BOSTON — The first witness in the trial of former Stoughton Police officer Matthew Farwell will take the stand Tuesday, after a four-day jury selection process concluded Friday morning and opening statements began.
The case will come down to whether jurors, 10 men and 6 women, believe Matthew Farwell killed Sandra Birchmore or if she took her own life.
Farwell is charged with killing Birchmore and causing the death of her unborn baby.
“My hope is that they’ll see the truth and that the truth will come out,” said Birchmore’s cousin Barbara Wright outside of court on Friday.
Each side had 45 minutes to make its opening statement. The prosecution presented its case first to the jurors.
Torey Cummings told jurors that Farwell groomed Birchmore from the age of 15 while she was in the Stoughton Police Department Explorers Program.
She alleged that over 8 years, he would meet her for sex while on the clock, but he realized he had a problem when Sandra got older, and she started to understand that he had victimized her.
The prosecution alleged that Farwell agreed to have a child with Birchmore so she wouldn’t expose him for his crimes.
After a friend called Stoughton Police and told the dispatcher about Farwell and Birchmore’s relationship, prosecutors said Farwell was out of time and could not control Birchmore, so he strangled her and staged her death to look like a suicide.
Prosecutor Torey Cummings said, “The girl who told everyone everything about her life left no note.”
Longtime friend Jean Falletti agreed that she doesn’t believe Birchmore died by suicide and said, “She wasn’t in that mindset at all. She was very happy. She was excited for this. She couldn’t wait to be a mom.”
The defense painted a different picture of Farwell and Birchmore’s relationship.
They told jurors that Matthew Farwell was a man who had an affair but did not kill Birchmore.
While they said the government portrayed Birchmore as happy and excited for her baby, the defense described her as worried and stressed, someone who had searched for information about suicide, and who had her first suicide attempt in her teenage years.
The defense alleged there was no evidence of a struggle or that Sandra’s body had been moved.
Instead, they said Farwell went to Birchmore’s Canton apartment to end things.
They said he wore a hoodie and face mask to hide his identity because of the affair.
Defense attorney Kimberly Stevens said Farwell told investigators, “I went there to break up with her. I told her it’s not my baby.”
Boston 25 legal analyst Peter Elikann weighed in on openings.
“So both sides sort of laid out a motive here. Prosecution says he most certainly had a motive to kill her. And the defense says she did have a motive to commit suicide. That’s why the jury has their work cut out for them. And it may very well boil down to what the experts say,” said Elikann.
Court will resume Tuesday.
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