Birchmore trial watcher reveals what jurors, Farwell did in court

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Farwell has pleaded not guilty. The testimony begins on Tuesday and now I want to bring in Melissa Berry who has helped bring national attention to this case through a Facebook page and demonstrations outside the courthouse. You were in that courtroom today. Thank you so much for coming on. Just let's start there. What was it like being in that courtroom and did you notice anything from the jury during opening statements? Yeah, it was so good to finally be [00:00:28] Speaker 2: in the courtroom for him. You know, we were full of a bunch of emotions, but we're happy that he's finally in court, you know, and he's going to be judged by the jury. As for the jury, there was one juror, a female juror, who was teary. I wouldn't say she was full on crying, but she was very teary-eyed. And there was another male juror who seemed very upset at what he was hearing. [00:01:01] Speaker 1: And you're talking about when the prosecution was delivering their opening statement? Both sides. Both sides. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the point. So from a legal point of view, I'll tell you, opening statements are so important. Jurors, they shouldn't do this, but sometimes they make their mind up in an opening statement, which you now hear this. You know, prosecution saying she was murdered. Defense says it was a suicide. When you listen to what the evidence is going to be, you listen to these arguments, do you think this is going to be tough for the juries? Is this going to be a tough case? [00:01:30] Speaker 2: I think once the prosecution lays out the facts and so many police officers testify against him, because there's a lot of police officers on the witness list, I think that they'll see what was done to Sandra. And there's going to be a lot of things for them to visually see what was done. There's going to be videos and there's going to be photos of, um, their sex life. [00:02:01] Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. You had a front row seat to this. How did Farwell react today from what you could see? [00:02:08] Speaker 2: He didn't really react much, but somebody pointed out to me something very interesting about, um, what he was doing because he's a big guy. He's six, four. He was sitting slouched down to make himself look smaller. Hmm. That's interesting. And that was interesting. Did you learn anything today? [00:02:29] Speaker 1: You know, this, you know, the story better than anybody, but did you learn something today in these openings that maybe surprised you? Um, yes, it has to do. I'm going to read it off my [00:02:40] Speaker 2: phone because I want to get the quote, right? Sure. Um, and by the way, just for everybody who knows, [00:02:44] Speaker 1: we're showing footage of what allegedly is Farwell appearing at Birchmore's apartment. Um, [00:02:51] Speaker 2: and then I'm in question. So yes. Um, it involves the, the, um, the, um, original investigators of the state investigators and they were interviewing, um, William Farwell, um, Matthew's twin brother. And one of them said to him, none of this is a massive state, Massachusetts state trooper. He said, we need this investigation. Like we need an effing bullet, uh, wait, need a bullet to the effing head. And he said, he also said, they also said to him, we're not going to, you guys are fine. We're not [00:03:30] Speaker 1: really going to investigate. So to summarize what was said. And, and William Farwell has also been accused of having, uh, a sexual relationship, uh, with Sandra Birchmore, um, and potentially going to be a witness for our viewers who don't know, this is a case where a theme is going to be a tainted investigation, a, a coverup in a will, uh, this idea of that it wasn't thoroughly investigated, that it was just assumed she took her own life. Am I right? That's how it's going to be characterized? [00:03:58] Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. Um, there's stuff that has come up recently that, um, nine, uh, about nine days before Farwell was arrested, they, um, prosecution brought two troopers to the medical examiner's office and they sat them down and they went through everything, why they believed it was a murder. And five days later, they, part of their server got lost. They knew he was going to be arrested. You know, prosecution basically told them we're going to, we're going to go get them. And four days before he was arrested, it was, there was information lost and it's been a big contention in the courtroom. [00:04:47] Speaker 1: It's one of the many issues. I mean, he hasn't been brought up on state charges. These are federal charges. So it's, it's, it's, it's one of the talking points about why that is the case now.