Rutkowski repeatedly drove over her husband with a van in the parking lot outside their apartment building in Palmer.
FILE | 08.18.2004 – Starleen A. Rutkowski, of Palmer is arraigned in Palmer District Court after being arrested in the death of her husband, Richard J. Rutkowski.BOSTON – The state's highest court on Tuesday ruled that a mentally ill woman from Palmer who repeatedly drove over her husband with a van was wrongly convicted of first-degree murder.
The state Supreme Judicial Court took the unusual step of ruling that Starleen A. Rutkowski is now convicted of second-degree murder, reducing it from first-degree murder. The decision to convict her of second-degree murder means that Rutkowski would be eligible for parole after serving 15 years instead of serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
The decision said that Hampden Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis erred while presiding at the trial of Rutkowski, who is currently incarcerated at a state prison in Framingham. Rutkowski was found guilty of first degree murder on the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty for the killing of her husband.
Velis should have instructed jurors that they could examine if Rutkowski's mental illness was the reason for the manner in which she killed her husband, Richard Rutkowski. The murder occurred on Aug. 17, 2004 in the parking lot outside their apartment building in Palmer.
Francis Spina"It should have been made clear to the jury that they could consider evidence of mental impairment on the specific question whether the murder was committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty," said the decision, written by Judge Francis X. Spina.
Citing a past court decision, Spina wrote that jurors should have been instructed that they "may consider what effect, if any, the defendant's impaired capacity had on her ability to appreciate the consequences of her choices." The woman's mental illness needed to be weighed in judging factors associated with extreme atrocity or cruelty, he wrote.
"We think that where evidence of the defendant's mental impairment is significant and where it is a critical aspect of her defense, the failure to instruct the jury that they could consider evidence of that impairment on the question of extreme atrocity or cruelty effectively removed what may have been her only viable defense to the question of extreme atrocity or cruelty," Spina wrote.
Rutkowski's lawyer on appeal, Stewart T. Graham Jr. of Hampden, said he was pleased the court reduced the conviction, but he continues to believe that she was not criminally responsible. Rutkowski, who was 47 when she was sentenced, had sought a reduction of the conviction or a new trial.
Her lawyer had argued during the jury trial in Hampden Superior Court in 2006 that Rutkowski was innocent by reason of insanity.
Graham said it is rare for the court to reduce or overturn a first-degree murder conviction. "When you get one, it's a win," he said.
Graham said he believed that Hampden County prosecutors would be satisfied with second-degree murder and would not seek to hold another trial for Rutkowski.
The court sent the case back to Hampden Superior Court. The court said Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni could seek a new trial on the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty. Absent that, Rutkowski would need to be re-sentenced on a conviction of second-degree murder, the court said. Mastroianni could not be reached for comment.
The decision said that Starleen Rutkowski and her 50-year-old husband became embroiled in a dispute during a fishing trip at a lake in Wales. She became upset when he walked away and disappeared without telling her, the decision said. Her husband also had a long history of mental illness and other problems, the decision said.
Back at their apartment in Palmer, she called him "retarded," and she told him he would no longer need his personal belongings because "he was going to be dead very soon," the decision said.
After arguing in the parking lot of their apartment building, Starleen Rutkowski drove away in a minivan. She returned in the van, drove over her husband, then backed over him, in a maneuver repeated about five times, the decision said.
Police arrived and found the husband on the ground. An officer asked Starleen Rutkowski if she saw what happened. "Yes, I did," she replied, according to the decision. "I ran him over. We had what you'd call a domestic situation here."
The husband was transported to a hospital but died shortly afterward, the decision said.