Crime

Brian Walshe’s next court appearance scheduled as cellphone evidence remains accessible

Court preserves key cellphone evidence ahead of Walshe’s November hearing.

Brian Walshe arrives in Norfolk Superior Court. Greg Derr via AP / Pool / File

October 31, 2025

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A Norfolk County judge has set the dates to begin Brian Walshe’s murder trial weeks after ordering the defendant to undergo a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.

Judge Diane Freniere at a conference review hearing on Friday set his next competency hearing for Nov.14, with the final pre-trial conference on Nov. 17. Jury selection is set to begin Nov. 18 and last about two weeks.

Freniere said she hopes to wrap this trial up by Christmas.

Of course, Freniere said, “Hope is not a plan,” while setting the hearing dates to choose 16 jurors for the case.

Freniere also explained how the jury selection process will work and asked that the prosecutors and defense submit their final motions by next Friday.

Ana Walshe, a Cohasset mother of three, went missing around New Year’s Day 2023. Prosecutors allege her husband, Brian Walshe, killed and dismembered her before disposing of her remains.

The judge initially scheduled the trial to start on Oct. 20, but an inmate reportedly stabbed Walshe when he was in jail on Sept. 11.

Despite Walshe showing progress since the attack, his lawyer, Larry Tipton, previously wrote in court documents that the “mental and physical effects of the violent assault” continued to prevent Walshe from fully participating in preparing his defense, adding that he was not functioning at the same level as before the incident.

Earlier this month, Tipton asked to continue the trial to December.

Defendants can still unearth evidence from Michael Proctor’s cellphone

On Thursday, Massachusetts Superior Judge Peter Krupp ordered that the Offices of the United States Attorneys preserve the sealed proof from the federal investigation into the Karen Read case, blocking plans to destroy it by Friday.

The ruling came Thursday in Norfolk Superior Court after attorneys for Walshe’s defense team asked the court to prevent the evidence, including data from former State Police Trooper Michael Proctor’s cellphone, from being erased.

The hearing was part of an ongoing legal fight by several Norfolk County defendants seeking access to the material.

The other defendants whose cases Proctor also investigated and are looking to access the information are Myles King for a fatal Milton shooting in 2021 and Jovani Delossantos and Shawn Johnson for a murder during a July 4 shooting in 2022.

Rosemary Scapicchio, representing King and Johnson, and Joseph Krowski, representing Delossantos, were also at the hearing but did not file objections to the materials destruction.

Some grand jury material involving Proctor, who led the Read investigation, was allowed to be turned over to the defendants for review. Krupp approved a protective order allowing defense attorneys to receive copies of Proctor’s phone files while barring public disclosure.

Last week, prosecutors revealed that Proctor’s personal cellphone contained “images of intimate body parts” and other sensitive information.

At the hearing, Tipton said he had only a short time to review some of the discovery and asked the court to preserve more documents before the state destroyed them.

“If you allow the destruction of these documents that we have never been able to review in their entirety, we lose the opportunity to ever review them, and it would certainly prejudice my client,” he said.

Tipton added that after reviewing documents favorable to the defense, he believes additional files may contain more helpful information and that his review could lead to different conclusions than those of prosecutors.

The hearing also covered which materials Tipton would access, including the federally commissioned accident reconstruction report.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Lisa Beatty did not see its relevance to the Walshe case. Tipton responded, “It is important to show how he conducted the investigation.”

Krupp noted that, hypothetically, federal materials could show that police supervisors knew about Proctor’s behavior and failed to discipline him, which could also be exculpatory evidence.

When Beatty returned the confidential materials on Friday, Krupp ordered her to provide a copy of the order to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.