Now, that's chutzpah....

She killed her husband, and now she wants custody of her daughters...

A woman who killed her minister-husband with a shotgun asked to regain custody of her children Wednesday, saying she needs to help their three daughters heal emotionally from the loss of their father.

The girls' paternal grandparents will not let Mary Winkler visit her daughters or even talk to them on the telephone, Winkler told the judge. The grandparents, who have been caring for the girls since their mother's arrest, are trying to terminate Winkler's parental rights and adopt the girls.

Winkler said she has seen the girls twice since her arrest last year, though she was allowed at first to phone them weekly and write to them. If she cannot get full custody, she should at least be allowed weekend visits, Winkler said in court.

``We can begin healing together and let God guide us,'' she said.

Matthew Winkler was found shot to death in the parsonage of his Church of Christ church in Selmer, Tenn., in March 2006. His wife testified at her trial in April that she accidentally shot her husband while trying to talk to him and that he abused her physically and emotionally.

Winkler was tried on a first-degree murder charge but was convicted of voluntary homicide, a lesser offense. She drew a three-year prison sentence and got probation for most of it, spending just over five months in jail and two months in a mental health facility.