Cara Rintala will be tried a third time in the 2010 murder of her wife. That’s the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which considered an appeal of the case after juries twice failed to reach a verdict in the case.
Prosecutors says in March of 2010 Cara Rintala murdered her wife, Annamarie Rintala, tried to clean the crime scene and then staged a break-in.
Rintala’s attorney, David Hoose, told the state’s high court there was not enough evidence and asked the justices to declare his client not guilty. But in a ruling released Thursday, just three days after oral arguments, the justices wrote that the “evidence…was sufficient to permit the jury to conclude that [Rintala] strangled the victim in the basement of their house.”
Reached by phone, Hoose said he had no comment on the decision.
The prosecutor in the case, Steven Gagne, said in a statement that the Northwestern District Attorney’s office was “pleased” with the court’s “swift and clear decision.” He plans to ask for a new trial date during a hearing later this month.
This case has been widely reported through the years as the first time in Massachusetts a person was charged with murdering their same-sex spouse.