As jurors prepare to hear closing arguments in the blockbuster federal trial of former Massachusetts Detective Matthew Farwell in connection with the 2021 murder of a pregnant young woman his defense attorneys have filed proposed juror instructions that point to investigative missteps.
Farwell’s trial has been rife with allegations of what could be described as a cover-up by Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office investigators who immediately determined Sandra Birchmore, the 23-year-old pregnant woman the ex cop is now accused of killing, committed suicide. The same DA’s office made national headlines for its handling of another murder investigation, the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, which led to a two trials and an acquittal for his girlfriend Karen Read last year. Jurors in that case cited the shoddy work of Massachusetts State Troopers in the Norfolk County CPAC unit who charged Read with murder when reaching their verdict.
Similar allegations of malfeasance, or intentional mishandling of evidence, have been made about the CPAC unit’s investigation into the Feb. 1, 2021 death of Birchmore, which was unusually declared a suicide case by Canton Police and Norfolk County homicide investigators within minutes of discovering her body.
Birchmore, who was ten weeks pregnant, was found in a seated position with a duffle bag strap wrapped around her neck, the other end around a doorknob in the bedroom of her Canton home. CPAC unit Trooper Matthew Dunne admitted on the stand in Farwell’s trial that her home was not processed as a crime scene. Key evidence, including a broken necklace tangled with Birchmore’s hair, was not recovered. It was only years after Birchmore’s death, when the FBI took over the case, that Farwell’s DNA was recovered on the ligature that killed her.
There has also been damaging testimony about the CPAC unit from the defendant’s own twin brother, William Farwell, also a disgraced ex-Stoughton cop, about the lead investigator on the case, Lt. John Fanning, who, like the Farwell twins, had grown up in Stoughton. Fanning told him that Birchmore’s case would only be handled as a suicide, despite the unit being flooded with calls from the dead woman’s friends and family.
Five witnesses testified in Farwell’s trial that they reported their disbelief that Birchmore had taken her own life and the life of her unborn baby, including her therapist who saw her client a day before she died. and pointed the finger at Matthew Farwell, who she believed was the father of her child. Farwell is also accused of taking Birchmore’s virginity when she was 15, which is a crime in Massachusetts.
Now Farwell’s defense attorneys want to use the state’s flawed case to help their client. In a proposed jury instruction filed on Friday, his federal public defenders asked a judge to give the jury the Spoliation instruction, writing:
“If you find that government agents or witnesses destroyed or obliterate evidence that it knew would be relevant to a contested issue in this case and knew at the time it did so that there was a potential for prosecution, then you may infer that the contents of the destroyed evidence were unfavorable to the government’s case.”
Experts say U.S. District Court Justice Denise Casper will likely deny that request. Retired Massachusetts Judge and child advocate Carol Erskine said: “The defense has to prove that law enforcement intentionally destroyed the evidence to hide something.”
In fact, the case currently underway in Boston’s federal courtroom was sparked by a separate government investigation, one undertaken by the Stoughton Police Department after Birchmore was found dead and the department was buzzing with allegations about Farwell’s sexual relationship with the deceased elementary school teacher’s aide.
Then Stoughton Deputy Chief Brian Holmes testified that he hired retired MSP Det. Captain Paul L’Italien to conduct what he called on the stand an “exclusive and independent” report on the circumstances around Birchmore’s death, along with her time as a child recruit in the Stoughton Police Explorer’s program, which she joined when she was 13. The Farwell twins and another Stoughton cop, Robert Devine, were pushed off the force in 2022 when L’Italien presented his alarming findings to Holmes about her time in the program and her subsequent sexual interactions with those officers.
The report accused the men of grooming Birchmore and later having sex with her on duty, which could be prosecuted under federal wire fraud statutes, as William Farwell admitted on the stand when he testified against his own twin brother last week under the grant of federal immunity. The report also identified U.S. Army Sergeant Jason Pickard, a then recruiter in the Quincy military center, who was later identified as the father of Sandra’s unborn child. Because the U.S. Army has strict laws regarding recruiters having sex with recruits, and Pickard was also committing adultery, he testified with a federal immunity deal to avoid a court-martial; he admitted on the stand.
Both William Farwell and Pickard testified that Birchmore had told them Farwell had taken her virginity when she was too young to consent to sex, and while she was a member of the Police Explorer’s Program. Birchmore’s mother believed Matthew Farwell was tutoring her daughter at the Stoughton town library when, according to evidence presented at trial, including hundreds of his own text messages about that time, he was in fact grooming her.
Among the cache of nearly 40,000 text messages recovered, with many read or shown to the jury, was one in which Birchmore specified the exact date Farwell took her virginity when she was underage: April 10, 2013. Her own words are now a critical piece of evidence in connection with what federal prosecutors call her 2021 murder, read to the jury of ten men and six women who are currently hearing evidence before deliberations are slated to begin as early as Friday.
Farwell’s defense also asked the judge in its proposed jury instructions to “caution” the jury about the testimony of William Farwell and Pickard, writing that the instruction should read: “You should consider the testimony of Jason Pickard and William Farwell with particular caution. Each may have had reason to make up stories or exaggerate what others did because he wanted to help himself.”
Erskine points to United States v. Simonelli, a 2001 ruling where the First Circuit reaffirmed that a judge instructing a jury to weigh immunized testimony with “particular caution and care” because a witness may want to “help himself”. Erskine opined that the defense’s proposed instruction may be allowed, at least in part, by the judge, because it “satisfies the court’s obligation to ensure the jury understands that the witness,” per the ruling, “may have had a reason to make up stories or exaggerate what others did because he wanted to help himself.”
The IAD report also uncovered the alleged wire fraud committed by the Farwell twins and Devine, accusing the ex cops of having sexual contact with Sandra on duty. Former Stoughton Animal Control Officer Joshua Heal is also mentioned in the report for a consensual encounter at the town animal shelter that led to the adoption of one of Sandra’s two beloved cats, Lily and Midnight, who now live with her aunt in New Hampshire. Heal was soon fired by the Abington Police Department, where he had become a school resources officer.
The contents of the Stoughton Internal Affairs report was given to the FBI by Brian Holmes, after, according to his testimony, Norfolk County state prosecutors reportedly refused to seat a grand jury to hear evidence against Farwell. The FBI’s own investigation began in 2023, according to testimony from Special Agent Heidi Kelsch. Lt. Fanning was slated to take the stand, but was not called.
Farwell was arrested by the FBI in August 2024, weeks after he smashed his truck into a pole, as exclusively reported by Los Angeles, and wrote a letter to a friend asking for his children to be taken care of.
Closing arguments are expected to take place Friday, per Casper’s instructions to the jury last week. The defense has indicated it plans to introduce evidence from eight additional witnesses, and the government could call rebuttal witnesses.
The judge has been a steadfast advocate for the jury and its members’ time. “The end is coming,” Casper told the jurors as they prepared to start their weekend, “and the time of your deliberation is coming.”
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