Matthew Farwell trial judge tells jury to keep deliberating after "deadlock" note in Sandra Birchmore case: "It may take days"

The judge in the Matthew Farwell trial is telling jurors to keep deliberating, the morning after the jury said it was deadlocked in the Sandra Birchmore case after their first full day of deliberations.

Farwell, a former Stoughton, Massachusetts, police officer, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of killing a witness or victim and an unborn child. He's accused of strangling a pregnant 23-year-old Birchmore and making her death look like a suicide in order to cover up a years-long sexual relationship that began when she was 15, after the two met in the Stoughton Police Department's youth explorers program.

"We are in a deadlock. It looks like will not change any time soon," the jury said in a note sent to the judge late Monday afternoon.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper brought the jurors back into the courtroom. Some jurors had their heads down as they were given instructions and sent home for the day.

The judge met with attorneys for the prosecution and defense Tuesday morning, and both sides agreed jurors should be told to keep deliberating. 

Judge Casper then told jurors "it may take days and many hours" for them to reach a verdict.

"I instruct that you should take the time that you need," Casper said. "Accordingly, I will send you back to resume your deliberations."

To convict Farwell on the charge of killing a witness or victim, jurors must find that he not only killed Birchmore, but that he did so to prevent her from reporting his crimes to federal authorities.

"There was testimony that she did say she was going to tell people she was pregnant with his child, but did those people include federal law enforcement? We never heard that she planned on talking to the federal government or federal authorities," WBZ legal analyst Jennifer Roman said. "So it is possible that the jurors are stuck on that technical piece of this case, that very important technical element of this case."

Birchmore was found dead with a strap around her neck in her Canton apartment in 2021. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but three years later, the medical examiner changed her manner of death to "undetermined," and Farwell was arrested. If convicted, Farwell faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Birchmore's cousin Barbara Wright said the deadlock development felt like "getting hit in the face with a brick."

"I don't even know what to think right now. I just feel so stunned," Wright said. "I just figured it would be easy to come to a guilty verdict, I really did."