SERIALously - 346: Refusing to Testify? Is Brian Walshe Going to Walk Free? | Trial Week 2 Recap

Starting point is 00:00:00 What if this was someone in your family that had a chronic illness that they could not get away from? Millions of Americans live with a disease that has no cure. I was diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma. The most immediate findings indicated that I should lose my leg. It ended up taking four clinical trials in 25 years to get me to this point. Cures are within reach. if we invest in funding for life-saving medical research that's needed to find them. Even if they're unsuccessful in my treatment that they will have learned from my treatment

Starting point is 00:00:39 that will be able to allow others to stand on my shoulders to be able to be helped. Join the Fight for Cures. Tell your elected representatives to support American medical research. Visit UnitedforCures.org slash action to send a letter today. paid for by United for Cures action Hey true crime besties Welcome back to an all new episode of serialously Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialessly with me, Annie Elyce, bonus episode edition.

Starting point is 00:01:34 Happy Friday. I hope you are ready to kick off your weekend. Hope you had a great week. Hoping you are ready to hear about this freaking douche canoe, Brian Walsh, because I'm back. I'm here with you for another bonus episode outside of the regular release schedule. Because so many of you last week appreciated the coverage and wanted to continue. continue following the trial and the story. So here I am again with a recap for not only the second week, but what appears to be the final week, actually. The trial was originally supposed to,

Starting point is 00:02:09 I can't talk, hello, the trial was originally supposed to be four to six weeks. Then we heard that it might be two to three weeks. Now it's like almost a wrap and done. And don't worry, I'm going to explain why. And we're going to get into all of that. So I have my notes next to me. I have my big freaking jug of water here. Let me move the microphone a little bit away from my mouth so that you don't hear all my like disgusting noises. And let's talk about what went down this week because I would say towards the end of the week, it definitely kind of took everybody for a surprise.

Starting point is 00:02:45 Now, let me just start by saying this too. If you missed last week, I will link our week one recap in the show notes where we break down all the players, how we got here, the whole situation. I also will link the deep dive that we did on this case a while back that takes you through the entire story. But here's your like mega, mega quick refresher. This loser, Brian Walsh, is accused of murdering his wife, Anna Walsh. This was after she disappeared in January of 2023, literally like New Year's Day. Now, the prosecution has already shown some pretty wild evidence, in my opinion, that Brian absolutely dismembered her body, lied to the police about it,

Starting point is 00:03:28 and in my opinion, I do believe that they have illustrated that he murdered her. Now, shockingly, if you missed last week, let me just tell you this, the defense isn't even denying the part of him dismembering his wife, Anna. They're kind of like, well, yeah, he did, he panicked, he had no other choice, he didn't know what to do, he woke up, she was dead, and in a blind panic he thought he had to get rid of her body because he was scared he was going to be charged with her murder so yeah he dismembered her yep yep yep that's right i mean again their whole argument is that he did this in a like frenzied panic after coming to bed new year's eve or

Starting point is 00:04:10 waking up i should say or in the middle of the night or whatever it was and then finding on a dead next to him which actually that's something i do want to just quickly clarify and and touch on really quickly from last week's episode. I did mention it in the comments on the episode, but last week when we had talked about the defense and their explanation of Anna's death, I had mentioned that he had nudged her and that she fell off the bed.

Starting point is 00:04:34 And so he said, oh, she had this unexplained medical incident and she died. And I think the way I explained it definitely made it sound like, or could have, I guess, made it sound like the fall is what killed her. But let me just clarify. What he is saying is that he nudged her a couple of times in the bed and that she wasn't moving and then she basically fell off the bed so that she was already deceased in the bed and that was from the unexplained medical incident. So basically what they're trying to say, or I should say what the defense is trying to lay out, is that this beautiful, healthy 39-year-old woman who had a regular New Year's Eve dinner that with him with friends then went to bed.

Starting point is 00:05:18 just had this, you know, crazy, unexplained medical situation that left her dead. And then Brian was nudging her, trying to move her to wake her up to do whatever he was doing. She, you know, fell off the bed. He realized she was dead. And then he said, you know what? Rather than calling 911, rather than hoping someone can come and save her and resuscitate her, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go to Home Depot.

Starting point is 00:05:44 And I'm going to buy myself a hatchet and a hacksaw. and cleaning supplies, and I'm going to get to work and dismember her. Yep, that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to call 911. And you know what? Before I do that, let me just make some searches on how to get away with this, how to cover up a murder, how to get rid of the smell of decomposition, how to properly dismember a body. Let me get some education, then go buy the supplies, and let me get rid of my wife. Yeah, I just don't think I should call 911. Like, are you out of your mind, is this the best that the defense could come up with? Honestly, honestly. I'm kind of surprised that they went with something so bizarre, but look, I'm not a defense attorney. So maybe there's a strategy here, and I'm just the loser idiot who is too dumb to keep up. I don't know. But now that we've got all that straight, week two of the trial opened up at the top of this week with Trooper Connor Keith back on the stand. And sorry, I'm just going to grab some water too really quick. And he was showing text messages between Brian and Anna. Now last week, God, I can't get this off. Sorry,

Starting point is 00:06:52 one second. Pause. Sometimes that happens. I'm talking a million miles an hour. I'm a fast talker by nature. And then I just am like dehydrated and, you know, dying of thirst. Like my mouth is the Sahara Desert. So anyway, he's talking about these text messages between Brian and Anna. And last week, we learned that just days before Anna died, Brian had searched William Fasto. Now, this is the guy that his wife Anna was having an affair with. He also searched Anna Walsh found dead. Not, you know, very normal searches, I would argue. Now, around that same time, he also searched the names of two buildings that were managed by Anna's real estate company. Which to me, that sounds like a lot of motive. That sounds maybe like some premeditation. It sounds to me like Brian was basically deep diving into

Starting point is 00:07:48 his own wife, Anna, also looking into the man that she was cheating with, their company, their buildings. I mean, the whole kitten caboodle. God, that really, really just aged me. Now that I said, my mom and dad used to say that to me. Whatever, that feels like it aged me, but who cares? We're all in this together. So he has these searches into the guy she's having an affair with, her buildings, a search that says very explicitly, Anna Walsh dead, before she even goes missing, which the defense had a totally and almost kind of endearing explanation for why Brian made those searches. Okay? So let me break that down. They claim that after Anna was late getting back to Massachusetts on Christmas, because remember she would go back and forth from D.C. to Massachusetts.

Starting point is 00:08:38 they say that Brian got worried that something serious had happened to her. So to back up that point, they looked and pointed out during cross-examination that Brian also had searched Xmas Day plane crash, meaning Christmas Day plane crash, and he also had searched around the same time that he had searched William. This was also searched around the same time he had searched William's name and the search Anna Walsh found dead. So they were saying basically and arguing that he was searching for her name and for her boyfriend's name because he was scared something happened. He was also searching for a plane crash, wondering if maybe she'd gotten a plane crash on her way back to Massachusetts on Christmas.

Starting point is 00:09:21 And as for Brian searching the company buildings, they pointed out that those two specific buildings had recently been tied to an outbreak of severe upper respiratory disease. So according to them, all of these searches really were just an illustration of Brian being this very loving, very thoughtful, very worried husband, just researching what Anna may have been exposed to in these buildings. A plane crash on her way back from Massachusetts was her boyfriend hurt too, which it kind of made me wonder if by laying that foundation, if they were going to try and connect that mysterious illness in those buildings. to the whole unexplained medical incident theory that they claim caused Anna's death, which, again, if you're new to this, the cause of death can't be determined because Ana's body has not been recovered. So I thought that maybe they would try and tie those things together, but they didn't, which not really, which I'll explain here in a minute. So during Trooper Keefe's cross-examination, the defense also pointed out that Brian and Anna

Starting point is 00:10:31 regularly were texting with each other about plans to buy a new property, even plans to buy a new Porsche. So, according to the defense, if Anna was talking about buying another home with Brian, that completely disproves the prosecution's theory that she was planning to leave him. And if Brian was talking about buying her a Porsche, then, according to the defense, obviously, he wasn't planning her murder. He loved her. He wanted to buy her lavish gifts. They were looking for property, you know, nobody ever is buying somebody luxury gifts or pretending that they're going to if they're planning a murder, which if you are not seeing me right now and you're only listening, you see my face. And how I think that is complete bullshit. How many times do we hear

Starting point is 00:11:16 the voicemail to, and I'm thinking of Scott Peterson, we saw, hey honey, just, you know, here thinking about you, not this, but like bake some cookies. I miss you. I love you. Like all these things. People do this. People want to act like they're in paradise before something happened so that it gets the smoke or not smoke gets the like stench off of them, right? So that people don't look to you and they don't think that you're involved in this. So I don't know. The Porsche and the buying the property doesn't really sway my thought process on this. Maybe it does for you. Let me know. But I think that's probably just par for the course. They were talking about a property. Anna was building, plans allegedly to leave him and I'm sure that that was done in secret so maybe this property

Starting point is 00:12:03 she was just appeasing him like yeah let's go look at it yeah sure we'll look at the Porsche too ready to kind of basically be like bro there's no Porsche there's no property I'm leaving your loser ass and that could even be what conversation was had on New Year's Eve that made this whole thing blow up who knows but then anyways the prosecution continued their case and they brought in Richard Atkinson he's a medical examiner So he gave more details about the horrifying evidence that was found in Brian's car, evidence that we had talked about in last week's episode. Now, this included a piece of rug that was covered in blood, a clump of brown hair,

Starting point is 00:12:42 and a quarter inch long blood clot. A quarter inch long blood clot. I mean, this is horrific. And so we heard more about this and just, again, the explanation is, well, yeah, he was dismembering her. he got rid of her body. Of course you're going to find DNA and those types of things. And I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, so I apologize, but we will get there. So on cross for this, the defense jumped at the chance to bring up this whole sudden, unexpected death situation that we've talked about earlier. This is their grand theory of how Anna died. So Richard confirmed

Starting point is 00:13:18 that yes, sometimes young, seemingly healthy people do just die. In fact, in sudden unexpected death accounts, there is a percentage attached to it. Apparently, like, five to ten percent of all deaths are, quote, you know, sudden unexpected deaths. It can happen after physical exertion, stress, long travel. It even can happen after sex. Just a little warning for all you, you know, people listening who are sexually active. Now, of course, we know that Anna did travel a lot for work. She would go back and forth from Massachusetts to D.C. She was, you know, a hustler. She would grind. I would imagine she also carried an incredible amount of stress given the situation and what she was trying to potentially leave and a new life. She was trying to start trying to get her

Starting point is 00:14:09 kids to D.C., but she couldn't because Brian was on house arrest for his fraud crimes. I mean, yeah, there is a lot of stress. So I could understand that being a possible argument. However, on redirect, the prosecution had Richard clarify, and Richard said, and I want to quote it, he said, it's definitely not common at all for a healthy 39-year-old woman to just drop dead out of nowhere. So, there you have it. Now, the managing director at Ana's company also took the stand, and she testified that Brian had contacted her on January 4th saying that he couldn't get a hold of Anna. And that's when the head of the company security had to be the one to basically be like, hey, bro, if your wife is missing, you need to

Starting point is 00:14:56 call the police. Why are you calling us? Call the police. And we did talk a little bit about that last week. And we also now know that Brian admitted that this whole, I can't reach her. Where is she? Is she at work? Have you heard from her? That whole thing was obviously a lie, which he admitted. And it kind of makes everything feel a little worse, right? Like your lie was even lazy, which you had to, you called your wife's workplace. They had to remind you to call her in as a missing person. It just seems like this guy was a complete moron every single step of the way and trying to cover this up. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love to see it.

Starting point is 00:15:36 I love when they're big, dumb, and stupid because it makes it so much cleaner of a case for the prosecution to argue. now speaking of him being a complete utter dweeby loser we also saw footage from a liquor store on new year's eve and it showed brian walking toward a dumpster with plastic bags now this is the third surveillance video that has him just on camera dropping off bags of trash at random dumpsters like it's a full-time hobby it reminds me a lot of barry morphew it also i think i said last week reminds me a lot of photos doulos like, oh, I have all of this trash. So, no, I'm not going to take it to the dump. I'm not going to use my big bins that I wheel out on Fridays.

Starting point is 00:16:18 I'm not even going to go to one location that has a big dumpster. I think all of this McDonald's trash and all of this paper and garbage in my car. You know what? I'm going to scatter it. That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to go to one dumpster. I'm going to scatter it. Even though it's nothing that I'm scared of people finding, I just feel like it wouldn't be a waste of my time to drive

Starting point is 00:16:39 to three different dump sites and dispose of my garbage. Like, guys, come on, come on. And the creepiest part of all of this, too, is this liquor store wasn't even open. He was just cruising by in the dark, trying to dump his stuff, you know, into this dumpster. So obviously he had no reason to even be at this liquor store unless he was there trying to ditch evidence.

Starting point is 00:17:03 The employee also from this liquor store testified that he easily could identify Brian because Brian apparently hung out at this liquor store more than any other customer. He said it seemed like Brian really had nothing better to do on his weekends than just loiter in his liquor store, which how embarrassing, how embarrassing and pathetic, which, look, I get he was on house arrest or whatever, so he couldn't really go a lot of places. He could go to the grocery store. Apparently the liquor store, he had a certain list of approved places, so it limits your options of what you can do.

Starting point is 00:17:39 and where you can go, but just being the local idiot hanging out at a liquor, at a liquor store to where this owner or manager or employer or whatever isn't even saying like, yeah, we had homeless people come here a lot or we have, you know, the town alcoholic who comes in a lot. They identified Brian as being this guy, this guy who had nothing better to do than just loiter in this liquor store. And it's so pathetic when you really think about it. because here Anna was, this beautiful 39-year-old woman with this, you know, 50-year-old garbage pail man, and she's out there making six figures a year, hustling, grinding,

Starting point is 00:18:21 doing whatever she could do, and Brian was just this counterfeit art fraud wannabe, now just hanging out and boozing it up in a local liquor store. It's just beyond. And I don't know. I don't know. This guy is just like, he gets under my skin. for so many different reasons and I just think he is like such a loser and look I get it I'm not trying to say that Anna is the best model citizen obviously there are some things that I wish she probably

Starting point is 00:18:53 had done differently and choices she made that were different in regards to the affair and all of that not to say that any of that is justifies murder or means she had it come in obviously not but she was doing her best. She was doing her best with the cards that she was dealt. She got this job, met this guy who was arguably way more handsome than Brian, successful, wasn't trying to make a quick buck selling fake Andy Warholz, and did she handle it the right way? Maybe not, but certainly did not deserve to be murdered over it. And this guy, Brian, just looks like a freaking loser, dweeb, twerp from every lens you go you look through. We all. We all. We all, also saw more footage of Brian wearing the blue latex gloves and the black mask while he was

Starting point is 00:19:40 buying all of his cleaning supplies. Now, get this. So we already talked about how he was at Lowe's caught on camera buying $400 worth of cleaning supplies. He also bought hydrogen peroxide at CVS, ammonia at stop and shop, and another $400 spent at Home Depot on even more cleaning supplies. But what was finally confirmed and is one of the more devastating parts of the ones, this is that Brian and Anna's young son was with him at Lowe's when he was buying this, which imagine bringing your child with you to pick up supplies to clean up their dead mother's body. Regardless of how she died, whether it was murder like the prosecution says or sudden unexplained a death like the defense wants us to believe, I mean, dragging your

Starting point is 00:20:27 kid to the store to get cleanup supplies to dismember their mother's body is truly sick. And I don't know. I may have said this in last week's episode. I'm not sure. I can't recall where we don't know, at least it hasn't been said that I have seen, where Brian actually did dismember on his body. We know he bought a tarp. He bought like a hazmat type suit. He bought the tools. I would argue that it probably happened inside their garage or a basement, meaning that not only did he take their young son along for this, you know, trip to the store to buy all of this cleaning supplies. But he may have dismembered on his body and stored her body and literally dismantled her entire body in the house while her sons were sleeping and where they would

Starting point is 00:21:18 wake up every day. And it was the holiday break, remember? They weren't back in school yet, I'm sure. So like, it's so sick when you really break it down and think about how sinister this all is. and I just truly hope that these three kids are getting every bit of love and support that they possibly can and that they are with a loving family member and it just if you were watching the video version of this episode right now

Starting point is 00:21:41 you can see I have goosebumps it just gives me the chills it really does okay so then Matthew Sheehan from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab testified sorry and he tested areas around the Walsh home plus some of the evidence that was found in Brian's car and in the dumpsters that Brian was seen at. And he ended up finding

Starting point is 00:22:04 stains all over the place that tested positive for blood. This included the basement floor, the basement stairs, two towels, pieces of carpet, a rug, a piece of tissue paper, a pair of slippers, a sponge, and even a clump of human hair that was matted with blood. And like I said, it looks like this all went down in the basement. Now what's even scarier is all of the weapons and the tools that we had mentioned last week, the knife, the hammer, the hacksaw, the hatchet, the wire cutters, all of those also tested positive for blood, which you would think that, actually, I'm not even going to get into that of like what tools would be used on what body part. You can do the math and figure that out. But as we know, the defense admitted Brian did dispose of Ana's body. So none of this

Starting point is 00:22:55 information, that there's blood on all of these tools, none of that is exactly shocking. However, hearing how extensive and gruesome the evidence is, that is shocking. It's a lot. Plus, you have to remember that even though we know that Brian has pleaded guilty to moving on his body and lying to the police, the jury doesn't know anything about him pleading guilty. So this is all totally new to them. They don't know that he has admitted guilt for moving her body, which... I think that, it's my opinion, there's enough clear evidence that they wouldn't need to know that in order to reach their verdict, but we can talk more on that later.

Starting point is 00:23:35 And I'm curious to know your thoughts on that. So the defense pointed out that for all of the blood that was found inside the house, none of it showed a splatter pattern, that it was basically just puddles and stains. And Matthew agreed that there were no splatters, which you would normally expect if there had been some sort of extreme violent incident, something like a statured. or blunt force trauma or something like that. So this was once again now the defense trying to support their argument that, yeah, there is a ton of evidence that Brian cut up his wife's body and disposed of her, but there's no actual proof that he killed her in the first place. The prosecution, though, brought up that any splatters could have easily been cleaned up.

Starting point is 00:24:17 And Matthew also said that cleaning solutions, such as hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, and bleach, they can all clean up bloodstains so much so to the point that they are undetectable. And those are all things that we know that Brian purchased shortly after Anna's death. So basically, they are saying, okay, just because there aren't any violent blood spatters or splatters, that doesn't mean that there weren't any to begin with. They could have just been cleaned up. Whereas meanwhile, the defense is saying, well, you can't find any splatters. All you have are little pools and drips.

Starting point is 00:24:50 and that is, you know, that does tie back to the dismemberment. So prove that there was a crime here that happened, though, a crime, you know, a homicide crime. Another thing that I found really interesting, just in regards to the whole supplies, cleanup, you know, Google search, kind of of it all, is Matthew also testified that a bunch of the items that he tested were covered in a white powder.

Starting point is 00:25:15 It was later confirmed that it was baking powder, which this is where it kind of gets. interesting, it goes back to them being dumb and stupid, and by them, I mean Brian, because where have we heard baking powder before? In Brian's Google search history, he had searched, can baking soda make a dead body smell good? But apparently, in all of those errands that Brian ran across the entire freaking state, picking up supplies, he couldn't even manage to grab the right item. He was supposed to be getting baking... I'm sorry, I'm like having a strode He was supposed to be getting baking soda, not baking powder, and he got the wrong thing.

Starting point is 00:25:56 So, not to be rude, but he doesn't exactly scream genius criminal mastermind. Sorry, I need to take another break. I'm talking so much. And usually I cut these little, like, water moments out so that it's a cleaner episode, but we're just getting into it. We're just hanging together. So hold on. Okay, let's continue. So the prosecution then called several DNA experts, including Saman Salim.

Starting point is 00:26:27 This is, he was from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, and they testified that the inside of those bloody slippers and the Tyvec suit that was found in the dumpster, which the Tyvex suit is basically like the hazmat suit, they both contained DNA consistent with both Anna and Brian. The sample of human tissue that was found in the dumpster was also consistent. with belonging to Anna. Anna's DNA was also all over the basement floor, the blade of the hacksaw, the blade of the hatchet as well, which the defense fired back that everything that was found in those trash bags could have easily been cross-contaminated, either by items in the same bag or from other bags. So because of that, there's really no way to know what the evidence looked like before it got tossed in altogether and just compacted together, which, yes, is technically possible, but also, I mean, come on. Like, come on. How else would blood

Starting point is 00:27:24 and Ana's DNA end up in that dumpster? It does not make sense. It kind of feels like a weak argument, if you ask me. So midweek was a huge day for the prosecution, because in this part of the trial, they called Jem Mutlu to the stand, or Moutlu, sorry, I'm pronouncing things wrong. Now, Gem was, oh, sorry, my notes here are going off screen. Okay, so Gem was Anna's boss and had also been at that New Year's Eve dinner with Brian and Anna, meaning he was basically the last person to see Anna alive aside from Brian. And Gem wasn't just Anna's boss, he was also a really close friend to the whole family. He said that Anna was like a sister to him.

Starting point is 00:28:05 He even thought of the Walsh kids as his own. And he actually got very emotional as he told the jury about the last time that he saw Ana at this New Year's Eve party, saying that she was in a great mood, she was wearing a brand new ring. Brian seemed totally normal and happy. And he knew that Anna had been stressed about work and also stressed about not seeing her kids enough. He admitted he also knew about some marital issues

Starting point is 00:28:29 that were going on between Brian and Anna, but he also said that he had never seen Brian act jealous. He also didn't know about any plans for Anna to leave Brian, and he said he couldn't even recall ever seeing the two of them argue. He also added, and I want to quote this, I always thought that there was a lot of love between them and that she was very much in love with Brian. Now, we got a very different perspective when the prosecution called Anna's other close friend Alyssa Kirby. Now, Alyssa said that Anna called her very upset on December 29th, 2022.

Starting point is 00:29:05 So just a couple of days before her death and before the New Year's Eve party or dinner, you know, whatever you want to call it. And she described Anna as at a, quote, breaking point in her marriage. especially with Brian's art fraud case dragging just everything down where they could live, their expenses, what they owed, all of these things. Anna also felt like Brian wasn't taking any responsibility, that he kept trying to delay his sentencing. And according to Alyssa, Brian was so depressed over the case that the two of them, Brian and Anna, hadn't even been intimate with one another in over a year.

Starting point is 00:29:42 She also said that Brian would constantly ask Anna how much she loved him. just kind of needing that reassurance, but then not saying, I love you back to Anna. So asking for that reassurance from her, tell me you love me, do you still love me, how much, how much, and then not reciprocating it, which it's kind of given desperado, if you ask me. And I know every, you know, marriage is always ebb and flow with intimacy, with, you know, being head over heels in love with each other or showing that love and PDA and all that. It's always going to ebb and flow. they had been married at this point for what they got married in 2015 so seven years seven year itch I guess you could argue in there but I don't know for him to for them to not be intimate with one another for over a year then for him to constantly need this reassurance it's just kind of given I don't know don't love it now Alyssa also said that not only did Anna admit to her that she had a crush on William she apparently also admitted it to Brian and Alyssa's

Starting point is 00:30:45 said that Brian was actually pretty cool about it, or at least he acted that way on the outside, which I don't know what would drive Anna to tell Brian her husband that she had a crush on somebody that she's working with unless you're really trying to make him insecure, but it at least does prove that Brian knew about Anna's attraction to William, which prosecution, of course, is arguing is a huge motive for why Brian would want her dead. That's also, who knows when that timing all lined up, but we know he searched William's name as well. According to Alyssa, Ryan's mom had gone and seen a psychic, and the psychic told her that Anna was having an affair. And that really upset Anna because, I don't know if she was just mad that the mother was meddling

Starting point is 00:31:26 and getting involved or because she was getting exposed because, of course, it turned out to be true. But Anna was upset that her mother-in-law would kind of go out of her way to figure out if Anna was being faithful and go see a psychic over it. And apparently, this had all been building for quite some time, Anna felt like Brian's mom never really liked her, always wanted her out of the picture, and so now she was kind of finding a way to make that reality. Which, again, I'd be curious to know if, I mean, if Anna really was having plans to leave Brian and wanted to build a future with William, I guess you still would be upset that your mother-in-law is meddling and that she's trying to get you out of the picture because you would want to handle it on your own and you wouldn't

Starting point is 00:32:07 want to make things messier, but it just feels like a very toxic and messy situation. So after hearing from honest friends, at the very end of the day on Wednesday, we got very surprising news that the prosecution was arresting their case. This was after only eight days of testimony. And honestly, this not only surprised me, guys, it surprised everyone because originally the trial was supposed to go four to six weeks. Then we know it was scaled back a little bit, but this still seemed really quick. And a lot of people are wondering if the prosecution has done enough to convict Brian of murder.

Starting point is 00:32:43 Now, personally, I completely agree that they have shown a ton of evidence that Brian dismembered Anna, that he dumped her body. I think they also have shown a ton of evidence that he lied to the police and quite honestly, a ton of evidence that he's just like an asshole. And I think that there is indication of motive and premeditation, especially for the Google searches before Anna disappeared. But at this point, there isn't a lot of truly rock-solid proof that he actually murdered her. I mean, the prosecution did establish, like I said, some strong motives for why Brian would want on a dead. We also know that he was the last person to see her alive. But in terms of actual non-circumstantial proof, it's difficult to say that they have presented that. They do have the Google searches from before she disappeared of the boyfriend of Best Place to Divorce,

Starting point is 00:33:37 the porn search as well that I mentioned last week that said like cheating wife gets in impregnated, things like that. But they also have the Google searches, if you remember, the ones that happened after she disappeared, that had the word murder explicitly in them. How to get away with murder. Can you get charged with murder with no body? Things like that to where if this was a cover-up, would he have actually thrown murder into the search engine the way he did or into the actual search he made? Probably not, but I don't know. I mean, the truth is that with Without honest body, it could be really difficult to convince any jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:34:18 And I think it's pretty obvious, but I also think I know more than the jury probably knows because I know about the other two charges he admitted guilt to. I feel like, I mean, there isn't, I guess, a whole lot. But, I mean, there's enough to where I feel like I have a bigger picture of the case as a whole than probably the jury does of just this one lens of did he murder her yes or no. is there enough proof to say that he murdered her yes or no. But personally, I'm hoping that the jury uses some common sense and says, you know, like, hey, if she really did die of some unexplained medical event, any reasonable person would have called for help immediately. They wouldn't have

Starting point is 00:34:56 jumped to the solution of, oh, got to get rid of her body, got to dismember her, got to cover my ass, got to Google all of these things. Any reasonable person would have been like, oh my God, Anna, you're not waking up. 911. Call for help. Help me. Help me. that's not at all what happened. Instead, there was plotting, there was scheming, there were sinister Google searches, there were trips to buy cleaning supplies where he tried to hide and disguise with face masks and latex gloves. There was the fake alibi. There was the lie about her going in the ride share and the taxi, but again, we don't, we, I don't think the jury knows all of the intricacies in this case. So, I don't know. I mean, the fact that he did all of this, to me,

Starting point is 00:35:39 it definitely points to murder, in my opinion, and I'm hoping that the jury sees it that way, too. But as we all know, it's always difficult to know what they're thinking. So the prosecution rested. So then as of Friday, or sorry, today's Friday, as of Thursday, the defense was going to present their case.

Starting point is 00:35:57 And I mentioned last week, it's kind of been interesting because we've all been wondering, is Brian going to testify? The defense alluded that he may testify early on saying, excited for the jury to hear his side of the story and things like that. So we're like, whoa, does that mean he's going to throw Hail Mary and he's going to actually testify here?

Starting point is 00:36:16 And not only is Brian Walsh not testifying, but the defense didn't call any witnesses. They rested their case almost immediately. And I think that the judge was kind of pissed because the jury came in for court on Thursday. They rested their case. They could have, had they known they weren't going to call any witnesses, they could have gone to closing arguments right away. and then the jury could go out and be, you know, go for the verdict. But essentially it was a big waste of the jury's time, which the court hates to do. Like the judge absolutely does not like wasting the jury's time. So for them to be called in, brought in only to be told, oh, there's no witnesses.

Starting point is 00:36:55 Now we're not even going to move forward with closing statements until tomorrow. You guys all have to go home. I think the judge was probably pissed. But there is a possibility that things weren't planned that way, that they didn't know that they weren't going to call anyway. witnesses until the morning of and what I mean by that is very it very well is possible that Brian was going to testify and then the morning of just decided I'm not going to testify for whatever reason either he's too scared he's too nervous they feel like it wouldn't be a good strategy anymore whatever the reason is and he could have just like flipped it on a dime

Starting point is 00:37:27 who knows but the point is the defense rested no witnesses Brian not testifying and it's going directly to closings. So today, right now, closing arguments are happening. And so my question is, will the jury get it right? How long are these closings going to be? How long will the jury take to reach a verdict? And I think we probably will have a verdict by the end of the day. That's my guess. I really do. And so because I'm putting this out right now, obviously the verdict is not included in this episode. However, I will be updating all of you in real time as these closings are happening right now on my Instagram. So if you're not following already, go search, do a quick follow. It's at underscore Annie Elise. And I'm going to post on there anything crazy or wild that happens

Starting point is 00:38:19 during closings, which I don't anticipate there to be anything super out of the ordinary, but I also will then post as soon as we have the verdict. So we'll see if they get it right. Do you think that there is enough evidence to prove that he is guilty of murder? Or do you think that there is enough reasonable doubt for the jury? I think it's a pretty slam dunk case, but I don't know. I've thought that before. And look where we got with Barry Morfew, even though he didn't go to trial, but then he was, you know, charges were dropped, then it was, you know, refiled, and now he is going to be going to trial. Casey Anthony, we all know what that shitbag situation ended up like. So I have definitely been surprised before. So I hope they get it right, but we will see.

Starting point is 00:38:59 All right. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialessly. It was a bonus episode, as you know. So we do do these episodes from time to time because there's something really important I want to talk with you about. So make sure you're following the podcast if you're not already so that you don't miss those episodes. It's free. Just, you know, open your podcast app and press the follow button. And then on YouTube hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss these episodes. And YouTube has been like really finicky lately unsubscribing people. They do this like twice a year. And I always see in the comments like, I thought I was subscribed. I had to resubscribe again. So maybe just double check that you are subscribed.

Starting point is 00:39:37 All right, guys, that's what I've got for you today. Let me know what you think. I will keep you updated on verdict watch on all of the things over on Instagram at underscore Annie Elis. Until the next one, be nice. Don't kill people. Don't join any cults. Maybe stay away from people name Brian, I mean, Brian Laundry, Brian Coburg, or Brian Walsh, it's not looking very good. And be careful what you search on Google. All right. Bye. You know,

SERIALously - 346: Refusing to Testify? Is Brian Walshe Going to Walk Free? | Trial Week 2 Recap

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.