NORTHAMPTON — Seated in the middle of the courtroom with his client, the judge and the prosecutors, Northampton attorney David Hoose addressed the soft-spoken woman and prospective juror on the other side of the interview table.

If Cara Rintala chooses not to testify in her third murder trial, Hoose asked, “Would you be sitting in the deliberation room wondering why?”

“Yes,” she muttered, barely audible.

“OK, thank you,” Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup said gently. “I’m going to excuse you.”

Moments before, Rup made herself clear to the prospective jurors: If Rintala chooses not to testify during the trial, it is her constitutional right and should not be held against her.

The process of seating a jury, which includes roughly 254 prospective jurors completing a 100-plus-item questionnaire, began Tuesday morning and is expected to last through early next week. Sixteen jurors will be impaneled for the trial. After about seven hours, six were selected Thursday, the first day of in-person interviews.

The courtroom was a scene of constant coming and going, a revolving door of Rintala’s peers with varied backgrounds — nurses, educators, counselors, veterans, a corrections officer and even a lawyer.

Later Thursday afternoon, a middle-aged woman took her seat at the interview table. She admitted she knew the basics of the case prior to the judge’s debriefing. As she was getting ready to leave for the courthouse earlier this week, she recalled, she overheard a television newscast reporting that jury selection for the Rintala trial was beginning.

She had a hunch that her call for jury duty at the courthouse that day would be for the Rintala trial, she said. 

But this was not the woman’s most striking admission.

Rintala traced her right knuckles and the grooves of her fingers with her other hand as the woman spoke up.

“As a matter of timing, I ended up in the restroom with the defendant,” the woman said, gesturing across the table to Rintala. “And she was on the phone with who I can only assume was her child saying ‘I’m so glad you had a great day today. I love you, I love you.’” 

Rintala has a school-aged daughter.

“That, for me, personalizes it,” the woman continued, before being dismissed. “I feel like that would be in the back of my mind.”

Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com or 413-585-5234.