DEDHAM, Mass. — A judge sentenced convicted wife-killer Brian Walshe to life without parole on top of consecutive maximum sentences for lying to police and mishandling a body in court Thursday morning.

Earlier this week, a jury found Walshe guilty of first degree murder for killing and dismembering his wife Ana Walshe at their Cohasset home in January of 2023.

Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Diane Freniere handed down the harshest sentence possible after reading through victim impact statements from Ana’s friends and family and hearing directly from her sister in court.

Aleksandra Dimitrijevic said she was speaking for herself and Ana’s mother when she described how Ana’s murder “left us with an unbearable emptiness.”

Ana “knew me like no one ever will,” Dimitrijevic said in court, explaining that she often wakes up “hoping this is all a terrible dream.”

Ana’s mother has suffered from severe depression in the wake of her daughter’s death and her children will grow up “without their mother’s hand to hold,” her sister said.

On top of losing Ana, her family and friends have been unable to grieve properly. Without a body, they can not hold a funeral in a church or perform a burial.

Although “no sentence can bring her back,” Dimitrijevic asked the court to impose the sentence recommended by the Commonwealth, the maximum penalty for the crimes on the books.

No other written impact statements were read out loud in court, but Freniere noted that many had submitted statements including Alyssa Kirby, who had taken the stand on the last day of the Commonwealth’s case, and the Department of Children and Families, regarding the three Walshe children.

Those statements have been sealed by the court.

Assistant District Attorney Gregory Connor said that his office was working to find the body and allow the family to hold a funeral.

“They never got together to mourn her,” Connor said.

“We recognize [the sentence recommendation] is harsh,” he said, but appropriate.

Kelli Porges, one of Walshe’s defense attorneys, called the recommendation “inhumane.”

“Regardless of what happened in this courtroom,” Porges said, “regardless of what anyone thinks of this man, he is a human.” Porges argued that the consecutive sentence would be unnecessary.

But Judge Freniere disagreed.

“The seriousness of your acts can not be overstated,” she told Walshe, describing the “life of trauma you inflicted on your own children,” who were two, four, and six years old at the time of their mother’s death.

“You concocted a detailed, completely fabricated story of what happened to Anna Walshe,” Freniere went on, which led to a multi-day missing person’s search while Walshe knew his wife was already dead.

Looking up from her statements and directly at the convicted killer, Freniere said that the disposal of Ana Walshe’s body “can only be described as barbaric.”

Despite the gruesome nature of much of the trial, the judge said that some of Ana’s warmth came through the testimony of her friends. She described the victim as, “an innocent, remarkable woman.”

“It’s clear to me that Ana was a bright light in the lives of many people,” she said. “She lifted people up.”

Although she recognized that any sentence, “even a life sentence,” can’t lessen the grief Ana’s family and friends are experiencing, she said she felt the need to impose a heavy sentence that would fit the crime and deter others from doing the same.

Freniere said that she read Walshe’s mother’s statement in defense of her son.

“I simply cannot reconcile the person Diane Walshe describes in her letter with the person who stands before me,” she said.

Asking the defendant to stand up, Freniere said, “Mr. Walshe, you will live the guilt and burden of Ana Walshe’s death for the rest of your life,” and read out her sentence.

Walshe received life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first degree murder charge, 19 to 20 years for lying to police, and two to three years for improper disposal of a body, all to be served consecutively, rather than concurrently.

Walshe was led off the courtroom in handcuffs and ankle shackles while a prison van waited for him outside the back entrance.

Ana’s sister hugged and thanked several people involved in the investigation and prosecution of Walshe, before wiping away tears, putting on a pair of large, dark sunglasses and heading for the door.

With the small wave of her hand, Dimitrijevic declined to speak to two reporters inside the courthouse before walking outside to be swarmed by cameras.

Walshe’s mother left shortly after, declining a state police escort from one of the prosecutors, Assistant District Attorney Anne Yas.

She, too, declined to comment on the outcome of her son’s trial, and she too walked out of the Dedham courtroom, sunglasses on, to meet the media scrum.

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