Crime

Cara Rintala found guilty of murdering wife after 2 mistrials

October 8, 2016

1 minute to read

Cara Rintala was found guilty on Friday of strangling and beating her wife to death in 2010, after juries in two previous trials gridlocked and failed to deliver a verdict.

The jury deliberated for four days before finding her guilty of murder in the first degree, the Northwestern District Attorney’s office said.

“They took their task very seriously,” First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne said in a statement. “It was a sound decision based on the evidence and the law, not gut reactions, not emotions, not fears or prejudices. They did what they were here to do.”

Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan said the jury on Friday spoke for the victim, Annamarie Cochrane Rintala, who was killed inside the Granby home that she shared with Rintala on March 29, 2010.

Police found Rintala holding Cochrane Rintala’s bloody body. She had left to run errands earlier that day — a move prosecutors said was made to establish an alibi.

Rintala pleaded not guilty and maintained her innocence throughout every trial and hearing.

Rintala’s defense lawyer David Hoose said that, after three trials, “What do you expect?” according to MassLive. Prosecution witnesses had several opportunities to “hone their testimony,” he said.

The trial made headlines because Rintala was the first woman in Massachusetts to ever be charged with murdering her wife.

Rintala will be sentenced in Hampshire Superior Court on Wednesday and faces life in prison without parole.