Mint Mobile Announcer (2:30)

Is your mind clear here today?

Glenn Jones (2:32)

Yes.

Narrator/Podcast Host (2:32)

Deemed fit for trial. Could this plea change be a part of a defense strategy? We discuss this and more with Our legal experts, Commonwealth Confidential. The Brian Walsh murder trial starts right now.

J.C. Monahan (2:53)

Jury selection is officially underway for the murder trial of Brian Walsh. Good Evening, everyone. I'm J.C. monahan.

Glenn Jones (2:59)

And I'm Glenn Jones. But right before the jury process started, Walsh, with a bombshell, surprised guilty pleas for two of the three charges he faces. This impacts the two lesser charges, misleading police and willfully conveying a human body. So another way to look at this is that Walsh admits to disposing of his wife Ana's body and lying to law enforcement about it. His murder charge, however, remains intact.

J.C. Monahan (3:23)

So after the dust settled on that, jury selection got underway. Nine jurors were seated today. Six men, three women. We do need a total of 16 to include alternates before opening statements can begin. Our Robert Goulston was in Norfolk Superior Court as the plea change was announced.

Glenn Jones (3:40)

He has more on today's sudden development from Denham.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (3:44)

Brian Walsh arrived in court for jury selection in his murder trial, but then switched gears on some of the charges. You wish to offer a change of.

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (3:51)

Plea from not guilty to guilty?

Glenn Jones (3:53)

I do.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (3:54)

Walsh changed his plea to guilty on two of the three charges. Unlawfully disposing of his wife's body and interfering with the police investigation into her murder. He could serve more than two decades on the two charges.

Mint Mobile Announcer (4:06)

Tell me in your own words, sir, why are you here? I'm here to plead guilty on those two counts.

Glenn Jones (4:11)

Yes.

Mint Mobile Announcer (4:12)

And you understand that your trial's starting today?

Glenn Jones (4:14)

Yes.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (4:14)

Walsh is still charged with the murder of Anna Walsh, whose body was never recovered. At the police change, prosecutors laid out what they say happened.

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (4:21)

Defendant conducted Internet searches into disposal of.

Glenn Jones (4:24)

Body, researched locations of dumpsters, and then traveled to those locations.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (4:29)

Jury selection got underway with a description from the judge of the case, including when police got involved after Anna was reported missing by her employer.

Mint Mobile Announcer (4:37)

Days later, police searched a dumpster outside the defendant's mother's Swampscott apartment and found clothing that belonged to Anna Walsh. Anna Walsh's Covid vaccination card, towels with red brown stains, a hatchet, and a hacksaw.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (4:55)

Walsh's sentencing on the charges he pled guilty to will happen at a later date.

Mint Mobile Announcer (4:59)

I understand that the victims may wish to address this court prior to any sentencing of the defendant.

Glenn Jones (5:09)

That is correct, you, Honor.

Courtroom Reporter Robert Goulston (5:10)

On day one of jury selection, they were able to empanel nine jurors. The judge is seeking 16, which includes the four alternates in denim. Robert Goulston, NBC10 Boston.

J.C. Monahan (5:21)

Joining the conversation now is our chief legal analyst, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Michael Coyne. Welcome back, Michael. First question, what is the strategy behind this plea change? How does this help him to plead guilty on two charges that includes dismembering his wife's body?

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (5:39)

Well, at this point it's not entirely clear because the jury is going to find out that he did in fact dispose of her body as well as lied to police about her disappearance at the outset. And so it's not too far for the jury then to make the link that why would he do those things if he didn't commit the murder? So he still has left his options open to try and defend the murder case. The problem as I see it, is the only way to he now can defend the murder case is he's going to have to put forward evidence to either support an overdose, dying in her sleep, or even the argument that somehow some other person is responsible. The only person who could put that evidence in and lay the proper foundation would be him. Very, very dangerous gamble for him to take the stand under these circumstances.

Glenn Jones (6:33)

Well, it wouldn't be the first time we've talked about a third party corporate defense, Michael. The prosecution didn't want to accept Walsh's plea changes, but the judge overruled that. Give us the legal one on one for that. Why did that happen?

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (6:48)

Well, what they are worried about is the argument that some of the disposal in the manner and the gruesome manner in which the body was disposed of by hatchet or hacksaw may now not be relevant with respect to the murder charge, where it was relevant with respect to the third charge, which carries with it a sentence of 20 years. So the lawyers will argue about the relevance of some of this evidence that's connected to those two charges with respect to the murder count. But I think the prosecution has the better hand at that because again, they've got to prove death. They've got to prove death at his hands. And a lot of the Internet searches, a lot of the evidence relevant to counts two and three are also going to, at the end of the day, I believe the judge will find relevant to the murder count and that will be very, very damaging for him.

Glenn Jones (7:43)

So Walsh's decision to plead guilty on the two lesser accounts, has he made it any easier for his defense team to defend him?

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (7:51)

No, I think, I think in others, other lawyers I spoke to in the afternoon believe the same thing. That probably made it significantly more difficult in our estimation, simply because the jury is told at the end of all the evidence and at the end of closing arguments to you don't, don't be afraid to use your common sense in determining what the facts are and arriving at your judgment. And common sense tells us, at least in part one, doesn't dispose of the body in the manner in which he did and lie to police for days on end, not report her murder, her disappearance initially without having some culpability in the murder itself. And I think the jury is likely to be able to take all the evidence that's assembled, use their common sense, use these two pleas, and likely he's made his. I think he's made his burden significantly harder to get a not guilty verdict out of this jury.

J.C. Monahan (8:44)

Michael, just a quick question. You know, Walsh was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital to be evaluated to see if he was competent to stand trial. So I think there was, you know, a lot of us thinking, well, maybe they'll go for the insanity defense. But he was cleared saying he was competent to stand trial. Did that play any part of this plan? Was it strategic leading up?

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (9:06)

I think, I think. Well, I think it was Belton suspenders approach by his attorney, attorneys and the court to make sure that if he was considering a plea, we had to make sure that he was legally competent to make such decisions. If he was considering testifying, whether against his lawyer's advice or otherwise, we had to know that he was voluntarily and intelligently making those choices. So I think what they wanted to be is super careful to make sure that he was, in fact, legally competent and able to make these decisions. And some of these decisions, frankly, may well have been against the advice of his counsel, but because it is his case to choose how he chooses to defend and whether in fact, he wants to take the stand, even what might be against their. Their advice.

J.C. Monahan (9:57)

All right, Michael Coyne, as always, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Legal Analyst Michael Coyne (10:02)

Thank you.

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Glenn Jones (10:35)

Once a jury is seated, we're expecting to roll into opening statements on December 1st. So let's get you up to speed on some of the key players we'll see in this trial. First is Judge Diane Frenier. She's an Associate justice for the Superior Court of Massachusetts appointed back in 2017. Judge Frenier was assigned the Walsh case last November. You may remember she replaced Judge Beverly Kanoni, who presided over the Karen Reed trials. Our courtroom insider, Sue o', Connell was there for those trials. She returned today to Denham to cover the Walsh jury selection. So welcome to you, Sue. All right, so we have a new trial, a new judge, a new vibe. Yeah, so far, what's the difference in tenor between going to the retrials with Kanoni and going to this trial with Frenny?

Courtroom Insider Sue O'Connell (11:19)

A huge difference. And I'm told I haven't covered a lot of cases. I'm told that this is a more standard sort of case, mostly because you don't crowds outside, you don't have the huge public spectacle that both Karen Reid trials really, really generated around the courthouse and on social media. So the judge is running this in a pretty standard fashion. When Judge Canoni was doing jury selection for Karen Reid, all the jurors stayed in the room together. So I'm sure they could keep an eye on them and make sure they weren't talking. All of the voir dire and the questioning of the jurors was done at the sidebar, quietly, and no one could hear. And we didn't know if they were seated or they weren't seated. We all had to kind of figure out from the hand motions between, you know, Karen Reed and her attorneys. This trial, they are seated outside in another spot. One juror, pretension juror comes in, sits in the box. We can hear the questioning on the microphones. They are asked questions. And then a new technological advancement has happened. The court officers and the lawyers and the judge have headsets. So now when they want to do a sidebar that we shouldn't hear, they just turn the headsets up and they don't have to go to the side of the judge's bench. They can just sit and talk. It gets recorded. They can all hear each other, and then they turn them back off and they decide if the juror is going to be seated or dismissed. So. And today, nine jurors seated. I couldn't even look back to see how long it took us to get to nine jurors seated in either Karen Reid case. So this is just a very different vibe.

J.C. Monahan (12:56)

Can you imagine how much shorter the Karen Reid case would be if they had worn headsets? The one thing I did want to ask you, though, is we have more than a dozen counties in Massachusetts. We've had two very high profile murders. They're in the same county, you're in the same courtroom.

Courtroom Insider Sue O'Connell (13:08)

Yes.

J.C. Monahan (13:09)

You okay doing this again?

Courtroom Insider Sue O'Connell (13:11)

Yeah, I am. I mean, it's a different kind of learning experience as well. And I'll note that one of the potential jurors who did end up getting seated basically said that when asked if she knew about the case about Brian Walsh's case, she said she only knew about it about the reports of the Karen Reed case and Norfolk County's behavior and actions. You know, so it all ties together.

Glenn Jones (13:34)

All right, Sue o', Connell, thank you.

Courtroom Insider Sue O'Connell (13:35)

You're welcome.

J.C. Monahan (13:36)

All right, let's take a closer look as. Thank you, Sue. We're going to. She's just getting started now in terms of helping us. We're going to look at the prosecutor, the defense attorney tapped for this trial. There's a lot more with this. We want to start with Greg Connor. He's the chief trial counsel for Norfolk District Attorney's office. Conner prosecuted the two murder trials of Emmanuel Lopes and the Puppy Doe case.

Glenn Jones (14:00)

Defending Brian Walsh is Larry Tipton. The public defender was appointed to represent Walsh in December of 2023. And we want to point out Tipton was also involved in both the Lopes and Puppy Doe cases. So these two legal professionals are no strangers to each other and they're on opposing council tables again. We'll see what happens come December 1st. Should be very interesting.

J.C. Monahan (14:23)

Very. Sue, as always, again, want to say thank you as we just get started on this trial. Thank you so much for tuning in as well. We will of course be with you for the entire coverage of the Walsh case. Once testimony begins. We'll recap the trial every night at 7 on Commonwealth Confidential, the Brian Walsh murder trial. And if you have questions we want to hear from you, send them to commonwealth.confidentialbc nbcuni.com and to catch up on.

Glenn Jones (14:48)

The case before the trial begins, check out the NBC 10 award winning podcast, the searches for Anna Walsh. You can find it on nbcboston.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

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