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Brian Walshe murder trial | Opening statements give first look at defense's case
00:22:04
The Brian Walshe murder trial is underway. Opening statements gave us a first look at the defense's case as they laid out their theory of how Ana Walshe died.
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Hiring isn't just about finding someone willing to take the job. Count on Indeed sponsored Jobs to find the right person with the right background who can move the business forward. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Give your job the best chance to be seen with INDEED sponsored jobs. They boost your post for quality candidates so you can reach the exact people you want faster and it makes a big difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 90% more likely to report a hire than non sponsored jobs. Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs you only pay for results. No monthly subscription, no long term contracts. Just a boost whenever you need to find quality talent Fast. Join the 1.6 million companies that sponsor their jobs with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast tonight the Brian.
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Walsh murder trial kicks off and by.
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Such assault and beating did kill in.
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Murder save Anna Walsh. The prosecution began to begins making its case for a conviction. Best way to dispose of body parts after a murder. But for the first time, the defense unveils their explanation for his wife Anna's death.
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One hour he's with her, he cleans the kitchen, he comes back up and she is deep.
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What opening statements revealed about the strategies both sides will utilize. Plus Brian Walsh in his own words, What he told investigators in the days after Ana disappeared Commonwealth Confidential the Brian Walsh murder trial starts now.
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Nearly three years after his wife Ana disappeared, testimony is now underway in Brian Walsh's murder trial. I'm Glenn Jones. JC is off tonight. Welcome to Commonwealth Confidential. On Day one, we heard testimony from the first witness as well as opening statements where Walsh's defense explained what they claim happened to Ana. It was a shocking moment. NBC10's Brianna Borghe joins us live from outside Norfolk Superior Court in Denham with a look back on Day one. Brianna, what transpired today?
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Well Glenn, we only had one witness on the stand all day today and that was the lead investigator in this case, sergeant Harrison Schmidt of the Cohasset Police Department. But as you mentioned, with it being day one of this trial, the opening statements here really give us a sense of how each side will try to argue their case over the next few weeks.
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Use your common sense. Don't leave at home. Brian Walsh never killed him.
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Opening statements starting today in the high profile murder trial of Brian Walsh offering insight into how each side will frame their case. The prosecution outlining Google searches made on a MacBook tied to Brian Walsh's iCloud account beginning on January 1st at 4:54am.
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The MacBook search best way to dispose of a body.
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Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor says investigators also examined cell phone location data. And that surveillance video will show Walsh buying various items at several stores.
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And you'll see the surveillance video from the Lows and Danvers, where a white man wearing a mask and dark hair buys several items that cost more than $400 using cash, including a Tyvek suitcunning instruments such as shears, snips and a hacksaw.
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The defense, however, lays out a different theory. Ana's sudden and unexplained death.
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You will hear evidence that it is rape. You will hear evidence that it happens in young people.
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And old.
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Attorney Larry Tipton describing what he says Walsh experienced in the early morning hours of January 1st when he entered the.
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Bedroom and began to get into the bed.
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He sensed something was wrong. You will hear evidence that it made no sense to him.
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But he nudged Anna, his wife. She didn't respond.
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He nudged her again a little harder.
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She didn't respond.
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Lead investigator Sergeant Harrison Schmidt was on the stand all day today. Prosecutors playing a recording of his first interview with Walsh in which he lied about Ana catching an early flight on January 1st.
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Then she woke me up around 6 and said she was going. She came down. I guess Thomas heard her and came down and she said, I have to go. And he said, I love you very much.
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Walsh sounding calm throughout that initial interview.
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I don't want to hide anything from you because if that could lead to finding my wife sooner, that's the most important thing.
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Now. The defense said Walsh made up his story when talking to police to protect his three boys because he didn't think anyone would believe that Anna suddenly died. For now, we're live in dead. I'm Brianna Bor, NBC 10 Boston.
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Right.
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Brianna, thank you for getting us started. And look, the band is back together. NBC10 chief legal analysts Michael Coyne and Sue O', Connell, our courtroom insider who wasn't in court today but will be for much of this trial. As Brianna just mentioned, we heard the opening statements today and I want to touch briefly first on the prosecution, but then I really want to dig into what the defense did because I think that is the headline of the day. Here's lead prosecutor Greg Connor.
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Scientists from the state DNA lab.
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Will.
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Identify DN of Brian Walsh and Anna Walsh on the Tyb suit. They will explain that Anna Walsh's DNA was found from items in the dumpster, including drugs, the hatchet and the hacksaw.
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All right. As you might expect, the prosecution hammering in on DNA and on data. The prosecution says they found Ana's DNA on items inside of a dumpster. But, Michael, on cause of death, they're silent. And there is no body in this case. What level of barrier does that present for the Commonwealth?
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It's not insurmountable, but it is a big challenge here because the Commonwealth has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that not only he killed her, but what the cause of her death was at his hands. And without a body, that's where you have real problems, is showing how she died. And that's why I think the defendant has sort of seized on this. Well, she just died suddenly. Because at the end of the day, the Commonwealth is going to have to prove all the elements of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. And that's going to be a bit of a challenge. It's not impossible. And they're likely going to be able to offer all of this forensic evidence that the jury's looking for. The DNA will match on the hatchet to her, to him, the blood. There's a lot of scientific evidence that they'll have and they will offer the jury, which the jury will be looking for. But at the end of the day, there is a question whether they will satisfy the jury and their own burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that it's a first degree murder charge. That means that he killed her. With the premeditation, the plotting, the planning, the black heart that's needed in order to satisfy that burden. He may well be hoping for a lesser charge, if guilty at all.
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And, sue, we know from past experiences that juries kind of like it to be neat and tidy. They want the prosecutor to explain to them, why did this woman die? What was the reason for that? Absent of that, do you think the jury can get to where it needs to get to to come back with a conviction?
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I do. I mean, you know, unlike the Karen Reid case, we're hearing the defendant's voice very early in the trial. Day one, we're not even, you know, day two, but day one, we're hearing him speak. And as the jury instructions were given, it's about common sense. So if you wanted to pull off a perfect crime, you might want to get rid of a body and then say the cause of death was not anything that you did, it just happened, and you might have been involved in some other side. Does that make sense? Is that the common sense? So, yes, they do want it, you know, tidy. They watch a lot of tv, you know, the Trial happens within an hour, and then it's all gone. But at this point, I think there's an extenuating circumstance about believability and common sense.
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All right, well, let's see if the defense measured up on believability and common sense because they did not hesitate on cause of death. And attorney Larry Tipton conceded his client is a liar.
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Brian Walsh. Why do you lie to him on January 4th? Lied to him on January 5th.
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Lied.
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To him on January 7th.
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So, Sue, Brian Walsh's defense is essentially saying that he did everything he was accused of except for murdering Anna Walsh, that he did dismember her body, that he did lie to investigators about it. But on this last one, this most important charge, he didn't do that. Did that measure up to common sense and believability in your mind?
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No, I mean, it's just, you know, we haven't gotten to the why. You know, I don't want to jump to conclusions. The defense is going to present evidence, the prosecution's going to present evidence, and the jurors are going to evaluate all of that. But there are a number of other scenarios that I could consider might have happened that would lead one to that. I didn't hear that today. And, you know, it was also for me, again, not in the courtroom, but at home and listening and watching. Listening with headphones on, hearing him calmly talk to the investigators and lie in a way that if I had no idea about what was happening in this case, I would have believed him. I would have liked it if he had been a little bit more concerned about where she was. And the kids are running around in the background, and he's just calmly sitting there lying in such a believable way that it would lead me to believe, wow, he might be the best liar I have ever heard. So therefore, it fouls. You know, you lie about 1, 2, and 3, and you're telling the truth about 4. Well, how do I know? Because you're such a good liar. It really was chill. I mean, I'm getting chills now.
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Well, Michael, you know, you've taught us that the law can be about technicalities. And I think perhaps what the defense is saying here is, yeah, I can explain away the Google searches now. I can explain away so many of the details that we're chilling to learn about in pre trial. But on this last one, I'm daring the prosecution to prove that this is not the way she died.
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No doubt that is the strategy here and what the government was trying to do. And I think they did it somewhat effectively is show that if this guy, if you hear more from this guy and you might don't believe a word he says because he lies incredibly easily. He's already acknowledged his own lawyer, during the opening statement has acknowledged he lied multiple times to the police. He didn't even report her death initially.
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That's right.
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I mean, the problem he's got now with the credibility is significant. And as sue says, and the judge instructs the jury, and they'll hear it again at the end. Don't throw out your common sense when you sit on a jury. The fact that he could dispose of the body in such a gruesome fashion with a hacksaw and a hatchet, but still contests that he had nothing to do with the major charge, the murder itself, that strains credibility. And I think he's going to have a tough time selling that to the jury.
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All right, let's get more granular now. The first day of this trial gave us so much insight into what transpired around the time of Anna Walsh's death. Let's take a look now at the day by day investigation timeline.
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On New Year's Eve, Ana and her husband Brian hosted a friend for a dinner at their Cohasset home. It went until about 1:30am that's the last time anyone other than Brian has seen Anna Walsh. On January 1st, Brian leaves their three kids with the babysitter and tells her Ana went back to D.C. early for a work emergency. He then drives to his mother's neighborhood in Swampscott, where police say inspects a couple of Dumpsters outside his mom's apartment and outside the liquor store across the street. Next, in Danvers, he buys cleaning supplies at Lowe's as well as a hacksaw at CVS and Stop and Shop. He picks up hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. On January 2, two days before ANA is reported missing, Brian Walsh is at Home Depot buying more cleaning supplies and a hatchet. On January 3rd, Brian places three unanswered phone calls to his wife and later is seen putting a heavy trash bag into a dumpster at an apartment complex not far from Cohasset. Investigators say the next morning, Brian called Tishman Spire to say Anna is missing. Tishman conducts an exhaustive search. By the afternoon on January 4, they get police involved. When police respond to the Walsh home, Brian tells them the same story. His wife left for D.C. early on New Year's Day for a work emergency. She took a car to Logan Airport, he says, but police find no evidence of that. Tishman tells Police. There was no work emergency in D.C. on January 5th, a large scale search begins for Anna Walsh. On January 6th, Brian agrees to hand over the digital devices in his home. On January 7, investigators complete examination of those devices and use the information to gain a search warrant of their Cohasset home and Brian's car. They suspend the search for ANA. On January 8th, Brian Walsh is arrested. The day after that, he's arraigned for misleading police in the disappearance of his wife, the mother of his three kids.
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So here's something that is so fascinating after just day one of this trial. Much of what we saw in that investigation timeline is not in dispute. Incredibly, the defense and prosecution agree on almost everything. Take a look at this. So the prosecution alleges Brian Walsh planned to kill Ana. That's what murder in the first degree means. While the defense says her death was sudden and unexplained. That's really the only point of disagreement here. Both sides agree that Brian Walsh lied to investigators, dismembered Ana's body and made the Google searches. They also agree Ana was having an affair and that Brian bought a bunch of supplies, including a hatchet and a hacksaw. So, Michael, incredibly, this sort of layered case has been really whittled down to one thing. Does that actually help or hurt the defense?
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I think it hurts the defense. I'm not. I really don't understand the strategy. I think again, when you think about the distrust that many people have in law enforcement, specifically in Norfolk county, especially where we have some of the same investigators we've seen before who have been discredited.
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Yes.
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Why not try the entire case and argue reasonable doubt, rush to judgment, the same type of thing that we saw in Karen Reid.
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But that could still come.
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No, I don't think it can come really now because effectively you've said, yeah, we did a lot of what the government said, as you just pointed out. We did most of what the government said.
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Now we've admitted we're okay, right?
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Exactly.
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All the technical stuff, all the electronic stuff, all the GPS stuff.
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So they've removed many of their chess pieces off the board is what you're saying.
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I think they have. You know, again, think about it, right? Is that you don't have a body. Maybe she's not even dead. And I've seen cases tried like this where they say, no, she's still on the witness list, she's going to come in and defend. She could be in Serbia, she could be in D.C. she could be in hiding. She could have been anywhere. And argue and try to have the jury think about the conspiracy that might take place somewhere else. Listen, we've seen less or more significant cases come to a not guilty verdict. I think I'm surprised at the strategy.
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Okay, Michael and Sue, stick around. So to come we dig into the links between Walsh's trial and the Karen Reid trials. The two cases share more than just a courthouse. The Reed witnesses we may see and may not see in the coming weeks. You're watching Commonwealth Confidential, the Brian Walsh murder trial.
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Hiring isn't just about finding someone willing to take the job. Count on Indeed sponsored Jobs to find the right person with the right background who can move the business forward. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Give your job the best chance to be seen with INDEED sponsored jobs. They boost your post for quality candidates so you can reach the exact people you want faster. And it makes a big difference. According to INDEED data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 90% more likely to report a hire than non sponsored jobs. Plus, with Indeed sponsored jobs, you only pay for results. No monthly subscription, no long term contracts. Just a boost whenever you need to find quality talent Fast. Join the 1.6 million companies that sponsor their jobs with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast.
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For the second time this year, all eyes are once again on Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham. First it was the Reid case, and now it's the case against Brian Walsh. And that's just the start of the similarities between the two cases. Our Brianna Borghe explains.
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Defendant not guilty or guilty. So say you, Mr. Foreman.
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Yes.
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So say you all.
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Yes.
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Months after the Karen Reed murder retrial captivated the region, another high profile murder case is getting underway in Massachusetts. Same county, same DA's office, same courthouse, even some of the same witnesses. But the links run deeper. At the center of both cases is the lead investigator.
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Yes, you, Honor. Call him up. The Call Trooper Michael Proctor to the stand.
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Michael Proctor sparked controversy with his testimony in Reid's first trial. He was forced to read vulgar texts he sent about her to his co workers, friends and family.
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Text my wife waiting to lock this whack job up. Yes, she's a babe. Weird Fall river accent, though. Though.
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State Police fired Proctor for his conduct in the Reed investigation, the prosecution chose not to call him back for her retrial, and the defense followed suit. But his presence was still felt throughout testimony by Trooper Michael Proctor.
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Former Trooper Proctor. Former Trooper Michael Proctor.
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You can say Trooper Proctor.
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But will Proctor take the stand in Brian Walsh's trial? That's the question looming over this case. The prosecution has said they won't call him, so the defense will have to decide whether calling him could benefit Walsh when it comes to jury deliberations. Proctor's text chain included a supervisor expected to testify at the Walsh trial, Sergeant Yuri Buchenik. He took the stand at both Reid trials and defended Proctor.
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Do you think this case was handled.
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With honor and integrity by Michael Proctor?
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Sargent.
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The investigation was handled with integrity by Michael Proctor.
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We could also hear from three other troopers who testified in Reed's trials. Detective Lieutenant Brian Tully, Connor Keefe, and Nicholas Guarino. Guarino was the one who uncovered the Google searches allegedly made by Walsh. All three men served in the same unit as Proctor.
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Michael Proctor was the lead investigator for the investigation into the death of John o', Keefe, was he not?
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Yes.
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Keefe, Tully, and Guarino could face similar questions in the Walsh case as the defense works to highlight Proctor's role in the case and undermine his credibility, much like the Reid defense did.
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Once Proctor's integrity was impeached, the Commonwealth moved away from it. Moved away from him? Why? Because his. His impeached integrity reflected on this office.
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All right, we're back now with Michael and Sue. So the burning question in this case, just like the Karen Reid trial, is whether or not Michael Proctor will be called to the stand. He's on the defense witness list, but not the Commonwealth's. Sue, I'll start with you on this one. If they call Michael Proctor and we think about what you just said in the last segment about maybe even muting any benefit that Proctor could have to the defense's case. What will happen with Michael Proctor on the stand? Is there even any value?
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I don't see why half of these, if any of these investigators need to be called at all. Because they've already admitted. The defense has already admitted to the things that a Guarino would testify to or Buchanan would testify to or Proctor would testify to. So they've said yes. What they did was correct, and we agree with it. So what's the sense of having them come up? You know, we'll see as the defense lays out their case here and the prosecution goes forward. But the issues that they touched are not in dispute. So we may not need to see them at all unless there's some piece of evidence. You know, maybe the crime lab may take more attention, maybe the collection of some evidence, but I don't really see a value of them hurting the prosecution or even helping the defense, because it's.
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The key will be the collection of evidence. To the extent that those folks gathered some of the key pieces here that we've talked about, the hacksaw, the hatchet, the blood that's on some of these items, they may need them for foundation witnesses. But beyond that, as sue said, that most of what they could testify to is no longer contested.
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And he said he did it. He said he dismembered the body in this horrible way on his body in a horrible way. You know, whatever he used to do, it isn't even really that important when it comes to the testimony.
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We just have a few seconds left, Michael, but I wanted to ask you about the ongoing legacy of the Karen Reid trial. In this trial, the Commonwealth does not put Michael Proctor on its witness list even though he was one of the investigators in the case. Are they going to shy away from putting him on a Commonwealth list in every major crime investigation that we see go to trial?
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Yes. That's why we have as maybe 20 or more cases affected by the unprofessionalism that we've seen in the Norfolk County DA's office and the investigators. It's affected a whole number of cases significantly. Again, when you start to think about criminal cases, remember the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. All of these problems that we've seen with respect to a lot of the folks in law enforcement there reflect poorly on the government's cases.
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Glenn, People in the pool said it in the juror pool talked about the Norfolk county district attorney's office. They didn't make it onto the jury, but they talked about it.
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Okay, Sue, Michael, thank you very much. We hope to see you over the next couple of weeks.
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A whole lot.
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We'll be right back with a look ahead to tomorrow night's show. Stay with us. That's all for tonight on Commonwealth Confidential, the Brian Walsh murder trial. We'll be back tomorrow night when we delve deeper into murder cases with no body. The Walsh case is not the first murder investigation in Massachusetts where the body of the victim was not found. We take a look at another high profile nobody case in Norfolk county and examine why these cases prove to be difficult for prosecutors. And remember, you can watch every moment of the trial on NBC10's YouTube channel. You can also tune into our sister station NECN. And if you have questions about the case, we definitely want to hear from you, just send them to commonwealth.confidentialbcuni.com we got so many questions during the retrial. We look forward to answering them during the Walsh trial. And be sure to catch the NBC 10 Award winning podcast, the Searches for Anna Walsh. You can find it on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.