Matthew Farwell's defense rests case in Sandra Birchmore trial

The defense for Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton, Massachusetts, police officer on trial for allegedly killing Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child, rested its case Wednesday. 

Jurors at the federal court in South Boston were sent home after the defense rested, and court will not be in session Thursday. Closing arguments will happen Friday morning.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty to killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn child. Prosecutors say he killed the pregnant 23-year-old in her Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021 and staged it to look like a suicide to cover up a years-long affair that began when she was 15. Farwell and Birchmore met when she was a 13-year-old cadet in the Stoughton Police Department's youth explorers program.

Farwell's defense used their witnesses to try and discredit prosecution experts. On Wednesday, the focus was on Birchmore's devices and her cause of death.

Jurors were already introduced to phone evidence from Jessica Hyde, the prosecution's final witness who laid out a timeline of what she believes happened the night Birchmore died. But the defense's digital forensic witness, Daniel Loper, focused on suicide-related Google searches Birchmore made early that day, like a search for "what color is the suicide ribbon?"

The final witness, forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Andrew, testified that this is "absolutely not" a case of homicide, and that her cause of death appears to be from hanging.

"This is not manual strangulation," he testified.

Farwell, who declined to take the stand in his own defense, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted.