By DAN CROWLEY
Staff Writer
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — The state’s full Supreme Judicial Court will hear an appeal by defense attorney David Hoose on whether there is insufficient evidence to conduct a third trial for Cara Rintala, who is accused of strangling her wife, Annamarie Rintala, in their Granby home in March 2010.
Hoose, of Northampton, had asked the SJC to dismiss the case on those grounds last year, which a single justice of the court denied. He told Hampshire Superior Court Judge Richard Carey that he was informed Thursday that the full SJC bench will now hear his appeal of that earlier decision.
Prosecutors are seeking a third trial for Rintala after juries deadlocked in 2013 and 2014. She has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder, maintaining she was running errands with her daughter when her wife was killed. Rintala has been free on $150,000 bail since February 2014.
First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne has provided Hoose with additional expert testimony that Hoose told the judge will likely require him to find experts and which he later described to a reporter as “purported expert testimony.”
In a related matter, Judge Carey granted a request by Hoose to allow Rintala to travel to her parents’ Rhode Island home overnight in September for her 8-year-old daughter’s first day of school. Gagne objected to the multi-day visit in court. As part of her bail conditions, Rintala is to remain in western Massachusetts.
“I don’t see why this can’t be a day trip,” Gagne said.
No date has been set for a third trial and both sides are scheduled to return to court for a status conference on Oct. 8.
Dan Crowley can be reached at [email protected].
