Matthew Farwell's Defense Claims the FBI Did WHAT to the Medical Examiner?!

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

Tony Brueski (0:08)

The evidence against Matthew Farwell has been building for quite some time. The DNA on the strap, phone data that puts him in her building. Motive, prosecutors say, started when Sandra Birchmore was 15 years old. But in opening statements, defense attorney Kimberly Stevens told the jury, Sandra took her own life in an impulsive act of despair. Psychiatric medication since age six, a prior S attempt as a teenager, $2.90 in the bank account. These are the things they're pitching out for the jury to try and believe. The defense says Farwell went to her apartment on February 1st just to break up with her, not to kill her. The feds pressured the medical examiner to change her S ruling and that the investigators who were actually there all called it an S before the FBI got involved. Bob Motta, defense attorney, is with us, along with Robin Drake, retired FBI special agent.

Yeah, so that's the angle that they're going in with here. I'm always interested in this segment with you, Bob, when we talk about, okay, how do you defend the undefensible person? How do you defend this guy? I mean, let's talk specifically first about the rulings. The, it's not an S, it is an S, it's not an S.

Is that, how does that read to a jury? Is that confusing to them where it goes back and forth for different reasons or does it make it all the more evident with the context to which they're being told as to, well, why initially it was this and why when the Feds came in, it became that?

Bob Motta (1:48)

Well, I think to answer your initial question, the way that you defended is that you have an understanding as a defense attorney, I don't have any burden.

I don't have to prove a damn thing. All I have to do is show that a suicide was possible. I understand that they're saying that my client killed her, but what I'm trying to tell you is that a suicide was possible. I'm putting on the fucking expert that's going to puke out what Robin just told us in the last segment. I'm going to say, well, everybody's saying it never happens. Well, how about this factoid? So you're starting right there. So if Stephen's defense attorney is smart, maybe she'll watch this segment and get an idea.

Robin Drake (2:35)

Oh, I hate that we could have helped that man. I really do.

Bob Motta (2:37)

Robin, I'll tell you, you the whole case, buddy.

Robin Drake (2:43)

I tell you, but as you all know, I celebrate when I'm wrong and at the same time, when we can change our minds and we post and talk about information that's counter to the narrative I want. When I'm reading those stats, I was really, really sad that they were not according to what I thought they're going to be, to what we're hoping they're going to be. But that's why we are intellectually honest when we do these things. And so with that, Bob, okay, so besides Robin's horrible stat that he posted up on how common this actually is, fucking hell.

SPEAKER_1 (3:17)

Robin's horrible stat.

Robin Drake (3:19)

Robin's horrible stat. Where do you plant the reasonable doubt on this one? Or is it all just right there for the jury?

Bob Motta (3:29)

In all honesty, you start right there. You know, when you're putting on your case in chief, and I have to assume that Stevens has done the work and has talked to some experts about this, because that's what they're saying, right?

They're dying on that hill that she killed herself, or she underlived herself. You know, it's, that is where your entire case lies. And again, we don't have to prove it. And all we have to do is put enough in there so that there's reasonable doubt. If you have one juror or all the jurors thinking, man, I really think that he did it, but you know what? I mean, it's possible that she did it herself. So you get it not guilty.

Robin Drake (4:11)

Where would you go uncross from that then? So, you know, you got some damning stats there that plant that reasonable doubt. So now you put your prosecutor hat on, as much as you might hate it. Where do you go uncross with that to try to counter that?

Bob Motta (4:23)

Hyoid, broken hyoid. I mean, that is a force injury, you know, and cutting the passage, the air passage off is one thing, you know, but breaking that is a different thing. I mean, it's typically indicative of strangulation, manual strangulation. And I mean, you're living there, you know, because I don't know how much weight there is from the ME kind of flip-flopping, you know, and it's undetermined, right? It hasn't been ruled a homicide by the ME. They flip-flopped from suicide to undetermined, which allowed, you know, the feds to really pursue it pretty actively. So, you know, I mean, if you're the prosecution, it's a narrative type case.