DEDHAM, Mass. (Court TV) — Karen Read is standing trial for a second time on charges of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Karen Read, third left, and her defense team, Victoria George, from left, David Yannetti, Read, Alan Jackson, Elizabeth Little, and Robert Alessi introduce themselves to potential jurors as jury selection continues for the murder retrial of Read, in front of Judge Beverly J. Cannone in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)
Read’s first trial, in 2024, ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Read is charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing injury or death after O’Keefe was found dead outside of a friend’s house after a night out drinking in January 2022.
MORE | Karen Read murder case: A timeline of events
Prosecutors say that Read, angry with O’Keefe because he was planning to break up with her, intentionally hit and killed him with her Lexus SUV in the driveway of a friend’s home after a night out drinking. But Read’s defense says she simply dropped O’Keefe off at the home and that someone inside the home attacked and killed him before leaving him in the snow.
Read’s case captured worldwide attention ahead of her first trial because she has claimed that she is the victim of a widespread cover-up by local and state police to frame her for O’Keefe’s death. Read’s team has not backed down from the claims and, in the months leading up to her second trial, has faced off with prosecutors in battles over experts and evidence.
MORE | Key players in the Karen Read murder case
While many of the facts and witnesses from Read’s first trial remain the same, there are some notable differences. Michael Proctor, who was the lead investigator on the case for the Massachusetts State Police, was fired after the first trial revealed that he had been sending inappropriate text messages about Read to colleagues.
Read has also expanded her defense team since the first trial, which now includes Robert Alessi and a juror from her first trial in addition to David Yannetti and Alan Jackson. The Commonwealth also changed tactics and brought in defense attorney Hank Brennan to act as a special prosecutor for the case. Both sides have also expanded their witness lists to include more experts on a variety of subjects, ranging from dog bites and accident reconstruction to the weather.
DAILY TRIAL UPDATES
DAY 4 – 4/25/25
- VIDEO: MA v. Karen Read Murder Retrial – Day 4
- Jurors took a trip to 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, where O’Keefe’s body was found outside Brian Albert’s house on January 29, 2022.
- Karen Read’s SUV was also parked at the scene for the jurors to view.
- Prosecutor Hank Brennan asked the jurors to look at the scene from different angles, highlighting how it would have looked at night and during a snowstorm.
- Defense attorney David Yannetti urged jurors to think about the distance between the house’s windows and doors and the front lawn.
- Dr. Garrey Faller, Chief of Pathology at Signature Healthcare, explained blood alcohol test process and confirmed alcohol test result for Karen Read was 93 mg/dL.
- Jason Becker, EMT and paramedic, responded to a call for a psych evaluation and transported Karen Read to the hospital.
- Described Karen’s demeanor as calm but emotional, sharing she argued with her “husband.”
- Noticed blood around Karen’s mouth and neck but did not believe she had significant trauma.
- Confirmed Karen mentioned an argument with her “husband” but did not mention voicemails; believed she was upset due to their last conversation.
DAY 3 – 4/24/25
- VIDEO: MA v. Karen Read Murder Retrial – Day 3
- Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan introduced dozens of texts which appeared to show John O’Keefe and Karen Read in the throes of an argument hours before she allegedly struck him with her vehicle and left him to die in the cold.
- Texts exchanged between them on the afternoon of January 28, 2022, suggest the relationship was rocky, in one text Read asks O’Keefe, “Tell me if you’re interested in someone else. Can’t think of any other reason you’ve been like this.”
- He responds “Nope,” followed by “Things haven’t been great between us for awhile. Ever consider that?”
- In another text, O’Keefe writes, “Sick of always arguing and fighting. It’s been weekly for several months now. So yeh I’m not as quick to jump back into being lovie dovie as you apparently.”
- A call log introduced by Brennan suggests Read was calling O’Keefe incessantly on the afternoon of January 28, during the argument and her calls were either ignored or rejected, despite a text from him that said, “I am not answering!! Stop calling.”
- Brennan also introduced several clips from interviews that Read gave about the amount of drinking she did on the night O’Keefe died. While she disputed the number of drinks she had, she conceded she was impaired and questioned herself about whether she had struck O’Keefe that night.
- Michael Camareno, a friend of John O’Keefe testified earlier in the day that he did not observe any strife in the relationship when he was around them. Based on what he knew they were a normal affectionate couple, though he noted that Read did not want other women around O’Keefe.
DAY 2 – 4/23/25
- VIDEO: MA v. Karen Read Murder Retrial – Day 2
- Kerry Roberts, victim John O’Keefe’s longtime friend, wrapped up her testimony which began on Day 1.
- Roberts testified about accompanying Karen to John O’Keefe’s home to look for him. She said when they arrived – Karen pointed out the broken tail light to her and observed there was a piece missing from the taillight and metal exposed – something that she feared could catch on to clothing of a passerby.
- She said when they arrived – Karen pointed out the broken tail light to her and observed there was a piece missing from the taillight and metal exposed – something that she feared could catch on to clothing of a passerby.
- Roberts was emotional at times as she recounted how in the dark and snowy conditions Karen found John who looked like a dark blob on the ground. Roberts said he was cold to the touch and covered in snow. She did not recognize the body as John until she brushed the snow from his face and observed one eye was swollen while the other (left) appeared uninjured.
- She testified that Karen performed mouth-to-mouth while she and Jenn McCabe did chest compressions till the first responders arrived. Roberts said at one point Karen asked her if she thought she had hit him. At the time Roberts dismissed the notion.
- Roberts said she noticed that after the paramedics moved O’Keefe from the ground, she could see grass and his phone. She took the phone and gave it to law enforcement. In reviewing the videotape, Roberts is seen removing blankets from the area where John lay. The time of that incident is expected to be significant when Brennan says he will introduce health data and the evolving battery temperature of O’Keefe’s phone.
- On cross by Alan Jackson, he suggested that Roberts is being influenced by Jenn McCabe, who had become a close friend since John’s death, and the two talk frequently about the case.
- Jackson pointed out that Roberts was not truthful in previous testimony to the grand jury when she claimed she heard Karen tell Jenn to google hypothermia. In subsequent testimony and interviews she conceded she did not actually hear Karen say that.
- Margaret (Peggy) O’Keefe, victim John O’Keefe’s mother, gave gut-wrenching testimony about suffering through the loss of her daughter, who died of cancer, her son-in-law whose death followed two months later and the death of her son John, ‘who you all know about.’
- O’Keefe recounted learning about her son and being driven to the hospital by family friend Kerry Roberts.
- She testified that just before she was ushered into the room where she would view her son’s battered body, Read shouted, ‘Peg, Peg is he dead, is he dead?’
- Peggy testified that later in the day Karen and her father showed up at John’s house wanting to go upstairs to where the bedrooms were. Peggy said she did not recall talking to Karen at all and denied ever saying to her that John looked like he had been hit by a car.
- After Peggy O’Keefe’s testimony, Hank Brennan sought to introduce two clips from interviews Karen Read gave to media.
- In an interview she gave 20/20, Karen Read said, “I was presuming they saw my cracked tail light and thinking did you hit my son. I could sense from her she was looking at me very warily…I think John’s mother thinks I did something to John.”
- In the second clip Read mocks Peggy O’Keefe claiming she leaned over and said, ‘John looks like he was hit by a car.’
- The jury heard the first clip, admitted into evidence with no objection from the defense but reserved ruling on the second clip after the defense argued it was being used to make their client look bad.
- Hank Brennan argued that the clips demonstrate consciousness of guilt, and an effort by Read and her father to conceal the ‘murder weapon,’ when they showed up at O’Keefe’s house uninvited, did not engage Peggy O’Keefe in any way and left after less than an hour taking both cars with them, including Read’s car with the broken tail light.
- Trooper Nicholas Guarino, Massachusetts State Police digital forensics expert, testified about extracting data from the phones of John O’Keefe, Kerry Roberts and Karen Read.
- Daniel Whitley, Canton firefighter and paramedic, testified that he took Karen Read to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation; he described her demeanor as going from distress to snarkiness when he mentioned Kerry Roberts to Karen.
- WATCH: Karen Read Murder Retrial: Day 2 Recap
DAY 1 – 4/22/25
- VIDEO: MA v. Karen Read Murder Retrial – Day 1
- Prosecutor Hank Brennan delivered the Commonwealth’s opening statement in the retrial of Karen Read. Brennan told the jury that Read and John O’Keefe were arguing in his last minutes before she allegedly hit him with her Lexus and fled.
- Brennan told jurors that the actions of Karen Read led to the death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe and that in a fit of anger fueled by alcohol Read clipped O’Keefe with her car, causing him to fall hit his head and sustain a head injury that eventually led to his death.
- Brennan told jurors that in the days preceding O’Keefe’s death – Read was fighting to save their unraveling relationship, “it was the beginning of the end.”
- On the day O’Keefe died, they went out together and eventually ended up at the Albert home at 34 Fairview. Brennan said they argued and by Read’s own admission they spent his last moments fighting. Brennan said after O’Keefe got out of the car, Read floored the gas in reverse striking him and left him to die in the cold.
- Brennan noted Karen Read’s own statements acknowledged hitting O’Keefe, recalling she said, ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’ to a first responder, and played for jurors a clip from an interview she gave Dateline, “I didn’t think I hit him, I could have clipped him…he didn’t look mortally wounded as far as I could see.”
- Brennan told jurors to pay close attention to the data and battery temperature of O’Keefe’s phone which was recovered from under his body. The data which recorded and time-stamped O’Keefe’s movements and would show a small window when only Read and he were together and he said would ultimately prove that he died where he was found.
- Defense attorney Alan Jackson tells the jury that the investigation into John O’Keefe’s death was “corrupted from the start,” and the case against Karen Read is the “definition of reasonable doubt.”
- Alan Jackson opened for the defense telling jurors that his experts would prove that no collision had occurred and that the police investigation into O’Keefe’s death was marred by bias and corruption.
- Jackson singled out Michael Proctor the lead investigator calling him the cancer that touched every part of this case – and told jurors he was the disgraced trooper that had been investigated, suspended and fired from the Massachusetts State Police.
- Jackson claimed that O’Keefe’s injuries were not related to hypothermia, or frost bite, but rather a dog. He displayed a photo of O’Keefe’s arm and noted that the pattern of injuries could be blamed on the Albert’s dog. Jackson said his experts will prove that the O’Keefe was killed elsewhere and his body moved.
- Jackson told jurors that this case was riddled with reasonable doubt and that his client was the victim of a corrupt and botched investigation and urged jurors to return verdicts of not guilty.
- Firefighter/Paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified that while he was ventilating O’Keefe – he asked Read if she knew him – she responded “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”
- On cross he agreed in previous testimony he recalled her saying it twice not three times.
- Kerry Roberts, victim John O’Keefe’s longtime friend testified about going out with Karen Read to look for John O’Keefe.
- Recalled that Karen Read said her tail light was broken.
