and her family. >> because i don't want them to come out of this and hate or be angry about what happened. >> it would be easy to be angry. >> it would be very easy to be angry. i don't want them to see the bad part of it. i want them to come, turn that bad situation into something positive. >> that's all for this addition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "date line." >> when buttons are pushed, people get angry. you know, in my brain, they're at the top of the stairs and they're struggling. i eventually heard a lot of details i didn't really want to hear. i had nightmares for months. >> a young mother dead at the bottom of the stairs. >> things in this crime scene

were moved before we got here. >> things weren't adding up per. >> her body bloodied and covered if paint. >> it was on the front of her body, it's around her arms a. >> it's another means of covering up. >> who was covering up and why.? was in this murder about money? >> anna marie was a big spender. she owed other people money. >> it was a relationship of extremes, hot, cold, wild, calm. >> and caught in the middle, the person she loved most. >> everything was about breanna, everything. >> would a body covered in paint help a killer cover up a murder? >> almost 24 years doing this job, i've never seen a perfect crime. >> a history-making case with a verdict that stung everyone. >> god where art thou. hello and welcome to "dateline."

ann rentala lived life out loud and she was a trailblazer. she and her can wife, kara, were among the first to say i do when same-sex marriage became legal in their state. with the adoption of breanna, the three were a perfect picture of a happy family. but when ann was found sprawled dead on her basement floor covered in paint, investigators began piecing together a darker truth. here is ennis murphy with "at the bottom of the stairs." >> phone calls of the are you sitting down kind started buzzing on a rainy evening in western massachusetts. it was march 29, 2010. >> i said oh, my god, you've got to be kidding me. >> the news was heartbreaking. incomprehensible. >> it couldn't be. it's just wrong. >> word spread from family members to friends. >> how did you find out

something awful happened? >> i was at my desk at the time and my wife called me and said sit down. >> i heard there was an accident. that's what i heard. >> anna marie cochran rentalla, ann, to friends and family, was dead. she was only 37, married, a mother. now her body lay at the bottom of the basement stairs. >> it was devastating. >> as a little girl growing up among a big irish italian family in springfield, mass, she loved the limelight. asquali is her uncle. >> the first time i seen her take the stage and sing, it knocked me out. >> not afraid of the spotlight? >> no, she loved it. >> she could belt it out to the rafters, but was she any good? >> her friends t.j. and mary are very diplomatic.

>> she thought so. >> she was -- oh. >> no, she could carry a tune, but she thought she was better than she actually was. >> t.j. became tight with ann in high school and one on day the two of them pulled off a ferris bueller spectacular. skipping school, road tripping all the way from springfield to new york city in her mother's car. they were 16. >> t.j., that's a hooky day. that's not just going to the movies or hanging out. >> no, it was a big day. however, we ended up getting caught because ann left the ticket for the george washington bridge in the car. >> new york driving is not for the intimidating. >> i agree. she was impulsive. >> the bright lights she went for were atop an ambulance. she became a paramedic. she wasn't all look at me in the spotlight. she wanted to serve, too. >> she liked helping people.

i'm not surprised she ended up working with people. >> did she like the adrenaline of it? >> yes. >> definitely. that's who she was. >> it was under those flashing lights back in 2002 that ann met another paramedic named karen rentala and fell for the her. she was compassionat. if everything about ann was larger than life, everything about cara was contained, even cautious. sandy is cara's mom, carl montana her stepdad. >> she had a plan, always had a plan. was very conscious of where she was headed in life. >> after a couple of years together, cara moved into ann's how and they decided to adopt. >> this is a real step. being a couple together and moving in together is different than we're going to raise a child together.

this is a commitment. >> i don't think it was looked upon lightly. i remember cara wanted a 3 or 3-year-old boy and they ended up with a 6-day-old girl. >> weeks after breanna came into their lives, ann and cara quiet thely went to the courthouse and got hitched. >> she and ann are defining their relationship at a prominent time in american sexual politics and especially the state of massachusetts was just taking the lead on same-sex relationships and courts. >> well, i don't think that cara would have gotten married just because she didn't feel like a piece of paper was that important. but ann really wanted to have the same last knight name as breanna. >> in the years that followed, there were happy times with breanna. the little girl who meant the world to them. a day before ann died, they attended surface at the reverend lori sauder serene church and everyone seemed so contented, fresh from a vacation.

>> when i stand at the pulpit and i look around, it's like, they are here. they've returned. i knew they were away the in florida. and they were full of light. >> when suzanne saw them after the service, they struck her as a couple who had it altogether. >> they were showing me pictures of a trip they had gone on and they seemed like perfectly happy. >> so how to explain the horror at the bottom of the stairs? poor ann lying stiff as a man kin. and something beyond strange, there was paint all over the place. on the body and beside it. >> what had happened to ann.? a terrible accident or an act as deliberate as it was deadly? coming up -- >> it was a large amount of blood and there's several lacerations to the head. >> when "dateline" continues.

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on that rainy march afternoon when ann died, cara was running errands with her 2-year-old daughter. she got home around 7:00 p.m., saw the basement light on and inside, cara peered down the basement stares. her wife's bare feet were lying on the floor. cara grabbed her daughter and raced to her neighbor's. then home again. >> my neighbor just came over and she told me to call 911. she was pretty distraught. >> reporter: she was. when sergeant gary poehler of

the granby police department arrived at the rintala house about 7:20, he heard cara before he saw her. >> it was, "she's dead, i can't believe she's dead." crying, lots of crying. >> reporter: nothing prepared sergeant poehler for what he saw when he went down those basement stairs. >> there was cara rintala, sitting on the floor with a female, looked like a female party across her lap. later found out it was anne marie. she had her eyes open. her arms were out, extended like this. >> reporter: there was blood. smeared and streaked. and something truly weird. >> paint all over the place. all over this female that she had across her lap. >> reporter: within minutes, more first responders arrive some were paramedics who kw cara and ann, had workedith them. they helped an hysterical cara out from under ann's body. took her upstairs to wash. massachusetts state trooper

jamie magarian, the lead investigator, studied the scene. let it talk to him. any obvious injuries to the victim here? are we talking about stab wounds, bullets holes -- >> no. no. >> reporter: lacerations, abrasions? >> there's a large amount of blood and there's several lacerations to the -- the head. >> reporter: it seemed like the body had been there for a while. >> i touched the deceased for the first time, with rigor mortis setting in, i thought, how long that body had been on that floor. >> reporter: there was an open paint bucket at the scene. and paint -- light-colored 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 other paint on the deceased that was still wet and a large amount of paint on the floor that was wet. >> reporter: did this look like the case of somebody who had taken a bad fall? and somehow ends up knocking into the paint can and causing the paint to spill 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. >> reporter: other things spoke to the trooper. items on the basement floor with blood under them. the trooper took out a pencil and gingerly lifted a laundry basket. there was blood beneath it. what'd that tell you? >> it tells me that, you know, things in this crime scene were moved before we got here. >> reporter: police videoed the scene. that night, a shattered cara rintala called family members, breaking the dreadful news. and then she went to the granby police department for an interview. it was almost midnight when detective lieutenant robin whitney hit record, turning the clock back to 8:30 that same morning when ann got home from her overnight shift. >> we were talking. she made me coffee. >> reporter: playtime with a noisy brianna followed. then lunch. and after, a request from ann, a paramedic, remember, who was trying to nap before another overnight shift. >> she's like, can you just go to the mall or whatever. >> reporter: cara and brianna left the house about 3:00 p.m.,

she told detective lieutenant whitney, the good-bye to ann -- just matter-of-fact. >> that's all i can think of, you know? is the little good-bye greeting. "see you later," you know? and here we are. >> reporter: mother and daughter had a busy outing, shopping for socks at the mall, going to mcdonalds to grab food for brianna and then, a change of heart, going to a burger king instead for mac and cheese. >> and haven't been able to get ahold of ann. we've been texting, we've been calling. >> reporter: then home. brianna spotted ann's body first. >> and bri's like, "mama down there?" and i -- well, i didn't know what to do. i was just -- i wanted to scream. i wanted to run down there. but i didn't want to freak brianna out. i didn't know. so i ran out the house.

>> reporter: ran to her neighbor's with her daughter. then ran back home alone to ann. >> laying on her belly, not moving. not moving. not moving. >> did you turn her over? >> yeah. yeah. so i did. i did. >> yeah? >> i wanted to turn her over, you know, like -- you know? and she was cold. >> reporter: and then, she said, she sat with her arms around her wife's body. >> this is nothing like i've ever been trained for. i've never -- >> i know. >> experienced anything like this. honestly, training? i could -- i know now, i couldn't work on a loved one. >> reporter: but what about the paint? >> where'd the paint come from? paint's been down there for months. >> reporter: it looked as though ann fell down those stairs. so what happened down there? was it an accident? or something more sinister? >> you can't rule anything out. >> reporter: but trooper magarian was determined to find out. little did he know how long it would take. >> reporter: coming up, reasons for suspicion.

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ask your doctor about eliquis. ♪ >> reporter: the longer investigators studied the scene in the rintala basement, the more certain they became that something sinister had happened down there. something sinister that somehow involved paint. lead investigator

jamie magarian. >> you have wet paint. we know items are moved in the basement. those are all flags that come up. >> reporter: and days later, the medical examiner would confirm those suspicions. the cause of death was strangulation. ann was a homicide victim. pasquale martin is her uncle. >> reporter: an accidental death would've been easier, wouldn't it? >> of course, it would. but to have somebody rob somebody from you, steal, take, murder, just rip them from the world, you know, hard to fathom, hard to swallow. >> reporter: now investigators were looking into a murder. they began a deep dive into ann's life. prosecutors steve gagne and jen suhl of the district attorney's office joined the team. they learned that ann cochrane rintala's life could often be grand opera. and her relationships could be complicated. take the thing she had going with a fellow paramedic named mark oleksak. >> mark oleksak was a very close friend of anamarie. they started as co-workers then became very, very close friends.

>> reporter: the two were on intimate texting terms. that last morning, ann texted mark asking him to go to best buy for her. "can you please go sat at 6a for me. i will get there about 825a with a coffee. and a big kiss." mark, at the time, is a married man. >> he was a married man, two children. >> i think very clearly there was an emotional affair at a minimum that happened between mark and ann. >> reporter: investigators didn't think the two had a sexual relationship, but it was clear they had a financial thing going. mark opened his line of credit to ann. no small thing where ann was concerned, because her big passion was shopping. ann's friends t.j. donahue and mary petrone. >> i do know that ann loves jewelry. she loves nice things. >> gadgets, right? >> gadgets, cameras. i mean in high school, she was that same kind of person. so, she loved to spend money. >> reporter: and sometimes the spending got ahead of her. mark learned that. >> he co-signed, i think it was three total credit cards with

her, one of which had racked up about a $7,000 balance at one point. >> reporter: and another thing. after ann's death, when investigators asked mark what he was doing the day of the murder, he wasn't straight with the facts. not at the beginning. first, he said he was at home that day. later, he changed his account, said he'd actually been shopping, then shared a meal with his family. >> reporter: that must make your nose twitch when a guy doesn't give you the straight out story. >> i agree. it's going to raise the suspicions a little bit. >> reporter: even though mark oleksak's story changed, investigators accepted it. he had receipts for his purchases. and the final texts between the two seemed to affirm they were close until the end, mark promising ann a "big long kiss cause i love you." >> even the morning of the murder they were very lovey-dovey on text messages that particular morning. >> reporter: and you don't think -- >> but he also -- >> reporter: the financial -- the outstanding debt gets you there? >> no. there was nothing to suggest that mark was upset about that outstanding debt. she was paying him back for that debt. >> reporter: but investigators

were looking at another possible. a police officer named carla daniele. ann had dated her before she met cara. but it turns out, that wasn't the last time the two would be an item. in 2009, ann and cara were going through a rough patch. they separated for a few months and ann went back to carla. >> and from carla's perspective, perhaps the love of her life was coming back to her. >> reporter: and some more credit cards and more spending here, huh? >> yes. and as with ann's friend, mark, ann started to rack up a little bit a debt on carla's behalf. >> reporter: racked up about $10,000 on carla's card. but then in late 2009, ann abruptly returned to cara and their daughter. carla was history. she was dumped, huh? >> she was blindsided. carla said she was devastated. she took it very hard. >> reporter: so was carla in the basement that march day? here's a person who was romantically involved, emotionally tied to her, is dumped and there are money issues between them. >> she was on the short list of

persons of interest or suspects, call them what you will. >> reporter: but carla told investigators she went to her gym, a 30-minute drive from the rintala home, about 3:00 p.m. the afternoon of the murder. said she went out for a long run. then left the gym at 7:00 p.m. investigators located security images that supported her account. is carla's alibi rock solid? or does it have a window for foul play? >> i would say it's pretty rock solid unless she had access to a helicopter. >> reporter: that left investigators with one remaining suspect, the one who'd topped their list since the night of the murder. the person who knew ann best, who loved her, and who fought with her -- cara. because as sunny as these two seemed in public, sometimes behind closed doors they went after one another. as cara admitted in her police interview. >> we'd argue and it would get physical, absolutely. and i'm no angel.

but i can honestly say it was definitely back and forth, you know what i mean? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: their troubles were well-documented. in 2008, ann had cara arrested for assault. she dropped the charges. but a year later, each woman filed for divorce, with ann asking for custody of daughter brianna. within weeks, each applied for a restraining order against the other. brianna was caught in the middle. >> when the other would try to pull brianna away that was problematic. >> reporter: so the child was the glue that held them together, but it was -- >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: also the source of a lot of this friction, huh? >> correct. >> reporter: money was an issue, as it so often was with ann. cara was frugal. ann, free-spending.

and between them, a growing pile of debt. >> their finances were now starting to become commingled. and ann's debt and ann's spending problems were part -- starting to become a problem for cara, too. >> reporter: but in early 2010, they were together, working hard on their marriage. in february, they went on a cruise. then came march 29th. 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 to barton street, where that homicide occurred. >> reporter: but they knew they had a circumstantial case. >> there was no single piece of evidence which conclusively said, "cara rintala killed her wife." >> reporter: still, they decided to go for it. 18 months after ann's death, in october, 2011, cara rintala, living in rhode island by then with her daughter, was arrested and charged with ann's murder. cara's mom got a call to come pick up brianna. >> and brianna, when i got there she said, "why was mommy crying?" i had to think fast. i said, "because she's a great paramedic and they needed her for an important job." and so, they took her. and that's why she's crying because she's not going to get to see you right away. >> reporter: so it was that cara rintala would have the dubious distinction of being the first woman in massachusetts history to be charged with the

murder of her lawfully wedded wife. an extraordinary journey through the criminal justice system was just beginning. >> reporter: coming up -- little evidence, but some odd behavior when cara saw her wife at the bottom of the stairs. >> cara's a paramedic. what does she do? does she rush down there, "oh, my god, ann! are you okay?" no. 's a lot going on underneath that i can't see. new crest gum detoxify works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. new crest gum detoxify. a little to the left. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go!

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president trump has returned to the white house after his speech at the world economic forum yesterday in davos, switzerland. the president's address sounded an america first theme. and his speech coming about the same time as the commerce department reported a slowing in economic growth in the last quarter of 2017. the 2.6% growth in the gdp was about half a percentage point

less than the previous quarter. now back to "dateline." welcome back the to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. after a lengthy investigation, police arrested cara rintala for her wife. but as prosecutors head to time, they had little evidence to support their case. could they convince the jury that this doting mother was a murderer? >> reporter: prosecutors knew when cara rintala was arrested in late 2011 for murder, they had a mighty challenge on their hands. and so it proved. the trial opened in early 2013. and it ended, three weeks later, with a hung jury. >> breaking news, a northampton jury has failed to come to a unanimous verdict. >> reporter: a year later, in 2014, trial number two.

same thing happened, incredible as it seems. another hung jury. ann's family, convinced that cara was the killer, was frustrated, wondering why a jury couldn't get there. >> i trusted her with my niece's life. and she took it. >> reporter: soon after, cara was bonded out of jail, free to spend precious time with brianna. meantime, prosecutors wrestled with the facts. they 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 ann's family they were onboard. and that i think gave us the strength and the courage to step up again. >> reporter: so it was set. cara rintala would be tried a third time for the murder of her wife ann. but first, cara had a heart-to-heart talk with brianna, now 9 years old. >> she told her a lot. and she says -- >> that some people -- >> mom, i already knew. >> she says, "some people think

i did something bad, something terrible. but i just want you to know that it's not true." >> reporter: in september, 2016, trial number three opened here at hampshire superior court in northampton, mass. prosecutors steve gagne and jen suhl returned with a streamlined argument. >> we were caught sort of in this trap of being responsive to the defense and we decided let's play offense. >> reporter: in trial number two, they'd put the possibles, mark oleksak and carla daniele, on the stand, only to knock them down as viable suspects. perhaps, they reasoned, they had confused jurors. so this time, they were gone. and now they focused on cara, and the helpless victim who fell down those stairs. the wife who was strangled, they said, for as long as four minutes, until she died. >> her last precious breaths that she took on this earth were taken with the defendant's hands around her neck. squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, and squeezing more, until every last breath of her was gone. >> reporter: prosecutors laid out a timeline for murder that

began with a nasty fight by text the night before. ann, working the overnight, jealous that cara was home alone with a male friend. she lashed out, "i hate the relationship we have. no one does that. no respect." cara's response, "okay, you beg overhe top and cra." >> it really is, in our mind, a fuseeing lit, something that continues into the next day. >> reporter: the next morning, the last of her life, ann, a phoneaholic, called or texted friends and family members 58 times. >> i want show you one final entry. >> reporter: the final call to her beloved aunt nancy was placed at 12:21 p.m. then, uncharacteristically, ann went silent. >> do you remember if she left a voicemail on that occasion? >> no, ma'am. >> you did not speak to

annamarie that day, is that correct? >> no, i didn't. >> reporter: the timing of that last call was important, prosecutors argued, because they theorized cara murdered her wife soon after, then spent hours cleaning and covering up. remember that afternoon of errands? prosecutors showed security video of cara and brianna shopping and argued it was part of the cover-up. >> she leaves the house around 3:00 p.m., according to her, but she doesn't pop up on surveillance video until 5:00 p.m. that evening at the holyoke mall. >> suddenly starts using her debit card left and right to make miniscule little purchases. >> reporter: what was going on, do you think? >> she was trying to be seen. she was trying to be elsewhere. in short, she was creating a digital alibi for herself. >> we are still driving. love you. bye. >> reporter: an audio alibi, too. prosecutors played voicemails. all play-acting, they said. >> on our way to burger king. call. please, please, please. >> the whole reason she's out is to try to let her get some sleep. that just didn't add up. >> reporter: and now, a pretty big deal.

these cleaning rags. >> can you just hold that up for the jury to see? >> reporter: prosecutors said cara used them to mop up. one contained a woman's dna. which the prosecution's expert said could have been ann's. but it was what cara did with the rags, that prosecutors wanted to talk about. that's her vehicle on surveillance video leaving mcdonald's. >> she decides to get out of her truck in a pouring rainstorm, walk over to the farthest-most trash receptacle at mcdonald's, dispose of three cleaning rags and drive away. >> reporter: they also highlighted cara's odd behavior after she saw ann's feet at the bottom of the stairs. cara's a paramedic. this is her wife. what does she do? does she rush down there, "oh, my god, ann! are you okay?" no. >> reporter: she raced to the neighbors, 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 paint. she pours that paint. >> reporter: but instead of

masking the evidence, the prosecutors said, that paint pointed to cara's guilt. >> the stiff body was clearly not something that had just happened. the paint being on the floor was something that had just happened. >> reporter: and now prosecutors played their ace. they called a new witness to bolster their case, someone not heard from in previous trials. >> do you solemnly swear to -- >> reporter: engineer david guillianelli. he really did watch paint dry, conducting dozens of lab experiments. >> were you able to form an opinion as to that time frame when the paint might have hit the floor? >> yes. >> and what is your opinion? >> within approximately 30 minutes of the time the first responders arrived. >> reporter: the final coat of a slap-dash cover-up. but motivation. why did by most accounts, the more sensible one of the two, turn on her fiery partner? prosecutors said the seeds were planted some ten months earlier. and they played an audiotape from a contentious court hearing to prove it. >> i'm not going to play games

with this. >> reporter: it was may, 2009. ann and cara had each filed those restraining orders against the other. a district court judge heard them sniping at each other and erupted, threatening to have dcf, the department of children and families, take custody of brianna. >> if i see that come into this court, i'll be on the phone to dcf so fast, they'll be here before you get out the door. >> reporter: it was a turning point. because of the judge's warning, each woman now knew that one wrong move could cost them custody of the daughter they adored. so the prosecutors' theory of what happened on march 29th. there was a violent fight and ann went down those stairs. whether she was pushed or not, they couldn't say. what mattered, 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 livelihood. or, on the other hand, make ann go away. and she made her choice. >> reporter: now it was over to cara's defense team. they'd managed to avoid conviction twice. could they do it a third time? >> reporter: coming up, from witness to the prosecution, to a key witness for the defense. >> is he going to say, "investigator, you ran a shabby case here. you didn't secure the scene." >> yeah. he just needs one nugget of doubt. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. 's. ♪ a complete multivitamin specially formulated with key nutrients plus vitamin d for bone health support. your one a day is showing.

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♪ take it down take it down >> reporter: cara rintala's family and friends agree on a couple of things. first, that cara is a great mom. ♪ do i do i >> reporter: and if she has to sing herself silly to entertain her daughter -- well, she's in. ♪ my beautiful daughter brianna ♪ >> reporter: the second thing friends say is this, cara did not murder her wife. not in a million years. suzanne cordes, who first met cara at church, says she knows her like a sister. >> cara would never do that. the woman that i know, the devoted, loyal, compassionate, caring, thoughtful, faithful mother that i know would never ever do that to her wife. >> reporter: when the third trial commenced, friends and family sat behind cara in court, practically willing a victory. attorney david hoose opened, as

he had in trials one and two, for the defense. >> this case, ladies and gentlemen, is about unconscious bias. a mindset that caused the investigators and the experts to focus on one theory, one person and to ignore everything that didn't fit, sometimes going to frankly ridiculous extremes to do so. >> reporter: that one theory was, of course, that cara murdered her wife in the course of one final terrible fight. the mindset, attorney hoose said, was there from the very beginning, in the neighbor's 911 call. listen to the dispatcher's words. >> she said the other one was down in the basement and but she didn't say -- >> maybe it's a domestic. >> reporter: and, attorney hoose said, remember this question from detective lieutenant whitney, a scant

seven minutes into the lengthy police interview on the night ann died. >> all right, so let's back up a bit. you have a history of domestic violence with anna, right? >> reporter: even that powerful voice from court. >> if i see that come into this court. >> reporter: cara's side insisted that noisy scolding from the judge was anything but the trigger for murder. did that scare them? >> yeah, absolutely. that was when they did a turnaround and they decided they had to, you know, grow up -- >> reporter: straighten up for the daughter? >> yeah, pretty much. >> reporter: and by march, 2010, although prosecutors hadn't acknowledged it, the defense told jurors the couple had put their troubles behind them. >> they focus on a nine-month period, which was undeniably a rocky patch in this relationship. a nine-month period out of a nine year relationship. >> reporter: but what about that angry volley of text messages the night before the murder? the fuss over cara's male friend's visit? attorney hoose hit that hard. >> the commonwealth wants you to believe, that this was the

battle of all battles and the fight that ended everything. well, you know, you've got to have some proof of that. and they don't. and i'll tell you why. you can look at these texts and once again, cara is the calm one. ann is the one who goes from zero to 60 in about three seconds. >> reporter: and by the next morning, the defense attorney said, ann was going her breezy way, promising her buddy mark that "big kiss" in a text. >> not a word abt fighting with cara. not a word even like, "gee, things aren't too good around here right now. cara and i had a big fight." nothing like that. >> reporter: then to that afternoon of errands. and, from cara's side, an explanation for the trip to the trash can at mcdonald's. >> because that's what they did. they had to pay for their trash bags in granby. so they were dumping their trash wherever and whenever they could. >> reporter: the defense brought

in its own expert to knock down the prosecutors' argument that one of the rags contained ann's dna. >> i have no idea what the source of the dna on that rag is. >> reporter: but perhaps the most damaging evidence against cara was the paint. attorney hoose went after the prosecution's paint guy on cross. his weapon of choice? sarcasm. >> you're the first guy as far as you know who has ever testified about reading wrinkles and cracks in paints, is that correct? >> that i'm aware of. >> your honor, can we please change the tone here? >> reporter: the defense attorney had to persuade jurors that cara hadn't poured the paint. he accused the paint expert of buying into the first responders' observation that the paint was wet. >> first responders -- these are people you've never met, correct? you don't know how much training they have or if they've even seen a bucket of paint before, correct? yet you're ready to credit their subjective impression that the paint was either wet or shiny, correct?

>> correct. >> reporter: finally, the defense called, of all people, state trooper jamie magarian. in the first two trials the lead investigator had been a heavyweight witness for the prosecution. not this time. he was vital to the defense theory of a keystone cops investigation. >> is he going to say, "investigator, you ran a shabby case here. you didn't secure the scene." >> certainly. >> reporter: "there were tests you didn't run. there were things to be known. you're relying on this junk science of how paint dries." >> yeah, that's his job. he just needs one nugget of doubt. >> reporter: in pursuit of that nugget, the defense attorney grilled the investigator about the two people of interest. first, mark oleksak. remember, he'd changed his alibi. but what motive could he have

for murder? well maybe this -- ann, the drama queen, had angered him when she left her wife for her old girlfriend. >> he described that he had a big fallout with ann. is that correct? >> yes. >> and the fallout was when he became aware that ann was seeing an old girlfriend. correct? >> yes. >> an old girlfriend named carla daniele. correct? >> correct. >> reporter: a wisp of doubt, cara's separation. and what about carla? remember, she said she'd been miles away at the gym and out running on the day of the murder. security images seemed that support that account, but the defense produced a bank record dated the day of ann's death from an atm closer to the crime scene than the gym. >> did you ever ask her about how that could have happened if she was running in east longmeadow? >> i don't know that -- i've never asked her that. >> reporter: the name of the game for criminal defense lawyers is creating reasonable doubt. had the defense finally gotten there with all 12?

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after two hung juries, the prosecutors in cara rintala's third murder trial weren't taking any chances. >> she was murdered -- >> this time, they added a lessor charge, manslaughter. >> reporter: did it mean you didn't believe in your case as

much or you wanted to salvage half a loaf in this thing? >> we felt there was no harm giving this jury yet another option of a verdict of guilty. >> cara's family and friends didn't buy that. >> we had asked for manslaughter in the first trial and they said, absolutely not, no way. all of a sudden, you turn the tables? because they want this to end. >> and cara's take on that was, i don't want that, because that means i did it, and i didn't. >> deliberations began on a tuesday morning. day one passed in silence. no questions from the jury. day two, the same. day three, again. some began to speculate about another hung jury. t.j. donohue and mary patron. >> reporter: do you think this was going to go down in flames again? >> absolutely, i did. what could be different this time? >> team cara tried to keep their spirits up. >> it was a double rainbow and i took a picture of it and said, good sign, cara, there's a

double rainbow tonight. >> finally, on day four, late in the afternoon, news. >> the court officer who knows us very well, he sort of came in very gently, and he says, hey, folks, we have a verdict. >> reporter: we have a verdict. >> and immediately upon that moment of hearing that, my heart starts racing. >> and i walked back with cara to the courthouse, and she was breathing, you know, really deep breathing. i said, cara, it's going to be okay. >> the defendant would please rise. >> inside the courtroom, a verdict read by the foreman off camera. >> she's guilty of murder in the first degree. >> guilty of murder one, the most severe charge. cara broke down. her friends and family stunned. >> will you please -- >> i'm so sorry, but i didn't -- >> ms. rintala, you need to

remain silent so -- >> 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? >> afterwards, her past your lamented. breanna's clearly lost her other mother now, in a sense. >> yes. god, where art thou? >> ann's family was also stunned but pleased. >> murder one? it's still -- i'm still reeling on that one. it's what we wanted for the last two trials. >> it was a surprise, but really just an affirmation of everything we had done. >> this possibility that it could have been anyone else and adhere to the timeline -- >> so, what was the jury's thinking? they say they kept running into inconsistencies, beginning with cara's account of discovering ann's body. why didn't she rush to help her? >> she was a paramedic, so to see your loved one at the bottom

of the stairs, and she could have easily gone down there and started cpr and saved her. she didn't know that she was dead at that time. >> then that paint. lacy, do you agree there are some time problems between when you believe the time of death is and this paint still being wet? >> oh, absolutely, you know. >> what do you make of this? >> i really, i almost wanted her to admit to spilling the paint just to make sense out of it, because without her spilling the paint, it just didn't make any sense. >> finally, the matter of premeditation. was this a planned act? >> cara had her hands around annamarie's neck for up to four minutes. so, that's a long time to reflect and restrain yourself. and they did this great thing where they just timed four minutes. and you sit there and think -- >> i can elect to not strangle you at this point, i can remove my hands, is this the thought? >> four minutes is a long time. >> we actually held our wrists for four minutes and felt how long. it was a real long time. >> they were ready for the final vote.

>> and it was clearly 12 yeses, guilty. >> to come to the conclusion that, you know, cara was the bad guy was a really hard one for us to reach. >> we didn't want it, but that's what it was. >> for ann's family and friends, it's a time to be grateful for justice, to remember the irrepressible spirit they lost, the woman who loved life and the spotlight. >> she would love this. >> she would love to be interviewed. oh, my goodness. >> she's watching right now, like come on, say something funny. >> yeah. >> cara rintala got the mandated sentence, life without parole. she is appealing. each week, her parents take brianna, the child they are now raising, to see her mother in a massachusetts prison. >> when cara was crying, she said, "mommy, it's okay, you don't have to cry." >> you've got to be strong. >> "you've got to be strong," that's what she said. >> great kid.

>> the kid, that little girl, e other victim in this tragedy, the child who in an instant lost two mothers at the foot of the basement stairs. >> that all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is 7. :00 in the east, 4:00 out west, and here's what's happening. new fallout from the explosive report that president trump wanted robert mueller fired last june. how democrats are trying to protect the special counsel. the president back in the u.s. after meeting overseas with world financial leaders. the big takeaways from his trip. direct question. stormy daniels asked about her relationship with the president. how she responded and why trump hasn't seen any repercussions from this story.