Brian Walshe changes pleas to guilty on 2 counts as murder trial gets underway
Brian Walshe entered two guilty pleas on Tuesday at the start of his murder trial.
Walshe changed his plea on the counts of witness intimidation (misleading a police investigation) as well as disinterment of a body.
Judge Diane Freniere of Norfolk County Superior Court accepted the change of pleas after asking Walshe several questions Tuesday morning.
There are no minimum sentences for either charge. The maximum prison sentence for witness intimidation is 10 years unless the investigation is into a capital offense, and then it is up to a 20-year sentencing enhancement, a Norfolk County prosecutor said in court.
As for disinterment of a body, the maximum is three years in prison, the prosecutor said. Walshe’s sentencing will take place at a later date.
The murder charge remains. Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday.
Officials charged Walshe with murder after the disappearance of his wife on New Year’s Day in 2023. Her body has never been recovered, but investigators say that he killed his wife and misled police after he reported her missing.
Ana Walshe, 39, worked in Washington, D.C., and traveled back and forth to their Cohasset home she shared with Brian Walshe and their three children. Prosecutors say that Brian Walshe suspected she was having an affair.
“On Dec. 27, the defendant Googled ‘what’s the best state to divorce for a man,’” a prosecutor said at his arraignment in January 2023. “Rather than divorce, we believe Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body.”
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