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When the primary responders arrived on the space in western Massachusetts and walked downstairs to the basement, they have been faced with a atypical scene, they later mentioned: A wailing girl sat at the concrete ground cradling her spouse’s corpse. Each girls and the ground of the basement have been coated in paint and blood.
Nineteen months after that wet night time of March 29, 2010, Cara Rintala was once arrested and charged with the homicide of her spouse, Annamarie Cochrane Rintala. Government consider that Cara, coping with mounting monetary pressures, marital discord and a possible custody combat, killed her spouse and hours later doused her frame and the crime scene with paint with the intention to lie to investigators.
Cara Rintala has persistently maintained her innocence, and her legal professionals didn’t reply to questions from HuffPost.
Jury variety is these days underway in Cara’s homicide trial, and her destiny can be decided through a dozen participants of her friends. For the fourth time.
The Rintalas, each paramedics, began relationship in 2002, were given married in 2005 and followed their daughter as a new child in 2007. Annamarie, 37, was once outgoing and vivacious, whilst Cara, seven years older, was once extra reserved. Annamarie labored for American Clinical Reaction in Springfield about 10 miles from their Granby house, whilst Cara was once hired through the Ludlow Hearth Division, relatively nearer.
Annamarie had labored an evening shift on March 28 and was once scheduled to paintings the similar shift, beginning at 8 p.m., at the day she was once killed.
Whilst Annamarie was once running on March 28, investigators mentioned {that a} male pal was once visiting Cara at their space, which disappointed Annamarie. She fired off a chain of offended texts to her spouse, government mentioned, and the couple argued that evening and the following morning.
In a while after Cara returned house from a day operating errands with their daughter, now a child, at about 7 p.m. on March 29, 2010, she spotted the basement door was once open and noticed her spouse’s naked toes mendacity on the backside of the steps, investigators mentioned she instructed them. Earlier than going downstairs to test on her, on the other hand, the paramedic accumulated her daughter and their canine, raced to a close-by space, requested her neighbor to take them and contact 911, and rushed again house.
When paramedics arrived, they noticed Annamarie’s dead frame mendacity faceup throughout Cara’s lap, they testified. Her eyes have been open and her palms have been locked in a “palms up” place, and her frame was once so stiff that it took two first responders to pry her off her “hysterical” spouse, they mentioned. “Her complete frame moved as one unit, like a board,” a police sergeant testified, relating to the rigor mortis prosecutors argued had set in hours earlier than.
She had bled closely from her head, mentioned first responders, who additionally noticed puddles, streaks and smears of blood at the basement ground.
What made the scene so startling and confounding, even though, was once the paint. It was once all over. Each girls and the basement ground have been coated in paint, which two paramedics and law enforcement officials later described as white, rainy and glossy. Footage from the crime scene display an overturned 5-gallon sq. bucket with paint spilling out of it close to Annamarie’s frame. Paint coated the ground underneath her frame and sopping wet her thighs. One of the vital paint gave the look to be crimson, first responders mentioned, and an worker for a paint producer later famous that it was once designed to show from crimson to white because it dries for portray on white surfaces like ceilings.
Precisely how lengthy the paint were drying would turn out to be key proof: After two mistrials, a paint producer’s high quality engineer testified and most probably helped the jury succeed in a to blame verdict at a 3rd trial — which an appeals pass judgement on then reversed after wondering the engineer’s strategies.
First responders additionally mentioned that Annamarie’s frame was once coated in bruises and that they believed a number of scalp wounds had brought about the heavy bleeding.
That’s now not what killed her, even though. Any suspicions that Annamarie had died from a sad fall or coincidence have been thrown out when the clinical examiner carried out the post-mortem.
Annamarie’s reason for demise was once strangulation, clinical examiner Joann Richmond concluded.
Richmond testified in any respect 3 of Cara Rintala’s earlier trials. She mentioned she counted 23 bruises on Annamarie’s palms, legs and again and she or he decided that critical accidents on her head had resulted from blunt power — being hit with a blunt weapon or from her head placing a blunt object or floor. She mentioned it was once conceivable Annamarie had suffered the wounds from falling or being driven down the picket stairs.
Toxicology checks discovered no signal of gear or alcohol in Annamarie’s device, Richmond mentioned.
The bruises on Annamarie’s neck, abrasions on her chin and ruptured capillaries in her eyes indicated that she were manually strangled, inflicting her demise, Richmond mentioned, even if the clinical examiner decided her head trauma to be a contributing issue.
Something the post-mortem may now not reliably resolve, on the other hand, was once Annamarie’s time of demise.
The case hinges on the place Cara was once when Annamarie died — however professionals disagree about precisely what time that was once.
Richmond testified at Cara’s first trial that she estimated Annamarie’s time of demise to be between 11:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. — neatly earlier than Cara left the home with their daughter to run errands — however stated that she had indexed the time of demise as “unknown” in her first post-mortem file. In next trials, Richmond estimated Annamarie may have died as much as 12 hours earlier than she was once discovered.
However Elizabeth Laposata, a former state clinical examiner who taught pathology and laboratory drugs at Brown College and testified for the protection, concluded that Annamarie had died hours later — between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m., she mentioned. By way of that reckoning, Cara may have been out of the home when Annamarie was once killed.
Cara’s actions have been summarized in court docket in response to investigators’ accounts of her interviews with state police, surveillance photos, gross sales receipts and different proof. The days underneath are approximate.
8 p.m. Annamarie arrived at paintings for the beginning of her 12-hour in a single day shift. Within the hours that adopted, Annamarie and Cara despatched a lot of offended texts to one another. Annamarie was once reportedly livid that Cara had a male pal on the space, and at one level texted her spouse, “I hate this courting.”
8 a.m. Annamarie left paintings and shortly returned house.
9:30 a.m. Annamarie known as her father.
10 a.m. Cara returned house after choosing up a couple of hours of extra time on the fireplace division.
12:30 p.m. A choice was once positioned from Annamarie’s telephone to her aunt in Florida, who didn’t solution. It was once the ultimate recorded job on her cellular phone. (She won a large number of texts and calls from her spouse that afternoon, however by no means answered.)
3 p.m. Cara left the home and ran errands with their daughter.
5 p.m. Cara was once noticed on surveillance photos on the Holyoke Mall, the place she purchased T-shirts and socks.
5:47 p.m. In safety photos proven to jurors, Cara is observed circling a McDonald’s parking zone for a couple of mins earlier than getting out of the truck and throwing a number of pieces in a trash can within the rear of the parking zone. Investigators mentioned they retrieved cleansing rags from the trash can, certainly one of which they claimed had a faint bloodstain. They later mentioned that DNA taken from the rag was once too degraded to resolve whether or not the stains have been even human blood. Cara by no means defined why she discarded the rags there.
She drove away with out purchasing any meals from the eating place.
5:57 p.m. Cara arrived on the Prevent & Store grocery store, consistent with the surveillance photos, the place a laundry basket and a purple bag have been observed within the mattress of her truck.
6:19 p.m. Cara left the shop and drove to a Burger King about 5 miles away, the place she purchased dinner for her daughter. The laundry basket and bag have been nonetheless visual within the safety photos, however government mentioned this stuff weren’t in her truck when she arrived house, and so they have been by no means in a position to find them.
7:12 p.m. Cara arrived at her neighbor’s space, frantically asking him to take her daughter and canine and contact 911.
7:15 p.m. Paramedics arrived on the space.
It was once no secret that the couple’s courting was once acrimonious, however the girls instructed government in past due September 2008 that their marriage was once additionally plagued through violence. Annamarie got here to the Granby Police Division and mentioned that Cara had hit her with a spatula and a closed fist. Cara adopted in a while in a while, insisting that their battle were “purely verbal.” Police arrested Cara, who then mentioned Annamarie had assaulted her, appearing them a purple mark on her neck. Annamarie filed a restraining order in opposition to her, which supposed Cara couldn’t see their daughter. However in November, Annamarie requested for the case to be dropped. In Might 2009, police mentioned they won two 911 calls from the couple’s house. Within the first, the dispatcher later testified that she may handiest listen screaming within the background, with one girl pronouncing, “Simply depart, simply depart!” Ultimately some of the girls instructed the dispatcher that their daughter had unintentionally dialed 911.
After any other 911 name, the ladies gave the impression in court docket, inquiring for restraining orders in opposition to every different and every soliciting for number one custody in their daughter, then 2.
“We will be able to have prison fees going from side to side between either one of you, however the one one who’s in reality going to impact ultimately is your daughter,” the pass judgement on mentioned, apparently exasperated through their sparring. He warned them that in the event that they couldn’t “care for this as adults,” he would inform the state’s Division of Kids and Households that neither girl was once “solid sufficient” to deal with their daughter.
“You’re both going to exist in that space till you get this straightened out, otherwise you’re going to have a look at prison fees — one or either one of you,” the pass judgement on mentioned, including their daughter could be got rid of from the house if so.
The couple separated and filed for divorce in 2009 however later withdrew their petitions and tried to reconcile.
The connection remained rocky, on the other hand. Consistent with video from Cara’s first interview with police following her spouse’s demise, Cara was once candid about their marital issues. She known as her spouse a “grasp manipulator” whose impulsive spending — maxing out their bank cards, taking cash from Cara’s retirement account and emptying their daughter’s financial savings account — virtually ruined them financially.
An ambulance coordinator who labored with Cara additionally testified that she had instructed him Annamarie had withdrawn cash from Cara’s retirement account and charged about $25,000 on a bank card she’d opened in Cara’s identify.
″She was once disappointed about it,” the co-worker testified, including that Cara had instructed him they deliberate to divorce and let attorneys kind their budget.
“We had a large number of disagreements and weren’t understanding easy methods to cause them to paintings,” she instructed police about their courting. “We have been very stressed out.”
“I felt bullied in my own residence,” Cara mentioned, including she felt “bamboozled” when Annamarie instructed police she’d assaulted her.
Cara and Annamarie have been each in debt when she was once killed. Prosecutors mentioned Annamarie owed $33,000 on her bank card and Cara owed any other $35,000, even if it’s unclear whether or not that incorporated the fees Annamarie had made at the bank card she opened in her spouse’s identify.
Annamarie had additionally spent as much as $20,000 on her buddies’ bank cards. Regardless of their huge bank card debt, the circle of relatives took a cruise to the Caribbean in February 2010 — the month earlier than Annamarie’s demise — after visiting Annamarie’s aunt in Florida. The aunt later testified that the couple argued all through their keep, and mentioned that at one level, Cara mentioned, “I will be able to’t take this anymore. I need a divorce.”
Cara’s protection attempted to deflect suspicion from her to 2 folks Annamarie had relationships with: a male co-worker and an ex-girlfriend she had reconnected with after the couple filed for divorce in the summertime of 2009.
Mark Oleksak, a paramedic who labored with Annamarie, to start with lied about his whereabouts the day she was once killed, government mentioned. A detective testified that in the beginning, he instructed them he was once house all afternoon, however later mentioned he’d long past to a furnishings retailer along with his circle of relatives. In a later interview, after he equipped police with get right of entry to to telephone and financial institution data, he admitted he’d long past to the financial institution, purchased sweatpants at Walmart and bought cat clutter at a grocery retailer.
Prosecutors pounced at the cat clutter acquire, noting that 10 cat hairs were discovered on Annamarie’s frame, even supposing the couple not owned cats.
Oleksak, who wasn’t known as to testify in Cara’s first trial, took the stand in the second one, telling the jury about his courting with Annamarie. He were in love along with her, he mentioned, and lied to his spouse of 30 years about their flirtatious courting — which he mentioned was once by no means sexual, even if he was hoping it might be.
Annamarie and Cara were given again in combination in November 2009 after Annamarie broke up along with her on-again, off-again lady friend, Carla Daniele, a Springfield police officer.
Whilst the ladies have been seeing every different all over the Rintalas’ separation, Daniele testified that she let Annamarie use her bank card. She gathered greater than $10,000 in bills. Like Oleksak, Daniele didn’t testify in Cara’s first trial.
Oleksak additionally had approved Annamarie to make use of 3 of his bank cards, he testified, spending greater than $6,000 on some of the playing cards.
In the end, each Oleksak and Daniele have been discovered to have forged alibis at the day Annamarie was once killed, the lead investigator within the homicide case testified.
Cara was once arrested on Oct. 19, 2011, in Rhode Island, the place she had moved along with her daughter to be nearer to her circle of relatives. She was once charged with first-degree homicide. Government alleged that Cara had crushed and strangled Annamarie, ran a lot of errands in a while to determine an alibi, and doused her spouse’s frame and the crime scene with paint earlier than first responders arrived.
Prosecutors argued that rigor mortis had set in when first responders arrived, proving that Annamarie had died neatly earlier than Cara left the home.
Cara’s first trial, in early 2013, resulted in a hung jury. So did her 2nd trial in early 2014. It wasn’t till her 3rd trial, within the fall of 2016 — after a number of folks testified who hadn’t up to now taken the stand — {that a} jury returned with a to blame verdict. She was once sentenced to lifestyles in jail, the place she spent a number of years earlier than her conviction was once overturned on attraction.
David Guilianelli, a high quality engineer for the corporate that manufactured the paint discovered on the crime scene, was once a type of up to now unheard through a jury. He testified as a professional witness within the 3rd trial that, in response to his enjoy and experiments he performed for the case, the paint was once intentionally poured, now not spilled, through any individual about half-hour earlier than first responders arrived — lengthy after clinical examiners decided that Annamarie had died.
His testimony would possibly have persuaded the jury, which discovered Cara to blame, however now not the appeals court docket. It agreed with the protection’s argument that Guilianelli was once now not certified to testify for the reason that experiments he performed have been novel, unreliable, incomplete and inconsistent, and his findings and conclusions have been subjective, in response to anecdotal observations reasonably than dependable technique.
The appeals court docket decided that Guilianelli’s testimony “was once vital and most probably swayed the jury’s verdict,”
and dominated to vacate the judgment in opposition to Cara.
Prosecutors have been decided to check out her a fourth time.
“That paint had simply been poured,” First Assistant Hampshire District Legal professional Steven Gagne insisted in a information convention after the decision was once overturned, calling the verdict “profoundly disappointing.”
He mentioned prosecutors would retry the case “now not as a result of we’re in it for the win, or the distinction or the celebrity, however as it’s the best factor to do. We’re in search of justice for Annamarie and her circle of relatives.”
Opening statements are anticipated to start out this week for Cara’s fourth trial in Hampshire Awesome Courtroom in Northampton, presided over through Pass judgement on Frank Flannery. Now 56, she has been loose on bail and dwelling along with her folks and now-teenage daughter in Rhode Island since November 2021.
Cara has at all times maintained her innocence. She didn’t testify in earlier trials, and it’s unclear whether or not she’ll take the stand in her personal protection on this trial.
Want lend a hand? Within the U.S., name 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline.
