Defense rests without Brian Walshe testifying or putting on any evidence
By Lauren del Valle, CNN
(CNN) — Brian Walshe did not take the stand in his murder trial before his attorneys rested their case Thursday morning without putting on any evidence.
This appears to be a change of course for the defense – his attorneys had indicated during a sidebar at the end of the day Wednesday that he would testify, Judge Diane Freniere said before the jury entered the courtroom.
When she asked the defense to confirm whether Walshe, 50, still planned to take the stand Thursday morning, defense attorney Larry Tipton said no – Walshe wouldn’t testify and they wouldn’t put on a defense.
Walshe said, “I will not testify,” when the judge asked him to confirm the decision in his own words.
Prosecutors in Massachusetts rested their case on Wednesday, after calling about 50 witnesses across eight days of testimony.
The judge sent the jury home for the day minutes after they came into the courtroom Thursday morning. The jurors are expected to hear closing arguments and legal instructions Friday morning before they begin deliberating.
Walshe faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if he’s convicted of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors say he killed his wife, Ana Walshe, 39, sometime around January 1, 2023, then dismembered her body and illegally disposed of her remains and other evidence.
Unbeknownst to the jury, Walshe pleaded guilty to illegally disposing of her body and misleading police ahead of the trial.
Still, he insists he did not kill his wife, a real estate manager and mother of three. His attorney said during opening statements that Walshe found his wife inexplicably dead in their bed after ringing in the new year at home.
Friends testify about Ana’s final days
Before the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, the jury heard emotional testimony from the only other known person to have seen Ana Walshe alive in the early hours of January 1, 2023.
Gem Mutlu, Ana’s former boss, spent New Year’s Eve with the Walshe family at their home. Mutlu said the night was “festive” and he didn’t see anything visibly wrong between the couple.
At one point, he took a photo with Ana and her son. Mutlu believes, he said, that Ana said she sent the photo to a man named William Fastow, a mutual friend with whom Ana was having an affair before her death.
On January 4, 2023, Brian Walshe called Mutlu to ask if he had heard from Ana, he said.
“His tone was not panicked,” Mutlu said in court Wednesday, remembering Walshe told him Ana had been missing since she left their Massachusetts home early on New Year’s Day to return to Washington, DC, for an emergency at work. Mutlu would have left their home just a few hours before Ana, he said, after celebrating the new year.
“I said, ‘Listen, did you guys have an argument or something?” Mutlu recalled saying on the call. ‘“Did you have a fight?’”
To this day, Mutlu said, he “vividly” remembers Walshe’s response.
“No,” Walshe said, per Mutlu. “Did it look like we had an argument? You were there.”
Mutlu testified he never saw Brian and Ana Walshe argue on New Year’s Eve in 2022 or otherwise.
“I always thought that there was a lot of love between them,” Mutlu said, “and that she was very much in love with Brian.”
Still, while the holiday was jovial, Mutlu testified that people are complex and he was not suggesting the couple was happy: He said Ana Walshe had discussed marital troubles with him in a lengthy phone call days earlier, on December 29, 2022.
“She told me that there were cracks in the relationship,” he said.
Another close friend of Ana Walshe testified Wednesday that she also spoke to Ana about her strained marriage on December 29 – Walshe seemed to be at a breaking point, according to Alissa Kirby.
Ana confided in Kirby about stressors in her marriage when the two went out for drinks and dancing that night in Washington, DC, Kirby testified.
Part of the strain, Kirby said, was an ongoing federal fraud case against Brian Walshe, who had pleaded guilty to charges connected to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork. The sentencing process, however, had not yet been resolved.
Ana Walshe said she wanted her husband to take responsibility, even if it meant jail time, so her family could move forward, Kirby said. The case required Brian Walshe to remain in Massachusetts with their children.
“She just really wanted to be with her kids. Their marriage had been really strained for a long time,” Kirby said. “She told me how, like, upset she was, and how frustrating that was.”
Ana told Kirby she had recently told her husband she was falling out of love with him, Kirby said. According to her, Ana also felt Walshe’s mother disliked her, and claimed Walshe’s mother had seen a psychic who told her Ana was having an affair.
Kirby was aware Ana had a crush on Fastow, she said. But Ana never revealed that they were in a romantic relationship.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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