Brian Walshe admitted to dismembering spouse. A jury will determine if he killed her. – NBC New York

Opening statements within the homicide trial of a convicted fraudster accused of killing his spouse and dismembering her physique are scheduled to start Monday in a Massachusetts courtroom.

Brian Walshe, 50, pleaded responsible in mid-November to 2 lesser expenses linked to the 2023 disappearance and demise of Ana Walshe, 39 — deceptive a police investigation and improper conveyance of a physique.

The trial, in Norfolk County Superior Court docket, is anticipated to final two to a few weeks.

Prosecutors have alleged that Walshe was motivated by cash — he was the only real beneficiary of his spouse’s $2.7 million life insurance coverage coverage — and that he believed she was having an affair when she disappeared on New 12 months’s Day practically three years in the past. Her physique has by no means been discovered.

An legal professional for Brian Walshe has denied the allegations.

Ana Walshe, a mom of three, was reported lacking after her employer requested police in Massachusetts to carry out a well-being examine on the household’s Cohasset residence on Jan. 4, 2023.

Throughout an interview with authorities that day, Brian Walshe stated his spouse left their residence between 6 a.m. and seven a.m. Jan. 1 for a piece emergency, in keeping with an affidavit in assist of an arrest warrant. He advised police that she kissed him and advised him to return to sleep, the affidavit says.

Prosecutors allege that Ana Walshe was already lifeless by the point the officers spoke to Brian Walshe.

Proof offered at pretrial hearings detailed web searches Walshe is alleged to have performed on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2 — “hacksaw greatest device to dismember” and “what occurs while you put physique components in ammonia” have been amongst them — and purchases he produced from a Dwelling Depot on Jan. 2.

In opening statements Monday, Brian Walshe’s protection claimed that Ana Walshe skilled a sudden, unexplained demise whereas mendacity in mattress, inflicting Brian to panic.

Sporting a surgical masks and gloves, he paid $450 for a Tyvek go well with, buckets, a hatchet, goggles, baking soda and different cleansing merchandise, prosecutors stated.

Authorities later discovered a bloody knife in his basement and a hacksaw, a hatchet, a Tyvek go well with and different gadgets that prosecutors accused him of dumping in an space south of Boston.

Walshe’s legal professional, Tracy Miner, has forged doubt on the state’s bodily proof and prompt that Ana Walshe might have voluntarily disappeared. Miner accused the media of making an attempt and convicting her consumer.

“It’s straightforward to cost a criminal offense and even simpler to say an individual dedicated that crime,” she stated. “It’s a way more troublesome factor to show it, which we’ll see if the prosecution can do.”

Walshe modified his plea on the 2 lesser expenses on Nov. 18, the day jury choice was scheduled to start. Paperwork filed by his attorneys admitted that he “disposed of and did convey the physique of Ana Walshe after her demise” and deliberately made false statements to law enforcement officials throughout 4 interviews in January 2023.

In a separate case, Walshe was sentenced to 37 months in federal jail final yr after he pleaded responsible to expenses linked to what federal prosecutors known as a “years-long, multi-faceted artwork fraud scheme.”

Prosecutors stated Walshe bought two faux Andy Warhol work that he’d claimed have been genuine for $80,000. He pleaded responsible in 2021 to 1 depend every of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud and illegal financial transaction.

Prosecutors within the Brian Walshe homicide trial touched on Ana Walshe’s extramarital affair and Brian’s Google searches after her demise of their opening assertion Monday morning.