DEDHAM, Mass. — A full jury has been selected in the murder trial of Brian Walshe, a South Shore man who is accused of killing his wife.
Following three days of jury selection, a full set of jurors has now been seated.
On the first day of jury selection, Nine of the 16 jurors needed for the trial were seated. As of Wednesday afternoon, 12 jurors had been seated.
“Typically, minutes after you pick the jury, you go into opening statements and the trial begins. In this case, though, the judge was sensitive to people’s schedules,” said Peter Elikann, legal analyst.
Elikann says the judge in Walshe’s case understands people have plans next week for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The challenge now will be for the 16 jurors to stay off social media and avoid the news for an extra week and a half before the trial actually begins.
“It’s really, really hard in this day and age, and people are simply on the honor system to follow the judge’s rules and not hear any outside information on the case now that they’ve been selected as jurors,” said Elikann.
The proceedings will now focus on whether Walshe is guilty of murder.
Walshe is charged with the murder of his missing wife, Ana Walshe, over New Year’s 2023. Her body has never been found.
Just last week, Walshe was deemed competent to stand trial last week. If deemed not competent, Walshe’s charges may have been suspended indefinitely or even dismissed if his competency could not have been restored.
However, on Tuesday, Walshe dropped a bombshell in the courthouse when he admitted in court that Ana is dead, pleading guilty to two lesser charges of lying to investigators and disposing of her body.
Despite those admissions, Walshe still faces a first-degree murder charge.
“He’s admitting that he’s aware that she was deceased and he saw the body and disposed of it, whether he’s going to say he accidentally caused her death or that she died some other way and he panicked,” said Elikann.
Elikann believes Walshe’s defence team will try to prove that he had no intention of killing his wife, even if he already pleaded guilty to disposing of her body.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Walshe will serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole, but it’s possible at any point during the trial to enter another plea deal for a lesser charge like second-degree murder, which would allow for parole.
“At least if he isn’t convicted of first-degree murder, but convicted of a lesser responsibility for her death, there would at least be hope, light at the end of the tunnel that someday he could be out and be freed,” said Elikann.
The 16 jurors selected include the 12 who will decide on the case, plus four alternate jurors.
Testimony for the case is expected to begin on December 1st.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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