A Hampshire Superior Court jury on Thursday convicted a woman of voluntary manslaughter in the 2010 strangulation death of her wife in their Granby home, the fourth trial she had faced in the long-running legal saga.
The jury rendered its verdict in the case against Cara Rintala, now 57, who was found guilty of strangling her spouse, Annamarie Cochrane Rintala, 37, in late March of 2010, according to a statement from District Attorney David E. Sullivan’s office.
Two previous trials ended in mistrials after juries deadlocked, and Cara Rintala’s 2016 first-degree murder conviction at her third trial was later overturned on appeal, prosecutors said.
Cara Rintala was taken into custody following Thursday’s verdict and faces a maximum prison term of 20 years when she’s sentenced Oct. 19, Sullivan’s office said. Had her prior first-degree murder conviction stood, she would have faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Today’s verdict is the culmination of a long and winding journey toward justice for Annamarie Cochrane and her family,” First Assistant Hampshire District Attorney Steven E. Gagne, who prosecuted Rintala, said in the statement. “We are thankful to the jury for the time and care they devoted toward their task.”
Gagne’s words were echoed in the statement by Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Suhl, who like Gagne also prosecuted all four cases against Cara Rintala.
“The jury’s verdict today confirms that Annamarie’s life was tragically taken by her wife in an act of intimate partner violence; a public safety issue that continues to permeate our community 13 years after Annamarie’s death,” Suhl said. “Our office remains steadfast in a commitment to supporting and protecting abuse survivors and holding offenders accountable.”
Cara Rintala’s lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio, said Friday that her client was disappointed but will mount an appeal.
“I think any time it takes them four times to get a conviction, there’s reasonable doubt,” said Scapicchio, who tried the case with co-counsels Chauncey Wood and Melissa Ramos. “We’re hopeful that Judge [Francis] Flannery will impose a sentence of time served, which is what the Commonwealth offered her” before the fourth trial, had she been willing to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Under that scenario, Scapicchio said, her client would’ve received credit for the combined 7½ years she’d spent in custody, first on pre-trial detention and later while serving prison time following her conviction in the third trial.
She rejected that deal, Scapicchio said, because “she was unwilling then and and unwilling now to admit that she killed her wife, because she didn’t.”
Asked about Scapicchio’s assertion that time served was on the table had Rintala agreed to plead guilty ahead of the fourth trial, a spokesperson for Sullivan said the office does not discuss plea negotiations that may have taken place prior to trial.
The official cause of death was manual strangulation, said a September court filing.
In an August ruling denying the defense’s dismissal motion, Flannery wrote that Cara Rintala around 7 p.m. on the evening of March 29, 2010 had asked a neighbor to call 911, and that when police arrived, they found Cara in the basement of the home holding Annamarie in her lap and sobbing.
“The victim’s body was covered in pinkish-white paint,” the ruling said.
Cara Rintala told police she and the couple’s daughter had left home that day around 3 p.m. to do some shopping while Annamarie took a nap, and that she found her wife lying face down in the basement upon her return, Flannery wrote.
Authorities also looked into a married man who had a “close relationship” with Annamarie that his wife wasn’t aware of, the ruling said. That man had “opposed” her marriage to Cara and had also obtained three credit cards for her which racked up about $7,000 in charges, unbeknownst to the man’s wife, Flannery wrote
Police also investigated a woman who’d previously dated Annamarie, Flannery wrote. That woman told investigators that they’d resumed their relationship in June 2009 while the Rintalas were separated. When Annamarie and Cara reconciled in November 2009, Flannery wrote, Annamarie “abruptly” broke up with the other woman, which she told investigators she “never saw” coming.
The woman told investigators she had no contact with Annamarie after November 2009, but she continued to call her cellphone after her death, according to the ruling.
Scapicchio said Friday that she felt the investigation was biased against her client from the start.
“I think it’s impossible to find other suspects when you’re not looking,” Scapicchio said.
The Rintalas had a rocky relationship, the Globe reported in 2012. They moved in together in 2004 and married in Provincetown in August 2007. Shortly before they were married, they adopted a baby girl.
A year later Annamarie told Granby police that Cara had struck her with a spatula and a closed fist. When Cara was arrested, she said that Annamarie had hit her. In the two years preceding Annamarie’s death, each had taken out two restraining orders against the other, and both had filed for divorce.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.