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Down the Basement Stairs

2023/12/19
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卡罗尔·林塔拉
卡罗尔的辩护律师
叙述者
史蒂夫·加尼(检察官)
州警官杰米·马杰拉
检察官
警官加里·波拉尔
Topics
叙述者:本案讲述了年轻的母亲兼医护人员安娜玛丽·科克伦·林塔拉被发现死在她家地下室楼梯底部的故事,经过四次审判和13年的时间,正义才得以伸张。 检察官:卡罗尔·林塔拉对妻子的死亡负有责任。证据表明,卡罗尔在案发当天有作案时间和动机,并且试图掩盖罪行。卡罗尔和安娜玛丽之间存在长期冲突,包括家庭暴力和经济纠纷。 卡罗尔的辩护律师:检方证据不足以证明卡罗尔有罪。调查存在偏见,忽略了其他嫌疑人,例如马克·阿莱克西和卡拉·戴恩。油漆证据和死亡时间证据都存在疑点。 安娜玛丽的家人和朋友:他们相信卡罗尔杀害了安娜玛丽,并希望正义得到伸张。他们怀念安娜玛丽的积极乐观和充满活力的一面。 卡罗尔·林塔拉:卡罗尔否认杀害了她的妻子,并表示她对妻子的死感到悲痛。她认为调查存在缺陷,并且她被冤枉了。她坚持认为自己无罪。 州警官杰米·马杰拉:杰米·马杰拉是本案的主要调查人员,他提供了关于案发现场和证据的证词。他最初认为这是一个谋杀案,并提供了支持这一结论的证据。在后来的审判中,他的证词被辩方用来质疑调查的可靠性。 史蒂夫·加尼(检察官):史蒂夫·加尼是本案的检察官,他负责收集和呈现证据,并对卡罗尔提出指控。他认为卡罗尔有罪,并提供了支持这一结论的证据。 马克·阿莱克西:马克·阿莱克西是安娜玛丽的男性友人,检方认为他们之间存在情感纠葛和经济纠纷。辩方认为马克也可能是嫌疑人。 卡拉·戴恩:卡拉·戴恩是安娜玛丽的前女友,检方认为安娜玛丽曾为卡拉透支信用卡。辩方认为卡拉也可能是嫌疑人。 安娜玛丽的家人和朋友:安娜玛丽的家人和朋友在整个案件中都给予了支持,他们相信卡罗尔有罪,并希望正义得到伸张。他们也表达了对安娜玛丽的怀念之情。

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Chapters
The discovery of Annamarie Cochrane Rintala's body at the bottom of her basement stairs shocks her family and friends.
  • Annamarie Cochrane Rintala found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs.
  • Her wife, Cara Rintala, discovers the body and calls for help.
  • Initial reactions from family and friends are of shock and disbelief.

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not available in all states and situations in .

the basement could clearly see some boy's legs.

kerrs says. I don't know, maybe SHE fell .

down the stairs. They had nightmares her .

month that was painted all over the place. One of the most odd scenario I could have ever dreamed of.

what do you make the paint to cover up?

And simple as that, things that were moved before we got here.

This isn't what it's made out to be. I know they had their problems. I think every relationship struggles.

And mory was a big spender. SHE owned .

other people money. IT was a relationship of extremes, hot, cold, wild, calm.

There was a guy in mark.

He is a marry man. Clearly, there was an emotional affair between mark and button are pushed.

People get angry, people get upset. A history making case and now after four trials are surprising. New verdict .

is generally this whole investigation started with the .

IT was a blow IT was a really .

a good punch. You know.

love is crazy. I'm lester or hold, and this is deadline.

Here's denis Murphy with down the basement stairs.

March twenty nine, two thousand and ten, a denk rainy day, and grabe massachusets Cameron tolla, thirty something mom, was out running errands with her two year old daughter. When they got home around seven pm, they found something truly shocking. Carr's wife lying at the bottom of the basement stairs, Carry, grabs their daughter and race to our neighbors, then home again, this time alone.

My neighbor just came over over and he told me to call on nine one one SHE was pretty distroyed. SHE was when sergeant gary polar of the grand bee police department arrived at the renta, a house about seven, twenty. He heard Carry before.

He saw IT was, she's dead. I can't believe she's dead. Crying, lots of crying.

Nothing prepared. Sergeant polar, for what he saw when he went down those basement stairs.

there was carer and tolla sitting on the floor with a female look like a female party across her lap, later found out I was emory. Get eyes open, her arms were out extended like this.

There was blood smear and street, and something truly weird .

paint all over the place, all over this female that he had across her lab.

Within minutes, more first responder arrived, a surreal scene because both carrot and their wife were paramedics had worked with some of the same responders now helping an historical Carry out from benee's her wife's body.

Oh my god, you know, got to be kidding me.

The phone calls to family and friends started later that night, a hatred Carol on the line. The news, heartbreaking, incomprehensible. IT was devastating.

Thirty seven year old animae coquin taller was dead. I couldn't be. I couldn't be. Truth, this is wrong as police video, wed the basement massage, choose that state trooper jammy margera and the lead investigator arrived at the scene, studied IT, let IT talk to him, any obvious injuries to the victim. Here we talking about stab wounds, bullet le lacerations.

Operations that strike me. There was a large amount of blood, and there's several laserjet.

IT seemed as though the body had been there for a while.

When I touched the disease for the first time with the rigger modest setting in, I thought how long that body had been on that floor.

There was an open paint bucket at the scene and paint, light color paint everywhere.

The paint, to me, is fresh paint. It's wet. There was a thin layer of paint on the deceased that appeared to be dry in some spots. But then there was paints on the disease that was still wet in a large one of paint on the floor that was wet.

Did this look like the case of somebody who had taking a bad fall and somehow ends up knocking into the paint can and causing the paint to spell over them?

No, because in the configuration of where the deceased was in relation to the stairs and where the paint bucket was, you couldn't fall directly down those stairs and tip .

that paint over other things. Spoke to the trooper items on the basement floor with blood under them, like a laundry basket.

What they tell you that tells me that you know things in this crime scene, we are moved before we got here.

Late that night, carer went to the grand bie police department for an interview. IT was almost midnight when detective blue tenant Robin Whitney hit record, turning the clock back to eight thirty that same morning when and got home from her overnight shift.

we talking me to play time with a couple's daughter.

briana followed. There was lunch and then on request from, and I was trying to nap before another over night .

shift just like, can you just go them all or whatever and that's .

why kerrey said SHE, and bring a ended up on that afternoon of irons. They left the house about three pm, SHE told detective blutch would be the goodbye to end. Just matter effect.

That's how I can take a good by see.

Her mother and daughter shopped at the mall, going to mcDonalds to grab food, and then change of heart, going to a burger king instead for making cheese .

in getting away. We've been texting with .

calling then home riano spotted an's body first and .

grees like something down there. And I like to know what to do, what I was just, but want to scream. I wanted run down there. I would bring out, I don't know. So I ran out how.

after he left Brown at the neighbors carrol, when downstairs.

To end. That you yeah I think I think yeah over you like you is cold and then he said SHE .

SAT with her arms around her wife's body.

IT says, nothing like i've ever been trained for, have type of, never been experienced anything like this, unless ly training. I I know now I could not work .

in a loved one. IT was a pointing ant picture to be sure, a dead wife, a devastated spouse, a little girl who'd lost a mother. But what had really happened at the bottom of those stairs.

The news of an coker renton's death reverberated among her friends and family for days. A Young mother, her daughter, still a taller, was dead on the basement floor. How did you find out something awful that happened?

I was that my desk at work and my wife at the time called me and said, sit down. I heard there was an accident.

That's what I heard, a huge loss. Because if ever there was a woman who took life in big gulp, s IT was an SHE loved laughing, singing and parade. On the forth of july.

the parade and the music and the fireworks and IT was just like a huge celebration, like that was in. Like, if he could have celebrated every day, he would celebrate every day.

Je cochon ands former sister in law.

I remember my third birthday party. He was there and he would be the MC, and that was her. I can't even explain what SHE would do, and you would laugh to the point where your stomach would hurt. But that was her.

even as a little girl growing up in a big irish, italian family and springfield, mass, and love the limelight. Her uncle pasque Martin, the first time I had seen her take the stage and singing mumbo tana IT just knock me out, not afraid to spotlight. No SHE loved IT SHE could built IT out to the raptors, but was SHE any good? Her friends tj dona hu and mary patrona r diplomatic SHE thought so he was great off SHE had SHE could Carry a tune but he thought he was much .

Better than he actually was. I didn't really matter because I L, of anything.

When SHE settled into a career, the bright like he went for, or a top and ambuLance, that's how he came to be a parameter. That was another thing about the end. SHE wasn't all look at me in the spotlight. SHE wanted to serve to like talking people.

So i'm not surprised that he ended up working with people.

Did you like the address? And one of the running hot with a blue lights go on. I would, I would say, yes, one hundred percent.

You can see that in that who he .

was IT was under those flashing lights back in two thousand and two. That and met another parameter named carven, taller and fell for her like an Carol was compassionate. But in other way he was an's opposite.

If everything about and was larger than life, everything about carroll was contained, even cautious. Sandy montana is Carol mom? Carl montana? Her stepped dead.

SHE had a plan, always had a plan, was very conscious of where he was headed in life after a .

couple of years together, and moved into Carol house in the western mass town of grand bie. And they decided to adopt. This is a real step. I mean, this commitment you and .

so I don't think IT was looked upon lightly. I remember that kr wanted a two or three year old boy, and they ended up with a .

six day old girl weeks after briana came into their lives and and cara quietly went to the courthouse and got hitched. g. And anna, defining the relationship at a very prominent time in american sexual politics, and especially in the state of massage, was just taking the lead on same sex relationships and courts. And all of a sudden, couples are getting married in the courthouse.

Well, I don't think that Carrier would have gotten married, but and really wanted to have the same last name as briona. In the years .

that followed, there were happy times with bryanna, the little girl who meant the world to them a day before and died. They attended service at the revert Lorry, shudder, serene church, and everyone seems so contented, fresh from a vacation. When I stand at the pop, I looked around and it's like they're here. They ve returned. I knew they were away in florida and they were full of light when Susan court, is a friend from church, saw them after the service, they struck her as a couple who had IT all together.

They were showing me pictures of a trip they had gone on, and they seemed like perfectly happy.

So how to explain that hard? At the bottom of the stairs, the investigators focused on that paint all over the place, on the body. And beside IT, they asked carrot .

to explain where the paint comes from. Down there for month.

IT looked as though, and fell down those stairs. But was IT really an accident or something more sinister?

I seriously.

you can rule that out of.

can do anything out.

Trooper margerie was determined to find out little did he know how long IT would take.

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Over time, investigators became convinced that something minister had happened in the rental basement. Lead investigate Jamie margera.

We haven't wet pain. We know items are moved in the basement. Those are all flags that come up.

The medical examiner confirmed those suspicions, cause of death, strangulation, and was a homicide victim, her uncle, pest quality Martin, an accidents that would have been easier, wouldn't, of course, but to have somebody robs somebody from you, still take murder, just rip him from the world, know? Hard to fat them, hard to swallow. Now, investigators were looking into a murder. They began a deep dive into an's life prosecutor Steve gagny and genee of the district to turn his office, join the team. They learned that while carrot and and both had male friends and relationships could be complicated, take the things he had going with a fellow parameter named mark alexei.

Mark alexa was a very close friend of anemony. They started as coworkers, then became very, very close friends.

The two were on intimate texting terms that last morning and texted mark asking him to go to best buy e for her. Can you please go sad? D at six a for me, I will get there about eight, twenty five, eight, with a coffee and a big kiss. Mark.

the time is a very man. He was a marry man to children. I think very clearly, there was an emotional affair at a imam, happened, mark, and investigators .

didn't think the two had a sexual relationship. But I was clear they had a financial thing going. Mark opened his line of credit, a no small thing where and was concerned because her big passion was shopping an's friends tj dona hue and mary patroon.

I do know that and loves jewelery. SHE loves nice things. I said she's, yes, gadgets, cameras.

I mean, SHE love to spend money. And sometimes the spending got ahead of her. Mark learn that he cosign.

I think IT was three total credit ds with her, one of which had wacked up about a seven thousand dollar baLance at one point.

Another thing, when investigators ask mark what he was doing the day of the murder, he wasn't straight with the facts. He told them he was at home. Then he said he had actually gone shopping and dining out. That must make your nose switch when a guy doesn't give you the straights out story.

I agree it's going to raise the suspicions a little bit.

but mark had receipts for his purchases that day, and his final text with an were affectionate.

Even the morning of the murder they were very lovely duv on text messages that particular morning.

And you don't think financial that .

no there there was nothing to suggest mark was upset about the outstanding dead SHE was paying him back for that .

dead he seemed to be in the clear investigators. Meanwhile, we're looking at another possible, a police officer named carla dane and dated her before he met cara. And perhaps more importantly, they had another flying the year before an's death when SHE and care of briefly separated.

And from carl is perspective, perhaps the love of her life was coming .

back to her and some more credit .

cards and more spending here here yes. And as with uh and friend mark uh and started to ack up a little bit of debt on carless behalf.

racked up about ten thousand dollars on carless card but then in late two thousand and nine and returned to her wife left carla SHE was dumped her.

He was blind sided. Carla said he was devastated.

SHE took him very hard, so was Carried in the basement that march day. Here's a person who is romantically involved, emotionally tied to her, is dumped and their money issues between them.

He was on the short list of persons of interest or a suspects column, what you will.

But carla told investigator SHE was at her gym a half hour draw from the rental a house the afternoon of the murder, SHE said. SHE went out for a long run. Security images supported her account is car is l by rock solid or desert up a window for foul play.

I would say it's pretty rocks solid. Unless he had access to a helicopter bat left investigators .

with the suspect who top their license, the murder, the person who knew I N best, who loved her and who could get into IT weather behind closed doors, as Karen admitted in our .

police interviews, and look at physical, absolutely. And i'm no Angel, but I can actually say I was definitely back and forth me.

Investigators learned their troubles were well documented in two thousand eight and had Carried arrested for assault. SHE dropped charges a year later. The couple not only separated, each woman filed for divorce with an asking for sole custody, a briana. Each woman also applied for a restraining order against the other. Briana caught in the middle when .

the other would try to pull briona away. That was problematic.

So the child was the glue that held him together. But IT was also the source of a lot of this friction. correct? Money was an issue too, as is so often was, with an.

though its finances were now starting to become commingled and and's dad, and in spending problems were part starting to become a problem for care to.

But in early two thousand and ten, they appeared to be working on their marriage in february. They went on that trip. Then came march twenty nine, the bottom of the stairs, and only one person, investigators believed, had the opportunity and motive to kill. That day.

All the evidence kept leading us right back in barton street with that .

homicide occurred, but they knew they had a .

circumstantial case. There was no single piece of evidence which conclusively said Karen tala killed her wife.

Even so, eighteen months after ann's death in october two thousand and eleven, Carry and taller was arrested and charged with murder. Carrs mom got a call to pick up briana .

and briana when I got there, he said, why is mommy crying? I had to think fast. I said, because she's a great parameter. An the'd needed her for an important job and so they took her. And that's why she's crying, because she's not gna get to see you right away.

Cameron taller became the first woman in massachuset story to be charged with the murder of a lovely weed wife. An extraordinary journey through the criminal justice system was just beginning.

Prosecutors knew when Cameron taller was arrested in late two thousand eleven for murder, they had a mighty chAllenge on their head, and so IT proved the trial opened in early two thousand and thirteen, and IT ended three weeks later with a long jury news.

And northampton jury .

has failed to come with unanimous verdict a year later.

in two thousand fourteen. Trial number two, same thing happened. Incredible as IT seems, another hung jury ands family, convinced that carroll was the killer, was frustrated, wondering why a jury couldn't get there. I trusted her with my niece e's life.

and he took IT.

Soon after, croll was bonded out of jail free to spend precious time with briana. Meantime, prosecutors resealed with the facts. We had a circumstantial case, no smoking gun, no eyewitnesses. Would they go again? You really do have to step back and say, are we going to do this a third time we did?

The first thing we did was we consulted with and family. They were on board. And that, I think, gave us the strength and the courage to step up again.

So what was set carrer antella would be tried a third time for the murder of her wife hand. But first, carrot had a heart to heart talk with brigantes, a now nine years old.

SHE said, some people think I did something bad, something terrible, but I just want you to know that it's not true.

In september two thousand sixteen, trial number three opens here at hampshire superior court in north hampton, mass. Prosecutors Steve gagny and gene seul returned with a streamline argument.

We were caught sort of in this trap of being responsive to the defense, and we decided, let's play offence in trial.

Number two, they put the possibility on the stand only to knock them down as vital spects. And that might have been confusing. So this time they were gone. Now they focused on cara and the helpless victim at the bottom of the basement stairs, the wife who was strangled, they said, for as long as four minutes until he died.

her last precious bus that he took on us, her, we're taken with the defendants hands around her neck, freezing, freezing, freezing and freezing more until every last breath of her was gone.

Prosecutors laid out a timely for murder that began with the nasty fight by text the night before, and working the overnight angry when he learned carrot had a male friend over to the house. I hate the relationship we have. No one does that.

No respect. Careers response. Okay, you're being over the top. And crazy IT really .

is in our mind a fuse being let, something that continues .

to the next day, the next morning, the last of her life and a phone aholic called or texted friends and family members fifty eight times.

One final entry.

the final call to her beloved at Nancy, was placed at twelve twenty one. Then, on characteristically and on silent.

can you remember voice and .

know .

me so you do not speak to me that day?

No, I didn't. The timing of that last call was important, prosecutors argued, because they theorized the terror murdered wife soon after, then spent hours cleaning and covering up. Remember that afternoon of errands, prosecutors showed security video of cara and beyond shopping and argued IT was part of the cover up.

SHE leaves the house around three according to her bit. SHE doesn't pop up on surveilLance video until A B O P M that .

evening at the holy OK mall starts using her debit car left and right to .

make miniscule little purchases.

SHE was trying to be seen. SHE was trying to be elsewhere. In short.

he was creating a digital alii .

for herself and o two prosecutors played voice males, all play acting. They said.

I please, please, please, please.

The whole reason she's out, we have to try to let her get some sleep.

That just didn't add up. And now a pretty big deal. These cleaning rags.

Can you just follow that up for the jury to see?

Prosecutors said tera used them to mop up. One contained a woman's DNA, which the prosecution experts said could have been a but IT was what carrot did with a rags that prosecutors wanted to talk about that her vehicle unsurveyed ance video, leaving mcDonald's .

SHE decides to get out of fun truck in a pouring rain storm walk over to the far this most pressure special deals dispose three cleaning rags and drive away prosecutor is also .

highlights ted Carries odd behavior after he saw and feet the bottom of the stairs .

care is a parameter. This is her wife. What does he do? Does SHE rush down there? Oh, my god. And are you okay?

no. SHE raced to the neighbor's, prosecutors told jurors, then ran back home with one more job to do before .

the paramedics and the police arrive. SHE makes one final, desperate attempt at covering up SHE picks up that container of pain SHE pours that paint.

But instead of masking the evidence, the prosecutor said that paint pointed to caress.

killed the stiffe body was clearly not something that had just happened. The painting being on the floor was something that had just happened.

and now prosecutors played their ages. They called a new witness to bolster their case. Someone not heard from in previous trials, engineer David Juliana, he really did watch paint dry, conducting dozens of lab experiments.

Were you able to form opinion as to the time frame within which that line before? yes. And what is your opinion? Within .

approximately minutes of the time the first responders arrived, that would be many hours after prosecutors said and died, the final coat of a slapped dash cover up. But motivation, why did the more sensible one of the two, by most accounts, turn on her fairy partner? Prosecutors said the seeds were planted some ten months earlier, and they played an audio tape from a contentious court hearing to prove i'm not going to play games with this.

IT was made two thousand and nine, and and kara had each file those restraining orders against the other. A district court judge heard them snipping at each other and interrupt IT, threatening to have dcf, the department of children and families, take custody of rea. If I see that come into this core, I will be on the phone to D, C, F.

So fast they'll be here before you get out the door. IT was a turning point because of the judges warning. Each woman now knew that one wrong move could cost them custody of the daughter they order. So the prosecutors theory of what happened on march twenty nine, there was a violent fight and and went down those stairs, whether he was pushed or not, they couldn't say what matter, they told jurors, was what happened at the bottom of the stairs.

The defendant had to make a choice call for help, likely face criminal charges, lose her home, lose her daughter, lose her lively code, or on the other hand, make and go away.

And SHE made .

her choice. Now.

IT was over two carrots defensive. They'd manage to avoid conviction twice. Could they do IT a third time?

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Take down current taller family and friends agree on a couple of things. First, that carrot is a great mom, and if he has to sing herself silly to entertain her daughter, well, she's in.

The second thing friend say, is this carrot did not murder her wife. Not in a million years. Susan curtis Carry .

would never do that. The woman that I know, the devoted, faithful mother that I know, would never, ever do that to her wife.

When the third trial commenced, friends and family SAT behind carrot in court, practically willing a Victory, attorney David, who is open as he had, and trials one and two for the defense.

This case, ladies in gene, is about unconscious bias, a mind said that caused the investigators and the experts to focus on one theory, one person, to ignore everything that didn't fit that.

One theory was, of course, the Carry murdered her wife in the course of one final terrible five. The mindset torney, who said, was there from the very beginning, and the neighbor's nine, one, one call listen to the dispatcher's words, he said the other was down the basement and but he did maybe .

the etic and attorney y who said.

remembers this question from detectives ly tenant Whitney a scant seven minutes into the lengthy police interview on the night and died now .

it's a lift back of a bit. You have a history. Domestic violence will be in a right.

Even that powerful voice from court, if I see that come into this core parasite, insisted that noisy scolding from the judge was anything but the trigger for murder.

Did this scare them? absolutely. That was when they to turn around, and they decided they had .

to get up for the prety much. And by march two thousand and ten, although prosecutors hadn't acknowledged the defense soldiers, the couple had put their troubles behind them.

They focus on a nine months period, which was on ably a rocky patch in this relationship are nine months period out of a nine year relationship.

But what about that angry valley of text message? Is the night before the murder the fuss over carrey's male friends visit a tourney?

Hoose hit that hard? The commonwealth wants you to believe this was the battle of all battles in the fight that ended everything. Well, you know, you've gotto have some proof for that, and they don't. And i'll tell you why you can look at these text. And once again, carrot is the calm one and is the one who goes from zero to sixty in about three seconds.

And by the next morning, the defense attorney said, and was going her breeze way, promising her buddy mark that big kiss in a text.

not a word about fighting with Carry. Not, not a word. Even like jeep, things aren't too good around here right now. Cari had a big fight like that .

then to that afternoon of errands and from parasite, an explanation for the trip to that trash can at mcDonald.

because that's what they did. They had to pay for their trash bags in gambie, so they were dumping their trash, whether and whenever they could levels.

The defense brought in its own expert to knock down the prosecutors argument that one of the rags contain an DNA.

I have no idea who what the source of the DNA on that rag is.

It's a solid, but perhaps the most damaging evidence against carrot was the paint attourney hoose went after the prosecutions paint eye on cross, his weapon of choice. sarcasm.

You are the first guy, far as you know, who's ever testified about reading wrinkles and cracks and paint. Is that right? Yeah, congratulations. You're the first. We please .

change the the defense .

tourney had to persuade ors that carrot hadn't poured the paint. He accused the paint expert of buying into the first responders observation .

that the paint was wept. And your first responders responses are people you've never met, correct? And you don't know how much training they have if they've ever.

You can seen a bucket of paint before, correct? great. Yet you're willing to credit their subjective impression that the paint was either wet or shine, correct?

Finally, the defense called of all people state trooper Jamie margerie. In the first two trials, the lead investigator has been a heavy weight witness for the prosecution. Not this time, the trooper was vital to the defense theory of a keystone cops investigation, and the defensive tourney had pressing questions.

Forum, is he going to say, investigator, you ran a shape case here. You have didn't secure the scene. Yes, yes, you didn't run. There were things to be known. You're reliant on this junk science of how painter ize.

yes, that his job, he just needs one negative .

doubt in .

pursuit of that, not get the defensive journey, grow the investigator about the two people of interest first, mark alec, remember, he changed his alibi, but what motive could he have for murder? Well, maybe this. And the drama queen had angered him when he left her wife for her old girlfriend.

He described that he had a big fallout with, and that, correct?

yes.

In the fallout was when he became aware that and was seeing an old girlfriend. correct? Yes, an old girlfriend named color Daniel ell. correct? correct.

A whisp doubt, perhaps dating back to and and carer separation. And what about carla? Remember, he said he'd been miles away at the gym and out running on the day of the murder. Security images seem to support that account, but the defense produced a bank record date to the day of hand's death from an A, T. M, closer to the crime scene.

and the gym did ever ask her about how that could have happened if he was running in his small matter.

I don't know that I never asked that the name .

of the game for criminal defense lawyers is creating reasonable down. Had whose managed to do that? We've got the answer next and more. We'll tell you why this case is still making headlines seven years later.

This is the most unusual procedurally unique case that i've worked on in my twenty some ideas of being a prospect.

The jury deliberated for one day, two days, three days. Would IT be another hung jury? That was the question that would please? Yes, IT would not on day for a verdict.

She's guilty of murder in the first degree.

Guilty of murder one, the most severe charge .

after .

two hong juries.

IT was a stunner, all right, and the sentence was Mandated life without parole.

It's like you can't believe IT.

There's nothing, nothing to point to cara. How could this possibly be the worst possible outcome?

How team .

carrer struggle .

to accept the verdict in prison, Carol struggle to figuring out how to be a long distance mother to briana, who went to live with carla Sandy, everybody holding on to hope for a successful appeal that took years, attorney chancy would argue the case.

The core of our argument was that the commonwealth introduced an opinion from a fellow who claims to be an expert on paint, and in fact, the opinion he delivered was not reliable.

Five years after carroll was convicted, wood's argument Carried the day the .

state's highest court has overturned the twenty sixteen murder conviction against Carol antler.

IT was a blow. IT was a really a good punch.

Prosecutor Steve ga. Gne prepared to have yet another difficult talk with an's family.

An's father build IT past. By that point, our concern was, can the family even get through another trial? But after some thought and after some deliberation, they said, we're willing, if you're willing. And and we decided to go again morning.

Now before the it's rare that someone stands trial four times for murder, but that's what happened here. Carry on tellers. Fourth trial, open dance, september twenty twenty three.

The prosecution pared down its witness list again. This time there would be no paint expert. Instead, they stuck to what they thought was their strong suit.

I would say the the strongest part of our case, in my opinion, was the time of death.

The prosecution called a former chief medical examiner to the stand.

Did you, in fact, form an opinion as to animal tellis estimate a time of death?

My review of the evidence suggests that animal, even toi, died in a window of time between midday, late morning and early afternoon. I think the evidence does not support death having occurred any later than one o'clock or so.

And Carry, by her own admission, was in the house until about three pm. So that was, I think, our bedrock.

Throughout this case, the prosecution had merely tweet its case. But the defense .

made in germany, this whole investigation started.

There was a brand new team for trial four LED by a brushed boston attorney named rosemary skippy.

We put our heart and soul into her defense because we believe in her and we believe in .

her innocence scope.

I pounds at home the message that the investigators war blinders and never look seriously at other suspects.

They were only looking at car and top, and they were working really hard to make the pieces fit. And if you don't look anywhere else, you can keep those blinders on and you don't have to do the rest of the investigation.

Time of depth was key to the defense case, too scope to what, after the prosecutions argument that and died before carrer left the house at three pm, you put your own medical expert on the stand to cast out on .

the prosecutors diamond. You could you up my metal, dying out the trade park? I could not rule that out. Latest and gentleman, you take the blinders off. When you look at the information regarding time of death without glanders, you'll come to one conclusion and that the commute has failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable thought because caro y taller didn't kill her wife.

With that, a fourth jury got the case.

You know, you can't predict what a jury is doing. You always have hope that your clients gona walk out the door with you. Not this time we, the jury unanimously find the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

not murder one, the verdict or last trial, not even murder two. This time, the jury found Karen teller guilty of a lesser charge that Carried a lesser sentence, but still a loss for the defense.

Devastating to have your client stand next to you and have a jury come back and say that she's guilty and understand them that she's probably going to go back to jail is just devastating.

Two weeks after the trial ended, everyone was back in court for sentencing cara and handcuff s. Her daughter bryon a now six in tears. He appealed to the judge for her mom's release.

I need my mom this case so that when I was very Young, I do not remember my mother, man and at all. The only mother I have ever remembered is there is .

not enough words in the dictionary for me to explain my heart, my pain.

asking you to at least my mom right away.

And the ands former sisteron law je cochran was in court for the sentencing. SHE found briana statement artist .

through the effect that I was witness to briana sitting in that courtroom and didn't even call her mom color, and cockin SHE did not know who he was. And there's one person to blame for that.

Carol was sentenced to no less than twelve years, and no more than fourteen sh'll get credit for the more than seven years she's already served. Another appeal is in the words.

It's been more than a dozen years since and died. Je, for her part, still misses that exuberant spirit.

I don't want people to remember that he was lying on the basement floor covered in paint. I want them to remember her the way that I do, which is her infectious smile. And I want that memory. I don't want the bad memory.

Animi cockin rintoul A A woman who took life in big gulp S A joy, a soul, a huge smile and a heart to match.

That's all forward now i'm less or hot. Thanks for joining us.

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