Cara Rintala, Annamarie Cochrane-Rintala (images via Law&Crime Network)
At the end of her fourth murder trial in the 2010 death of her wife, 56-year-old Cara Rintala was found guilty in a Massachusetts courtroom on Thursday only of the lesser voluntary manslaughter charge.
When the verdict was read, Rintala shook her head and appeared to say "I didn't do [it]."
Still, the verdict amounts to a big win for the defense, as Rintala could have faced life in prison for the March 2010 death of 37-year-old Annamarie Cochrane-Rintala. Instead, Rintala can be punished by not more than 20 years.
Cochrane-Rintala was found dead at the bottom of her basement staircase, bloody and beaten, cold to the touch and covered in paint on March 29, 2010.
A medical examiner determined that Cochrane-Rintala had been strangled to death. Also found at the bottom of the staircase by authorities was Rintala herself, cradling her deceased spouse.
The case garnered national attention as prosecutors called it the first case in Massachusetts history where a woman was charged with murdering her wife. Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's high court ruled in 2003 that a ban was unconstitutional.
Rintala proclaimed her innocence but she went on to face four murder trials. The first two murder trials, held in 2013 and 2014, ended with hung juries and the third led to a conviction that was reversed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 2021.
Despite the series of high-profile losses, the Northwestern District Attorney's Office pursued the case for a fourth time and obtained a trial date over the summer of 2022.
Once again, however, the case has ended without a murder conviction.
Rintala's sentencing was set for 2 p.m. on Oct. 19.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.