VERDICT IS IN: Brian Walshe Guilty of First Degree Murder

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Monday, December fifteenth. Guilty guilty as charged. The verdict is in and Brian Walsh has been found guilty of murdering his wife. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. Let me get your reaction first. It's not what we predicted, but the jury did have two options, first degree and second degree. They came back this quickly, and they came back with a harder charge.

00:00:29
Speaker 2: First degree murder murder in the first degree, which is premeditation, which carries a life without parole sentence for Brian Walsh. So he will be going to prison for the rest of his life. Obviously, he will have a chance to appeal and the judge still has to technically sentence him. But that is what that charge, what that conviction carries in the state of Massachusetts.

00:00:50
Speaker 3: And yes, I'm.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: I'm not totally surprised, but I'm a little surprised. I really did think it would take them longer even maybe to come up or to agree to the first degree charged unanimously. The second degree, to me thought I thought was absolutely a slam dunk. But first degree, I'm I'm a little surprised that came back. I guess it would have been about six hours they deliberated in total, and it.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: Didn't seem like at least based on the verdict that we've not seen, that there was a whole lot of disagreement in the room and it was six hours. I thought it was ended up being less than that. But you say total ended up being six correct.

00:01:27
Speaker 2: I think it was around four hours on Friday that they deliberated, and then about two hours today, so I mean under six hours, under six hours.

00:01:36
Speaker 1: This trial wrapped up pretty quickly, folks. We have been watching this, of course, the past two weeks. Here we are in December fifteenth, right, the first day of testimony was December first, so two mondays ago. When the judge was telling folks we might need to get ready for a three to four plus week trial, even some concern it might bump up into Christmas a little bit. They flew through the prosecution at least case the defense put up no witnesses at all, and all of a sudden, here we are we get to a short trial in short deliberations. I am I. We gave our predictions, if you will, for what we thought the jury was gonna do. This, This surprised me a little. Yes, how much did it surprise you? This surprised me, but a bit. I think when you add the time to you. Look, we've watched plenty, but lawyers, folks who do this for a living, tell you we have no idea what a jury's gonna do. You try to predict the best you can and try to go by history. You just you just don't. You just don't know. I don't know. I thought there was enough doubt, enough head scratching questions raised by the defense that it would at least give them some pause.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: Yes, premeditation was I was. I was on the fence with that, But who knows. There could have been a very persuasive person in that jury room that convinced everyone, or everyone could have actually walked in there with a very similar like minded approach to what they thought his level of responsibility was.

00:03:03
Speaker 3: But that's they go through.

00:03:04
Speaker 2: We just watched the judge go and ask every single juror sits there and says, yes, that is my decision that has to happen for their conviction to stand, and it was a unanimous one. I was taken a little bit by Brian Walsh's reaction or I should say lack thereof.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: He walked back in.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: We were all a little shocked around eleven thirty this morning when we were told Eastern time that the jury, or at least we believe the jury, had reached a verdict. His mother, Diana, was there at the trial. He acknowledged her. But when the verdict was read out, well, actually right beforehand, I did notice him.

00:03:40
Speaker 3: Did you see him The.

00:03:41
Speaker 2: Only slight body language of stress. He cracked his neck to the right, like you know when you're kind of just moving your neck.

00:03:49
Speaker 3: It's a little stiff.

00:03:50
Speaker 2: And he opened his jaw like he was cracking his jaw. That was the only slight body movement I saw where you could tell that. Yes, he's a little tense right now. Can you imagine I was tense waiting for the jury's verdict.

00:04:03
Speaker 1: I mean it was just I mean, I can't imagine being in that position. But he I didn't see the net crack, the move He was as stoic and calm as we have heard about him throughout this trial and as we have seen him sitting in that room throughout the trial. And there was not a reaction of any kind when they came back and said guilty. I didn't see him interact with his lawyers even once. And the bailiff came in. They put the handcuffs back on and escorted him out, and not a reaction of any kind did I see.

00:04:33
Speaker 2: It was like he was just told he had one hundred dollars parking ticket. He had no reaction. Yes, that's amazing to me that you and look, I know you have to probably prepare yourself for worst case scenario, but still to have zero reaction. And we did not see him speak, not look at, not glance at his lawyers. There was zero interaction between his legal team, not among them Elves, not with Brian Walsh. It was absolute silence and zero physical movement, interaction, eye contact.

00:05:08
Speaker 3: Nothing. That was really shocking to me.

00:05:10
Speaker 1: Don't know, I mean a lot of Look, we don't obviously we don't know this guy at all, but we were pretty we found it pretty remarkable some of his behavior after he had chopped up his wife, his demeanor, how he was able to carry himself in front of other people, how he was able to go about being at sometimes even personable and warm to people. He's out shopping and doing. To be able to do that was I found pretty incredible of a human being. To see him today in court. If we'd have seen an emotional reaction, we'd have been shocked. We're like, whoa, who was that guy?

00:05:49
Speaker 3: I would have been like, there's a human being in there.

00:05:51
Speaker 1: Okay, well, this is in line with what we have seen and heard.

00:05:54
Speaker 2: You make a good point, it's on brand from everything because one of the most chilling things I believe, well, there were a couple really chilling things beyond just the searches themselves, but to hear the audiotape of him talking to detectives within days of his wife being missing, but also we now know after now he's been convicted of murdering and chopping up her body.

00:06:15
Speaker 3: How just relaxed.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: He didn't over explain, he didn't seem defensive, he didn't seem nervous, he wasn't speaking too quickly. He seemed like an affable guy next door who is looking for his lost dog.

00:06:27
Speaker 1: Like.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: He just didn't seem that upset or concerned or guilty or defensive. So he is able to compartmentalize like a mother effort is I guess the best way to put it.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: So, I mean, will we ever see anything out of him. I don't know, we're running out of opportunities to do so. But a reminder for folks who don't. I think everybody at this point is kept up with his story. Rogues about this woman that he said his wife he was partying with one night with a friend. They go to bed that night, he goes down to clean the kitchen. He goes back up. She's dead. They say, sudden, sudden, unexplained to death. He panics stars. All these internet searchers trying to figure out how to chop up dispose of a body. All those searchers were entered into evidence during this trial, and he stuck by that story. What the prosecution never was able to say how she.

00:07:20
Speaker 3: Died exactly, never got a body.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: There is nobody, And this jury did not buy a lot of the what ifs, and well it's possible, possible, they didn't reach the reasonable doubt threshold. The defense and all that stuff they came up with, which at times we gave them credit for.

00:07:38
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, the defense did the best job they possibly could with a case that was difficult from the get go, with those types of internet searches, with the video evidence they have of him throwing bags away in dumpsters. The evidence they have of him buying an essentially clean up kit for murdering your wife, just with video evidence, receives eats his DNA, Anna's DNA. I mean, all of that was undeniable. His only chance was that no one could prove how his wife died because no one had any sort of forensic evidence. They didn't even have circumstantial evidence about how she died. No one could tell the jury how Anna Walsh died. And yet he was still convicted of first degree murder. That is pretty remarkable.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: It's kind of you know what. The prosecution A big part of their case was common sense, and it is if you lay it out like that, like, come on, what do you think happened? Yeah, maybe they didn't prove some things, but they relied on common sense. And common sense tells you that this man killed his wife.

00:08:44
Speaker 2: The way he acted, maybe not as much before, but certainly during and after. Spoke to what made the most sense as to how it went down and why it went down. I'm curious you pointed out one of the big moments for the prosecution in closing statements was making that connection. You said, I believe it happened, was closing arguments were already on Friday, right, I'm losing track of time. But when she was able to say, finally to the jury, all of those searches you saw. Never once did you see a search for unexplained sudden death. How could my wife die suddenly? How could a thirty five year old woman who was fine one hour be dead the next? Like there were no searches that would justify or bolster or suggest in any way, shape or form. He found his wife dead without any explanation.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: You know, And maybe that was the brilliance. And maybe they held on to that on purpose until the end because they knew the defense wasn't going to be able to come back and try to explain that one away. But that was it. If somebody panics because somebody's dead, the first thing you're going to do is not try to get rid of the body. You're going to try to resuscitate or find out what happened. You would even google, like crazy, deciding to call the cops, like okay, maybe was this, Maybe was this? Maybe this, and maybe they won't arrest me if anything. When she said that, so that was the most common sensical thing I heard, though, I said okay.

00:10:16
Speaker 2: Because you were you were team You were team Larry Tipton the whole time, not that you were team Brian Walsh, but you were just team Larry Tipton in terms of how he handled the case, how he presented the defense.

00:10:27
Speaker 3: To the jury. It was brilliant.

00:10:29
Speaker 2: So you were you were like, I get this guy. This guy is doing an incredible job. And the prosecution, frankly, we were wanting more. We were expecting more, we were wishing they would connect the dots more. But yes, at the very end, you were like, that was the first time you said, oh wow, she just said something that resonated and I can't unhear it. Panic Now, once you've said that, now that makes the most sense, the most common sense.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: The entire trial. And I want to give her credit for that moment. And maybe that moment was important to the jury. And again I wonder if she held on to that until that moment. You cannot didn't give them a chance to say, well, he didn't go google that stuff because blah blah blah didn't give him a chance. Yeah that's great, Well, folks, this now ropes. I have a right carries. This is life without parole. But remember he was also convicted or pled guilty to some other charges before this case even started, So they still have to wrap all of this up, and they're going to wrap it up very soon. We'll explain by the judges saying sentencing is happening almost immediately.

00:11:41
Speaker 3: Stay here, Welcome back everyone.

00:11:52
Speaker 2: We are continuing to discuss this breaking news that just happened. The verdict is in in the Brian wah trial. The jury took less than six hours to find Brian Walsh guilty of murder in the first degree. Zero emotion from Brian Walsh, zero interaction with his attorneys. It all happened very quickly, and so will sentencing. According to the judge, and even the defense asked for Wednesday for the Puerto reconvene and for his sentencing to take place. They want some The judge was very very clear to say, if they have to postpone until Thursday or Friday, she will figure it out because she really wants to hear the victim impact statements in this case.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: You know what, for this for her friends, for her family members. I mean, we heard from and about a lot of people during this thing, and they were it seems like they were all close, like they had shared friends, and I can't imagine the words they might have for him on Wednesday. So I'm definitely curious to see where are the boys now. Their sons are with.

00:12:59
Speaker 2: The I don't know exactly where they are, but they're little guys, and I can't imagine they would involve them in a way in the court room, right, Oh, I can't.

00:13:07
Speaker 3: I was just thinking about that. They would be too young.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: You'd have to be probably eighteen or at least of a certain age to want to be able to speak. Because his youngest I mean his oldest I think, is what eight or nine?

00:13:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, death, that's what it was, right, eight.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: Or six and eight, so probably eight. But I wonder like it's just the trial up until now has been about Brian Walsh, whether he was guilty or innocent, whether he should be sent away for the rest of his life or face some sort of punishment in between. But now on Wednesday, it really does become about Anna Walsh for a while, and I think that's so important for the people who are grieving her still and will for the rest of their lives to have that moment in court, to be able to address her killer and say what he took from them, and just from what we've seen, I'm sure he won't show any bit of emotion opportunity right to speak. Don't think you can. And I just you know, I wonder if we will hear from him. I wonder.

00:14:09
Speaker 1: I doubt it.

00:14:10
Speaker 3: I doubt it too.

00:14:11
Speaker 1: I doubt it. But we talk about this being in this is a part of closure, but they have never they'd have nowhere to go visit to late Flowers. They don't know how she met her end. Actually, they don't know what he did to her, and that's something he could possibly go to his grave and we may never know. So Wednesday there's going to be another big day in court for this trial. We will keep a close close eye on it again, folks. Top right corner of that Apple podcast app where you see our show page button says follow click fat and you can get our updates. There have been quite a few to enough for fast moving and breaking stories lately, but we always appreciate you spending time with us. For now, I'm T. J. Holmes on behalf of Amy Robot. We'll talk to you Elson