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Lawyers for Brian Walshe, Cohasset man charged with murdering wife, argue for dismissal
“There’s nothing in the grand jury exhibits that has any statement, any conduct that can be attributed to Mr. Walshe that he planned to … harm Ms. Walshe,” his lawyer argued.
Lawyers for Brian Walshe asked a judge to dismiss the murder case against him Thursday, arguing prosecutors failed to show sufficient evidence that Walshe committed first-degree murder in the 2023 disappearance of his wife, Ana Walshe.
Brian Walshe, 50, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, misleading investigators, and disinterring a body. Prosecutors allege he killed and dismembered Ana Walshe in their Cohasset home on New Year’s Day in 2023, possibly motivated by his wife’s extramarital affair and her $2.7 million life insurance policies. Her body has not been found.
In their motion for dismissal, the defense alleged the information presented to grand jurors who indicted Brian Walshe in 2023 wasn’t enough to establish “premeditation, extreme atrocity and cruelty, felony murder, or malice.”
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“There’s nothing in the grand jury exhibits that has any statement, any conduct that can be attributed to Mr. Walshe that he planned to … harm Ms. Walshe,” defense attorney Larry Tipton argued in court Thursday. “Nothing at all.”
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While Ana Walshe’s affair and multimillion-dollar life insurance constitute a possible motive, “motive evidence is not premeditation, and motive evidence is not malice,” Tipton asserted.
He alleged there was no factual basis in the evidence presented to grand jurors that Walshe even knew his wife was seeing another man.
“The case law also makes clear … that it’s not just that someone says, ‘OK, I’m going to kill somebody,’” Tipton said. “There has to be cool reflection; there has to be a thought, and then it has to be followed by action. They have no evidence of that.”
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But, Judge Diane Freniere alleged Walshe told police he had access to his wife’s messages, and that evidence also indicated he searched the name of his wife’s affair partner several times in late December 2022. Walshe’s federal art fraud case added further strain to the couple’s relationship, she pointed out.
“It’s clear that there was sufficient evidence before the grand jury that this marriage was in distress over the issues relating to his then-pending federal sentence and the implications on their life and where the children lived,” Freniere said.
She appeared skeptical about the legal basis for Tipton’s request, suggesting his arguments may be more appropriate in pretrial motions in limine, which seek the exclusion of certain evidence or theories during trial.
“To me, you’re seeking to limit the commonwealth regarding the theories it may pursue at trial, based on … your perceived failing of proof in the grand jury,” Freniere told Tipton. “It seems to me that’s not a dismissal of the indictment for first-degree murder; it’s a motion in limine to say … that the commonwealth can’t have that evidence at trial.”
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She also acknowledged prosecutors’ evidence of extreme atrocity or cruelty was “pretty thin.” While prosecutor Tracey Cusick didn’t disagree with Freniere’s assessment, she urged the judge to keep all theories of first-degree murder on the table for the time being.
Cusick alleged Ana Walshe told a friend she fought with Brian Walshe about their children coming to live with her in Washington, D.C., where she worked and lived part-time. According to Cusick, Ana Walshe even suggested Brian Walshe had angled to keep the children with him in Cohasset in hopes of avoiding prison time in his federal case.
She argued evidence in the murder case points to planning on Walshe’s part, including his alleged Dec. 27, 2022, Google search for “What’s the best state to divorce for a man?” Later searches for methods of disposing of a body and cleaning a crime scene “show the defendant’s awareness that this was indeed a crime and not some sort of accidental person dying in a home,” Cusick alleged.
Again skeptical, Freniere said the “rearward-looking sort of concept of premeditation is a little bit difficult for me to appreciate.” Still, Cusick was adamant Walshe had motive and intent.
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“I would suggest here, the defendant’s activities of looking up how to clean up a crime scene, his activities of purchasing large quantities of cleaning supplies in various stores, and certainly going to different dumpsters and disposing of, one could infer, the victim’s body and her possessions certainly … should be considered as consciousness of guilt, but also as evidence of intent and motive,” she argued.
Freniere took the matter under advisement. She has yet to rule on another defense motion to suppress Walshe’s alleged Google searches, which included inquiries for, “How long before a body starts to smell?” and “Can you be charged with murder without a body?”
Thursday’s hearing also touched on federal materials turned over to attorneys in the Karen Read trial, which ended in Read’s acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges last month. Walshe’s lawyers have questioned whether the federal materials could contain relevant exculpatory information, given former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor investigated both the Read and Walshe cases.
State Police fired Proctor earlier this year after a federal probe of Read’s case revealed vulgar texts he’d sent to family, friends, and coworkers about the defendant. While the federal investigation has since ended, the specifics remain shrouded in mystery and it remains unclear whether attorneys outside Read’s case will be able to access materials from the probe.
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Walshe’s case returns to court for another hearing Aug. 1. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 20.
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