The witnesses that defined the retrial of Karen Read for the death of her police officer boyfriend
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Karen Read's retrial for the death of John O'Keefe is nearing its finale, likely closing a yearslong chapter in the lives of the defendant, the victim's family and the many witnesses called to testify — some of them in two high-profile and divisive murder trials.
In the retrial — the first ended with a deadlocked jury — Massachusetts prosecutors and Read's defense called a combined 49 witnesses. Some were laypeople, others were law enforcement and many were experts who analyzed mountains of digital and physical forensic evidence.
Collectively, their testimony sought to answer one essential question: What happened outside the home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, around 12:30 a.m. on January 29, 2022?
Prosecutors allege Read drunkenly struck her boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die in the snow. But Read's defense contends there was no collision. They have cast her as the victim of a cover-up, alluding to a conspiracy by those who they say killed O'Keefe and framed the defendant, while painting the police investigation as biased and flawed.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
Here, CNN highlights about a dozen witnesses called over the last eight weeks, whose testimony illuminated key pieces of the theories presented by prosecutors and Read's defense:
On the evening of January 28, 2022, Read and O'Keefe went to a local bar to meet up with friends before the group decided to move the party to a home at 34 Fairview Road.
Read has said she dropped off O'Keefe, but other witnesses said he never arrived. Prosecutors allege this is the moment Read put her Lexus SUV in reverse and pressed on the gas, striking O'Keefe and scattering pieces of her vehicle's taillight across the scene.
Read did not take the stand to testify. But throughout the trial, prosecutors played numerous clips from Read's media interviews, offering jurors a chance to hear from the defendant herself.
Prosecutors tried to use these clips against Read to bolster the testimony of their own witnesses, refute the defense's arguments or highlight inconsistencies in Read's account. In one clip from her October 2024 interview for NBC's 'Dateline,' she asked:
'I didn't think I hit him, hit him, but could I have clipped him?'
Karen Read
'Could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him?' Read said. 'He didn't look mortally wounded as far as I could see — but could I have done something that knocked him out and, in his drunkenness, and in the cold, (he) didn't come to again?'
In another clip, taken from an Investigation Discovery series, Read strongly denied her vehicle made contact with O'Keefe. (Investigation Discovery and CNN share a parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
'I did not drive my car into John. Didn't reverse it. Did not hit John with my car. There is zero chance this is an accident. There is zero chance John was hit by a vehicle.'
Karen Read
Jennifer McCabe, called by the commonwealth, was present for each key moment surrounding O'Keefe's death, including the gathering at the bar; the after-party at her sister's home at 34 Fairview; and finally, the discovery of his body.
McCabe expected Read and O'Keefe at 34 Fairview, and she spoke to O'Keefe to help him with directions, she testified. At the house, McCabe saw what she believed was Read's SUV out front, but the couple never came inside.
McCabe testified she was awoken the next morning by a phone call from Read, who she described as frantic and hysterical. McCabe detailed the search for O'Keefe, first at his home and then at 34 Fairview, where they found him in the snow. Stunned, McCabe called 911.
'But I think I knew in that moment that John … that John, you know, was dead.'
Jennifer McCabe
McCabe recalled Read telling a first responder, 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him' — testimony echoed by other witnesses who were on the scene.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson highlighted McCabe's family ties to law enforcement, including her brother-in-law, Brian Albert, who owned 34 Fairview. He also questioned her about interviews she'd given investigators and interactions with her family and other witnesses, accusing McCabe of coordinating her account and colluding with others.
McCabe denied those allegations.
The second witness called by the commonwealth, Kerry Roberts — another friend of O'Keefe's — testified she, too, was woken up by Read the morning of January 29. She joined the search for O'Keefe by first driving to meet the two women at McCabe's home.
Central to the commonwealth's case was Roberts' testimony about the defendant's taillight: Roberts saw the damage that morning when she pulled into McCabe's driveway and parked behind Read's vehicle. McCabe and Read were in Read's SUV, and Roberts was in hers, she testified, but she heard their conversation while on the phone with them:
'I pulled in behind her car in Jen's driveway, and at some point, Karen said, 'My taillight, my taillight.' And I looked, and Jen, she must have had the brake down, because you could see that there was missing taillight.'
Kerry Roberts
In previous testimony, Roberts said the conversation about the taillight happened upon their arrival at O'Keefe's home. But on cross-examination, Jackson played home surveillance footage showing the arrival, and Roberts conceded the footage did not show the interaction she described, saying she had been incorrect about the timing.
Called to the stand for the defense, Brian Loughran, a snowplow driver, testified he did not see a body in the yard at 34 Fairview early in the morning on January 29, 2022, despite passing by multiple times.
Loughran first drove the snowplow past the home between 2:40 and 2:45 a.m. Though it was dark and snowing hard, Loughran testified he could clearly see to the front door of the home. Asked what he saw on the lawn by the flagpole, Loughran responded:
'I saw nothing.'
Brian Loughran
'Did you see a 6-foot-1, 216-pound man lying on that lawn?' defense attorney David Yannetti asked.
'No,' Loughran said.
Jonathan Diamandis testified about sexist and crude text messages he received from the lead investigator: his longtime friend, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor.
Diamandis was called as a defense witness, but it was the commonwealth who had him read the texts into evidence. He declined to do so for the most offensive messages, including one calling Read 'a whack job c*nt.'
'I'm really not comfortable reading these. Do I have to say these words out loud?'
Jonathan Diamandis
Proctor apologized for the messages in the first trial, but the defense has continued to use them to paint the investigation as biased. Neither side called him to testify in the retrial.
The messages ultimately led to Proctor's dishonorable discharge from the state police.
Prosecutors underscored Proctor's texts did not indicate he committed misconduct. Asked whether Proctor ever suggested he framed the defendant or planted evidence, Diamandis said, 'Absolutely not.'
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik testified about the investigation and Read's emergence as the suspect in O'Keefe's death. But Proctor, his former direct report, loomed large over his testimony.
Through Bukhenik, prosecutors tried to minimize Proctor's influence in the investigation. While the defense held Proctor up as the lead investigator, Bukhenik said each homicide case is a 'team effort.'
During cross-examination, Jackson tried to restore the sense of Proctor's control over the case, showing Bukhenik investigative documents that carried Proctor's name or signature. Still, Bukhenik refused to call Proctor the 'lead investigator,' referring to him as the 'case officer.'
Bukhenik was emphatic the investigation itself was handled with integrity and honor. But when pressed by Jackson, he said Proctor's texts lacked both.
'That text message does not show integrity … That text message does not show honor.'
Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik
The defense also used Bukhenik to present flirtatious text messages Read exchanged with another man, Brian Higgins, prior to O'Keefe's death. Higgins was among the revelers who got together the night of January 28, and the defense tried to suggest he should have been considered as a suspect.
An attorney for Higgins denied any wrongdoing by his client.
Nicholas Guarino described communications between Read and O'Keefe. In one instance, he showed the jury text messages between Read and O'Keefe from January 28, 2022, showing the couple had been at odds.
Guarino later testified for the commonwealth that Read called O'Keefe more than 50 times and left eight voicemails between the time she said she dropped him off at 34 Fairview and when she started searching for him the next morning. All went unanswered.
'You're a f**king pervert,' she said in one voicemail left at 1:10 a.m., per Guarino's testimony.
Seven minutes later, she left another:
'You're f**king using me right now. You're f**king another girl … You're a f**king loser. F**k yourself.'
Karen Read in a voicemail to John O'Keefe
At 5:23 a.m., she left her seventh voicemail: 'John, where are you?'
Paul Gallagher, who retired as a lieutenant from the Canton Police Department, testified for prosecutors about the initial recovery of evidence from the scene where O'Keefe's body was found.
There were about four inches of snow on the ground, so Gallagher debated how to remove it, he said. He feared a shovel would harm any evidence, including a broken cocktail glass found in the snow.
'I thought a leaf blower would be the best method because I have seen it used to remove light layers of snow, and it can be controlled.'
Retired Lt. Paul Gallagher
Gallagher saw pink spots in the snow he said he determined to be 'frozen or coagulated blood.' To preserve it, he got red plastic cups and placed the bloody snow inside, noting these decisions were made in a blizzard, under 'terrible' conditions.
On cross-examination, Jackson raised questions about the adequacy of the evidence collection. Gallagher acknowledged plastic cups are not normally used for evidence recovery. Additionally, Gallagher testified he did not write a report about his actions on the scene.
Nicholas Barros, a sergeant for Dighton Police, was called by the defense to refute the commonwealth's narrative about Read's taillight being broken when it allegedly collided with O'Keefe. The defense has tried to raise the specter of the taillight being tampered with after police seized the vehicle and suggested its pieces were planted at the scene.
Barros responded on January 29, 2022, to Read's parents' home in Dighton, Massachusetts, at Proctor's request to help seize the vehicle, he said. Read went there after it was confirmed O'Keefe had died.
In a report, Barros noted there was damage to a taillight. But he suggested on the stand it was relatively minor.
'There was a (piece) missing, but it was not completely damaged.'
Sgt. Nicholas Barros
Shown a photograph of the taillight after it was seized, Barros said it did not reflect what he saw that day. 'That taillight is completely smashed out,' he said.
Under cross-examination, Barros said his report from that day merely noted 'damage,' but did not describe it.
Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the Massachusetts medical examiner who performed O'Keefe's autopsy, outlined his injuries and his cause of death.
'Yes, the cause of death was determined to be blunt impact injuries of (the) head and hypothermia.'
Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello
The blunt impact injuries were the 'primary cause' of death, Scordi-Bello said. O'Keefe had a significant laceration on the back of his head, as well as skull fractures and bleeding on the top of his brain.
Scordi-Bello also noted O'Keefe's body temperature at the hospital was 80.1 degrees Fahrenheit — far below the normal temperature of 98.6.
The medical examiner could not reach a conclusion on the manner of O'Keefe's death — whether it was accidental or a homicide, for instance — acknowledging to defense attorney Robert Alessi there was not enough 'compelling' evidence to decide.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Aizik Wolf described O'Keefe's injuries — specifically a laceration on the back of his head — as 'classic blunt trauma' consistent with the victim falling backward and striking his head against the ground.
'My opinion is that that's what caused his whole injury.'
Dr. Aizik Wolf
Wolf testified this type of injury was relatively common in places with cold climates, referencing his time working at a trauma center in Minneapolis: 'Very frequently, patients that are drunk fall down on ice, sidewalks, and could develop lacerations in their head.'
A pivotal witness for the defense, Dr. Marie Russell is a retired emergency room physician, a forensic pathologist and a former Massachusetts police officer who testified injuries on O'Keefe's arm were 'the result of a dog attack.'
The defense has theorized O'Keefe was mauled by a German shepherd owned by the family who lived at 34 Fairview. The dog was rehomed sometime after the victim died.
Referencing a photograph of O'Keefe's injuries, Russell testified the wounds appeared to be going in the same direction.
'These multiple groupings are patterns. And they, in my opinion, were inflicted by the teeth and claws of a dog.'
Dr. Marie Russell
On cross-examination, Russell conceded she had never before testified as an expert witness on dog bites. Through Russell, Brennan pointed out holes in the arm of O'Keefe's sweatshirt were swabbed for DNA — but that no dog DNA was found, only pig DNA. There was no explanation for the pig DNA's origins.
Ian Whiffin, a digital forensics expert, illustrated the victim's final movements after analyzing data taken from O'Keefe's cell phone.
The data showed Read and O'Keefe came to a stop outside 34 Fairview at 12:24 a.m., Whiffin said. From that time on, he said, the data indicated O'Keefe's phone remained near the flagpole until his body was found the next morning. O'Keefe's phone screen locked for the last time at 12:32:09 a.m.
'Based on the totality of the information that we've described, my opinion is that the device never moved far away from the flagpole.'
Ian Whiffin
Whiffin also testified to the phone's temperature: Throughout the evening, the phone had an average temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But the temperature began steadily dropping around 12:22 a.m., Whiffin said, falling to 50 degrees at 1:36 a.m.
The next recorded temperature was after 6 a.m. — about the time O'Keefe's body was found — when it dropped to its lowest recorded temperature of 37 degrees.
Judson Welcher, an accident reconstructionist and biomechanical engineer, testified for the prosecution the evidence is consistent with O'Keefe being struck by a vehicle identical to Read's on January 29, 2022, around 12:32 a.m.
Black box data from Read's SUV included two 'trigger' events recorded on her drive from the bar to 34 Fairview, Welcher said. By comparing this information with location data from O'Keefe's cell phone, Welcher's firm found Read's SUV reversed between 12:32:04 a.m. and 12:32:12 a.m. — the time the commonwealth alleges O'Keefe was struck.
The data showed, at that time, Read's vehicle first moved forward before being put in reverse and moving backward, Welcher said. The data also showed the SUV reached a speed of about 24 mph at 74% of the full throttle while in reverse.
Welcher also testified about the damaged taillight, describing tests he conducted with a Lexus SUV identical to Read's. In contrast to Russell, Welcher testified the lacerations on O'Keefe's arm were 'consistent with the geometry and orientation' of Read's taillight.
Asked whether O'Keefe's injuries — both to his arm and his head — were consistent with him being struck by a Lexus identical to Read's, Welcher said they were.
'It is consistent with being struck by a Lexus and ultimately contacting a hard surface such as frozen ground.'
Judson Welcher
On cross-examination, Alessi seized on Welcher's admission he did not have enough information to state exactly how O'Keefe was struck. Alessi pressed him to explain why he did not conduct a more robust crash test. Pedestrian impacts 'are so very sensitive,' Welcher said, and if the results of the tests came out differently, he'd have to defend it in court.
The defense called accident reconstructionist Daniel Wolfe to refute Welcher's findings. Wolfe described tests his firm, ARCCA, undertook to figure out if O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with the damage to Read's Lexus — specifically, the broken taillight.
Footage taken from those tests showed an example taillight and vehicle striking a dummy arm at different speeds to recreate the alleged collision between the SUV and O'Keefe. But at each speed — 10 mph, 17 mph, 15 mph, 29 mph and 24 mph — the damage to the test taillights was less than what was seen on Read's taillight, Wolfe said. None of the tests indicated the broken taillight would cause the holes found in O'Keefe's sweatshirt.
'What I observed from the test is that there was no mechanism to create any of the holes that we observed on the subject sweatshirt.'
Daniel Wolfe
The firm considered other possibilities for what might cause the damage, including a drinking glass found alongside O'Keefe's body, as well as his head and his 'center of mass.' In each instance, Wolfe said, the damage was inconsistent with that of Read's vehicle.
Brennan tried to discredit the test results on cross-examination: he noted the dummy arm weighed nine pounds, while O'Keefe's weighed 11.86 pounds. Brennan also emphasized the dummy was secured by a harness, which prevented it from being thrown to the ground and illustrated the trajectory the victim's body would have taken once hit.
CNN's Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.
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