Overview
- Former Stoughton detective Matthew Farwell appeared in federal court in Boston as his lawyers asked Chief Judge Denise J. Casper to relocate the trial to Rhode Island due to extensive publicity.
- Federal prosecutors opposed the change of venue and pointed to the Tsarnaev case as evidence that a high-profile jury can be seated in Boston.
- U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has directed that the death penalty not be sought, though Farwell still faces a potential life sentence if convicted.
- Farwell has pleaded not guilty to charges including killing a witness and causing the death of Sandra Birchmore’s unborn son, and the trial is scheduled for October 2026.
- Prosecutors allege Farwell groomed Birchmore as a minor, strangled her, and staged her death as a suicide; DNA testing has excluded him as the father of her unborn child and investigators say a reexamination of evidence led to the federal case.