out of control from a basement storage room on Willis Avenue in Syracuse; Winters said she’d smelled smoke; she took two children to safety but lost track of Joy, who escaped on her own.
• 1989 — Winters went on trial for another arson earlier in the year in Syracuse; the first jury deadlocked and the second acquitted Winters.
• 1990 (January 6) — Arson at her house on Split Rock Road.
• 1997 (April 27) — Winters set fire to her mother’s home in Onondaga; she pleaded guilty and admitted she knew her cousin was in the building at the time; she was sent to prison for eight years.
• 2004 — Winters was released from prison on parole, then violated terms of release by having a lighter.
• 2005 (June 14) — Winters was released from prison again.
• 2007 (March 16) — Hospitalized after suicide attempt, according to Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
• 2007 (March 28) — An Onondaga County grand jury indicted Winters on a charge of murdering her 5-month-old son Ronald Winters III in 1980 at their home in Otisco.
• 2007 (August) — Winters was indicted by a St. Lawrence County grand jury in the Ryan Rivers case.
• 2007 (September 19) — A St. Lawrence County grand jury indicted her on a murder charge in the November 2006 drowning of 2-year-old Ryan Rivers.
• 2008 (April 21) — Winters pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the Rivers death.
• 2008 (April 24) — Winters pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the Ronald Winters death, admitting she tried to seriously injure him when she smothered him.
• 2008 (June 16) — A St. Lawrence County Court judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison.
• 2008 (June 17) — An Onondaga County Court judge sentenced her to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison; she would serve both sentences at the same time.

Other details

Winters was accused of being a serial arsonist and serial killer in connection with the pattern of fires and deaths discussed. She had been linked to 17 fires at homes where she lived or where family members lived.

Winters was charged with arson in multiple fires. She had at least five arson charges in 1981 and 1982 proceedings and also went on trial in Syracuse for another arson earlier in 1989 in which the first jury was deadlocked and the second acquitted her.

A week after Winters drowned Ryan Rivers in 2006, a police officer pulled her over because she was swerving. Winters later told the officer she was trying to get to a psychiatric hospital in Ogdensburg but had gotten lost.

When she pleaded guilty to killing her son, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said she was “the face of evil.”