Closing arguments heard in fourth murder trial for Cara Rintala

WGGB, WSHM-LD, OBTAINED BY WGGB, CNN

By Matt Price and Ryan Trowbridge

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    NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (WGGB) — A jury heard the closing arguments in the Cara Rintala murder trial Wednesday morning. It’s a case that has attracted national attention with this being the fourth attempt to get a conviction.

“You are about to hear closing arguments by the attorneys. This is an important part of the trial because it’s the final opportunity given to the lawyers to address you,” said Judge Francis Flannery as he spoke to the jury.

Closing arguments wrapped up on Wednesday and marked the fourth time in a decade Rintala faced a jury in a Northampton courtroom for the 2010 murder of her wife, Annamarie Cochrane.

“As I told you in my opening, this entire case was based on a lie. It started with a 911 call. It started with the 911 call operator, said this is a domestic. There’s no evidence it was a domestic,” said defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio.

“Annamarie Rintala’s murder was not a random act of violence. It did not occur out of the blue. She was not strangled to death by some outsider. She was murdered by the one person the only person who had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to commit this crime and that one person was her own wife,” added Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne.

Western Mass News has been following this case closely from the beginning, with it making national headlines after the first two trials in 2013 and 2014 resulted in hung juries. A third trial in 2016 ended with the jury finding Rintala guilty of first-degree murder and sentencing her to a life sentence. However, in 2021, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the decision and stated that expert witness testimony was used improperly.

The current trial began on September 6 and has since had 20 witnesses called by the prosecution and two by the defense. The defense and the prosecution made their final pleas to the jurors before they deliberate.

“Cara Rintala didn’t kill her wife and I’ll ask you when you deliberate to find her not guilty,” Scapicchio added.

“This is a search for the truth. Your duty, as jurors, is to decide this case based upon the evidence that came in,” Gagne explained.

At this time, the jury is still deliberating. Western Mass News will continue to follow this story and will have more information as it becomes available.

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