Overview
- The defense is expected to finish calling experts and rest its case Wednesday, after multiweek testimony that could lead to closing arguments and jury deliberations later this week.
- A central dispute at trial is a fractured hyoid bone in Sandra Birchmore’s neck, with prosecution expert Dr. William Smock saying the break supports strangulation and multiple defense experts saying the fracture is not definitive and can be compatible with hanging.
- DNA evidence presented at trial excluded Matthew Farwell as the fetus’s father and identified Jason Pickard, while defense DNA expert Dr. Maher Noureddine raised concerns that how swabs and clothing were packaged and tested could have created mixed or misinterpreted results.
- Defense digital-forensics testimony questioned the government’s phone-timeline evidence by arguing step counts do not identify who held the device when movement stopped and by criticizing manual reviews of laptop data that altered original records.
- The jury must decide the rare federal theory that Farwell killed Birchmore to conceal alleged federal crimes including aggravated statutory rape and deprivation of rights by a police officer, a question that will determine whether he faces decades to life in prison and shapes scrutiny of earlier local investigative practices.