BOSTON (Court TV) — A police officer accused of killing his girlfriend — with whom he began a relationship when he was married and she was 15 years old — wants his case moved to another state, saying he can’t get a fair trial in Boston.
Matthew Farwell (Stoughton Police Department via AP)
Matthew Farwell, 39, is charged with killing Sandra Birchmore, 23, and her unborn child in 2021. Prosecutors have said that Farwell began a relationship with Birchmore when he was 26 and she was 15. They allege the relationship continued for years until Birchmore was found dead in her home, hanging from a strap tied to a closet door handle. Prosecutors have said that Farwell’s DNA was later found on that ligature.
Farwell’s trial is scheduled to begin in October, but his attorneys have renewed their motion to move the case out of Massachusetts, claiming media attention has intensified since their first request.
Farwell’s defense first asked to move the trial in November 2025, arguing that “one-sided, biased media coverage has led to the widespread public misbelief that Mr. Farwell is guilty of abusing a law enforcement position of trust, of ‘grooming’ Ms. Birchmore and having sex with her while she was a minor, and then ultimately killing her and ‘staging’ the scene to look like suicide.” In January, Judge M. Page Kelley denied the motion to move the trial, finding that the coverage was not prejudicial.
In its latest motion renewing their request, Farwell’s defense said that since Kelley’s ruling, more than 50 articles have been published about the case containing “one-sided arguments.” The motion cited a Boston Globe article from April 9, 2026, profiling the defendant’s military and police careers, including the line, “But plenty of monsters have medals.”
Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her home on Feb. 4, 2021. (Canton Police)
The defense pointed to public comments on the articles as a concern, saying they “demonstrate persistent, one-sided sentiment and reflect the public’s incorporation of alleged ‘facts’ from media accounts.” One commenter cited prosecutors’ decision not to seek the death penalty, writing, “What Farwell did was far worse than what Luigi Mangione did. If Mangione is facing the death penalty, so should Farwell.” Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court in connection with the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.
Another comment quoted in the motion called for violence against the defendant, specifically “[t]he need to Jack Ruby this filth so we don’t have to spend any more time or money on him.” Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, who was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The defense motion also cited a sealed motion that it said concerned “certain courthouse and courtroom procedures.”
If Kelley grants the motion, the trial would leave Massachusetts entirely, not just Boston, because a single federal district covers the state.
