By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — A possible third murder trial for Cara Lee Rintala must wait until the Supreme Judicial Court rules on an appeal filed by her lawyers who continue to seek dismissal of the case.
Rintala is accused of murdering her wife, Annamarie Cochrane Rintala, 37, by strangling her in their basement on March 29, 2010. Rintala, 47, has already been tried twice on the murder charge. Both time juries came back deadlocked and mistrials were declared.
One of Rintala’s attorneys, David Hoose, said he appealed last week a Sept. 8 ruling by Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup who denied his motion to dismiss the murder charge.
At a status hearing in Hampshire Superior Court on Wednesday, First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven E. Gagne said he plans to file a response to the appeal. Hampshire Superior Court Judge Richard J. Carey scheduled Dec. 23 for the next hearing on the case.
Also in court yesterday, Carey agreed to change the conditions of Rintala’s release. A month after the second mistrial in February, Rintala’s family raised $150,000 for her bail. Since then, she has been required to stay within Hampshire and Hampden counties and to abide by a curfew between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Carey granted Hoose’s request that she be allowed to go to Worcester County as well and to leave her home in Ludlow as early as 6 a.m.
Hoose said the request for the change “largely has to do with her ability to see her child and will enable her to do some volunteer work.”
Prosecutors have accused Cara Rintala of killing Annamarie Rintala as their marriage fell apart over crushing debt, theft and mistrust.
Rintala’s lawyers maintain that investigators assumed her guilt from the start and ignored evidence that did not fit the theory that she committed the murder.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
