First Witnesses Set To Testify In Trial Of Ex-MA Cop Accused Of Killing Pregnant Woman

STOUGHTON, MA — The first witnesses are expected to take the stand Tuesday in the federal trial of former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell.

Prosecutors plan to call six witnesses, including a Stoughton police detective who mentored Sandra Birchmore, an administrator at the Sharon elementary school where Birchmore worked and two officers who found her body inside her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021, according to The Boston Globe.

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The scheduled witnesses include Stoughton police Detective Heather Cheever and Cheryl Carlson, who was an assistant principal at East Elementary School in Sharon. Two employees from Birchmore's apartment building are also expected to testify, the newspaper reported.

Canton police Officer Ensley Cotard and Massachusetts State Police Trooper Matthew Dunne, who were among the first officers to find Birchmore, are also on the witness schedule, according to the newspaper.

Matthew Farwell Faces 2 Federal Charges

Farwell, 40, has pleaded not guilty to charges of killing a witness or victim and causing the death of a child in utero.

Federal prosecutors accused Farwell of strangling 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore in her Canton apartment in February 2021 and staging her death to look like a suicide. He is accused of killing Birchmore to prevent her from reporting that he had sexually abused her beginning when she was 15.

Birchmore was eight to 10 weeks pregnant when she died, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Opening Statements

During opening statements Friday, prosecutors said Farwell began sexually abusing Birchmore when she was 15 and later killed her to prevent her from exposing the relationship, the Globe reported.

Meanwhile, the defense said Farwell did not kill Birchmore. His attorneys argued that she died by suicide after Farwell ended their relationship and denied being the father of her unborn child, according to the Globe. DNA testing later excluded Farwell as the father.

The trial is expected to last about five weeks. Farwell would face life in federal prison if convicted.

This story was updated at 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday, and will be updated with new information as the trial gets underway.

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