Sandra Birchmore Sent Farwell THIS Message the Night She Died

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

Tony Brueski (0:11)

There are no cameras in the courtroom of the Sandra Birchmore murder trial with Matthew Farwell. So, with that, we have to rely on, literally, people writing things down. The old school way.

And reporting it back to you. We're going to do our darndest every single day to give you the most comprehensive recap of what went on in that courtroom. Compiling all the different accounts from everybody's different reporting. And getting probably the clearest picture anyone can bring you to grasp what went on in that courtroom the previous day. That's how we're going to be working on documenting and sharing this story with you. Opening statements, by the way, were just the other day. And that's what we're getting into on this episode. No court on Monday. Opening statements for Friday, Tuesday, the day this is dropping to you guys, you may be watching it then or after, is when court resumes. So what happened? What happened during opening statements in this trial that we've been waiting for for so many years now? Well, the first was brought to the jury by the prosecutor. The first read came from that prosecutor who called it the last message Sandra Birchmore ever sent anyone. It went to Matthew Farwell at 910 on the night of February 1st, 2021

Yeah, you can come, say hi. You okay? The door is open when you get here. That's the message. The second was read to the jury by his lawyer. It's a search from that same phone on that same day.

What color is the S ribbon?

Two statements from two different attorneys. One saying, yeah, come over. The other asking about the S ribbon. S for unaliving. The two lines describe two different women somewhat. Twelve people have to decide which one was real that night. And the first thing each side did was hand them a version. What each lawyer built and then presented came out of the same 40,000 text messages and which Sandra, the jury carried home for the weekend, is what we're going to find out at some point here.

It happened on Friday, October 9th, in the Federal Courthouse in Boston, on a jury of 10 men and 6 women. They had been sworn in an hour before. The Judge Denise Carpenter had told them that what the lawyers say isn't evidence. Torey Cummings stood up for the government and Kimberly Stevens stood up for Farwell with about 40 minutes apiece.

Farwell sat between his lawyers in a charcoal suit, mostly looking at a laptop. Six of Sandra's cousins sat behind him. The charge is killing a witness, which is how the federal government gets into a murder case. To win it, Cummings has to prove he killed her and that he did it to keep her from telling police about federal crimes that begin with a 27-year-old officer and a 15-year-old girl. Stevens opened from the defense table with her left arm around his shoulders. She touched his face before she walked to the jury and she called him Matt, humanizing Matt, buddy, Matt, Matt, the man who groomed at least one child. I'm going to guess there might be more, judging by the fact that you're into that sort of shit, but that's pure speculation for right now. Matthew Farwell is a man who had an affair. He's human, is what his attorney told the jury. Matthew Farwell did not kill Sandra Birchmore.

SPEAKER_1 (5:24)

He did not, Matt.

Tony Brueski (5:28)

An affair is something too grown people do behind a third one's back. That's the word Stevens handed the jury. And she called his mistakes regrettable.

I've sat through a lot of openings and I've never heard one word as to carry as much weight as affair carried in this context, especially when we know how long this relationship has been groomed for. Because it's not a relationship that was going on. It was a grooming that was continuing throughout life.

Affair. Yeah, it's an affair.

And 9-11 was a sunny day with a few misguided planes. That's all.

Cummings never used his first name. He was the defendant every single time when the defense came up. She put a photo of Stoughton Police explorers on the screen and pointed to the littlest one at the end of the line. A child. Sandra struggled in school and had trouble making friends. Cummings said her mother was chronically ill and put her in the program. So she'd have structure and some role models. A police youth program is where a sick mother sends a lonely kid to be safe. She loved it. And in Cummings' word, she was enamored with the police officers. The defendant was supposed to be her mentor. Cummings told the jury. Instead, he started tutoring her at the library. And that became a relationship with a 15-year-old girl, which under Massachusetts law is a felony. And under a lot of countries laws, it's just pretty much straight execution from here on out.