The 12 deliberating jurors — eight men and four women — were sent out at 2:14 p.m. after closing arguments concluded. They deliberated for about three hours before telling the judge they wanted more time and then adjourning for the weekend. Deliberations will resume Monday morning.

Farwell, who has pleaded not guilty, faces federal charges of killing a witness or victim and causing the death of an unborn child. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty last year.

Birchmore, 23, was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021. The medical examiner initially ruled the death a suicide by hanging, but prosecutors allege Farwell strangled her and staged the scene to look like a suicide.

In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Fogerty said Farwell went to Birchmore's apartment on the eve of his wife's scheduled C-section during a snowstorm "to save himself. Not to end things with Sandra Birchmore, but to end her, and to end any possibility that she would expose him."

Fogerty described how Farwell, then 26, met Birchmore when she was 13 and in the Stoughton police youth explorers program. He said Farwell groomed her over years, sending a Facebook friend request and posing as her tutor so they could have private time, before the relationship became sexual.

"What began as an internet friend request from the defendant to a child… evolved ultimately into the defendant putting his fingers inside Sandra Birchmore when she was a child… and full sexual intercourse," Fogerty told jurors.

Prosecutors allege the relationship continued for eight years. Birchmore became pregnant in December 2020, and Fogerty said she demanded Farwell take an active role in the baby's life. Farwell responded by telling her she was "truly the worst person on the face of the earth," according to Fogerty.

When a friend of Birchmore's called Stoughton police in January 2021 to report the relationship, Fogerty said it "blew up any illusion he had about keeping a lid on his crimes." Farwell told a colleague he had to "put crazy back in the bag," which Fogerty said meant "he had to kill Sandra Birchmore."

Fogerty described Farwell's plan: he became "kind and accommodating" to "lull her into thinking that everything is going to be fine," asked for a key to her apartment, and laid the groundwork for a Feb. 1 visit, knowing she would be home because of the impending snowstorm.

On the day of her death, Birchmore texted Farwell "door's open" — the last message she ever sent, according to Fogerty. Farwell entered wearing a face mask even though he never wore one, Fogerty said, and there was no activity on Birchmore's phone for 20 minutes while he was there until the power button was pressed briefly.

"No one hears from Sandra Birchmore ever again," Fogerty said.

The prosecutor also pointed to signs of a struggle: Birchmore's flip-flops were upside down, her glasses were several feet away, and her phone was on the floor just out of reach. He said expert witnesses testified they had never seen a young person suffer a broken hyoid bone during a seated hanging, and that thyroid fractures are more common in strangulation cases.

Fogerty acknowledged Birchmore's mental health struggles but said she had been through darker times and lived. He noted there was no note, no letter to friends, no calls or texts to friends, and not even a message to Farwell.

"He went to clean up the mess he had created years earlier … clean up the mess by taking Sandra's life," Fogerty said.

In her closing argument, defense attorney Kimberly Stevens argued that Birchmore's death was a suicide and that the government had not proven Farwell killed her. She reminded jurors of Birchmore's mental health struggles, including self-harm and suicidal threats, and said Birchmore was devastated when she learned Farwell's wife was pregnant again in October 2020.

Stevens said Birchmore texted Farwell that morning that she was "kinda stressed out and freaking out" and asked him to visit. "It's a struggle. I wish you were here with me," Birchmore wrote, according to the defense. Stevens said Birchmore also searched online, "what color is the suicide ribbon?"

"When all is lost and all hope is gone and you're alone in the world, are you going to pick the phone up? Or did she sit down and take that strap and sit down as she knew how to do and make the pain stop?" Stevens asked. "Matt did not kill Sandra."

Stevens also attacked the prosecution's strangulation expert, Dr. William Smock, saying he never performed an autopsy and wasn't board eligible. "He's not trained or qualified to look at postmortem changes in a body," she said.

She argued there was no evidence Farwell had a key to Birchmore's apartment and that seated hangings "are not nearly as rare as the government would have you believe." She defended the medical examiner's initial suicide determination, which took three months, calling it "a thorough investigation."

Stevens also argued that the government must prove more than that Farwell killed Birchmore — it must prove he did so to prevent her from communicating with federal law enforcement about a federal crime. She noted Birchmore refused to report their relationship, telling people, "I don't want my sex life put on trial."

In rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Liz Riley said Birchmore would have picked up her phone if she was at "rock bottom." She repeated "facts matter" and said the medical evidence "overwhelmingly supports homicide."

"You know beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant murdered Sandra, that he struggled with her, he staged her," Riley said.

Judge Denise Casper instructed jurors that Farwell is presumed innocent and that they must acquit if they have reasonable doubt. She told them the verdict must be unanimous and that they should not tell anyone, including her, how the jury stands numerically until a verdict is rendered.

Testimony ended Wednesday after jurors heard from 50 witnesses. Farwell confirmed to the judge that he would not testify in his own defense. The defense called expert witnesses earlier in the week to raise doubt about how Birchmore died, testifying that injuries to a bone in her neck could have been caused by suicide by hanging rather than strangulation.

The case has drawn attention from local officials, including Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara, who was in the courtroom for closings, as well as members of the "justice for Sandra" community and Birchmore's cousin Barbara.