NORTHAMPTON, MA (WSHM) -
Jury deliberations continued for a second day in the Cara Rintala murder trial without any resolution.
Testimony in the trial began on Feb. 20 and the case was sent to the jury for deliberations Thursday afternoon.
Throughout the trial the prosecution painted a picture of a turbulent marriage involving multiple restraining orders and financial pressures with a mounting debt of $95,000. The defense pointed to the unreliability of the DNA evidence and a bias early on in the investigation of the murder that assumed this was a domestic case.
Cara Rintala is accused of murdering her wife AnnaMarie Cochrane Rintala in the couple's Granby home in March 2010. This case is the state's first murder trial involving a same-sex couple.
An autopsy revealed Anne Marie died of strangulation and suffered multiple blunt force traumas.
If Rintala is convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jury deliberations will resume on Monday.
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