Anticipation has been building on whether Brian Walsh will take the stand to defend himself in the high-profile trial, but the Cohasset murder suspect made his intentions clear Thursday morning: He won’t testify.
The decision came as the defense unexpectedly shelved its case, signaling the end of the trial.
Judge Diane Frenier revealed that when the trial began nine days ago, Walsh had planned to testify – a rare move in a murder trial – but that strategy changed overnight after two key witnesses testified on behalf of the federal case.
After waiving his right to testify, Walsh answered a series of questions from the judge to confirm his decision.
Boston 25 Legal Analyst Peter Elikann said he was “shocked” by the development.
“Put a blanket over me. I’m in shock,” Elikan said. “The evidence is out that he cut up his wife’s body and disposed of it, and the jury is not going to hear any explanation that he had a legitimate reason, or ‘I didn’t kill her,’ or anything like that.”
In opening arguments, the defense claimed that Walsh found his wife, Ana Walshe, dead in her bed on New Year’s Day 2023 and panicked. They believe Anna died of natural causes and not at the hands of Brian. However, prosecutors continued to argue that Walsh murdered Anna, dismembered her and disposed of her remains.
Given the caliber of Walsh’s legal team, Elikan speculated that “there has to be some good reason” behind the defense strategy.
“He was charged with first-degree murder, which is generally a premeditated, intentional killing. We didn’t hear anything that he intended to kill her. We didn’t hear anything that was premeditated. He must have been busy online in the middle of the night looking for information on how to dispose of the body, but we didn’t hear any evidence that he killed her,” Elikan explained.
Anna’s body has not yet been found.
Although prosecutors do not have a body to use as evidence against Walsh, Elikan speculated that when deliberations begin, the jury will have a hard time getting through the reams of surveillance video and DNA evidence that prosecutors presented during eight days of testimony.
“Whether the jury is going to say, look, we can’t get over this, that’s a hard sell … why do you have a loved one who died suddenly and you’re cutting up their body when you had nothing to do with hurting or killing them?” Elikan said.
Elikan added that it was too early to tell whether Walsh had done himself any harm by not appearing in court.
Elikan wasn’t surprised the defense called no witnesses.
“I don’t know how many other witnesses there were… If the defense said he didn’t kill her, he was the only one there. There were no witnesses,” Elikan explained. “he [Walshe] He may be the only one who can testify. “
Elikan also speculated that the defense was trying to prevent prosecutors from asking Walsh during cross-examination, “Why did you dismember your wife? Where is she?”
Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday.
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