By DAN CROWLEY
Staff Writer
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — As a possible third murder trial for Cara Lee Rintala awaits a higher court ruling, a Hampshire Superior Court judge expanded the areas to which the 47-year-old Ludlow woman can travel as part of her bail conditions.
Rintala is accused in the slaying of her wife, Annamarie Cochrane Rintala, 37, by strangling her in the basement of their Granby home on March 29, 2010. Rintala has been tried twice, and both times juries came back deadlocked and mistrials were declared.
At a hearing yesterday, Judge Mary-Lou Rup granted a request by Rintala’s defense attorney David Hoose allowing her to travel to Berkshire and Franklin counties in addition to Hampshire, Hampden and Worcester counties.
Hoose said the request came after Rintala wanted to take her daughter to a butterfly conservatory in Franklin County, about five miles outside Hampshire County, but was not allowed to do so because of the previous travel restriction.
“She’s on GPS anyway,” Hoose told the judge. “It’s not like we don’t know where she is going to be. Anything she does is almost always for her daughter’s benefit and not her own.”
Rintala, who appeared in court yesterday, is also on a curfew between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Her family raised $150,000 for her bail a month after the second mistrial.
First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven E. Gagne said he had no objections to Hoose’s request, but added that he wants bail conditions to ensure that Rintala stays as close to the area as possible.
In September 2014, Rup denied a defense motion to dismiss the murder charge against Rintala. A month later, Hoose appealed the decision to the state Supreme Judicial Court, which has not yet ruled.
Another status hearing on the case has been scheduled for Feb. 17 in Hampshire Superior Court.
Dan Crowley can be reached at [email protected].
