Defense attorney David Hoose, right, introduces himself, his law partner Luke Ryan, center, and their client, Cara Lee Rintala, to potential jurors during the jury selection for her retrial in Hampshire Superior Court 1. (File photo by Kevin Gutting, Daily Hampshire Gazette)
NORTHAMPTON (AP) — Prosecutors are going forward with a third trial for a Granby woman charged with strangling her paramedic wife.
A judge declared a second mistrial after jurors deadlocked last week in the murder case of Cara Rintala. Rintala, also a paramedic, is accused of killing Annamarie Cochrane Rintala in March 2010. Jurors also deadlocked in her first trial.
Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne said in court Tuesday in Northampton he expects to retry the case later this year.
Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Rup granted Rintala $150,000 bail, an amount agreed to by prosecutors and defense attorney David Hoose.
If Rintala posts bail she must undergo GPS monitoring and check in weekly with her probation officer. She must stay in Massachusetts except to travel to Rhode Island for a custody case involving her daughter with Annamarie Rintala.
“There is no limit to the number of times a person can be re-tried in the event of a hung jury which has occurred twice now in the Rintala case,” ” Gagne said. “So long as there is sufficient evidence from which a jury could find the defendant guilty, the fact that previous juries have been unable to do so provides no bar to retrying the case.”
