Jurors sent home after beginning deliberations in Karen Read retrial. Here’s how the day unfolded.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Karen Read left the courthouse around 4:34 p.m. and told reporters she thought closings went “very well.”

“I don’t think mine could’ve gone better,” Read said, motioning to her attorneys.

Read told reporters she doesn’t have a message for the jury and “who knows” about the verdict.

“I’m going to try to sleep,” Read said of the weekend.

On the prosecution’s closing argument, Read said “I have no comment.”

“Happy Father’s Day,” she said just before she got into her car.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Judge Beverly Cannone sent the 12 jurors home for the day around 4:25 p.m.

Attorneys had nothing further to argue in court.

Jury deliberations will continue on Monday.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Karen Read returned to the courthouse at 4:10 p.m. with her attorneys.

“Anything to say to your supporters?” a reporter asked.

“Thank you,” Read said, holding up the sign language sign for ‘I Love You.’ “I love them.”

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Karen Read supporters are sitting on the grass, on the sidewalk, on benches, and in lawn chairs as they await a verdict.

“Not guilty in less than two hours,” said Brandi Magnoli, a live streamer and avid supporter.

By Claire Thornton, Globe staff

Women stood in a circle on the sidewalk and said prayers for Read, who moments before had flashed the American Sign Language sign for “I Love You” to a couple of hundred supporters as she walked down the courthouse steps.

“I just pray that they do the right thing and make the right choice,” said Blair Merriman, 65, of Needham, who sat in a bright pink beach chair with an attached awning, holding a phone with a case that said “Framed,” referring to the accusations against Read.

“I am nervous for her and I just hope that there are three not guilty verdicts returned,” she said.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

There was an eerie silence as Karen Read left the courthouse around 2:55 p.m. after jurors were sent to deliberate. Instead of cheering, hundreds of supporters made the sign language symbol for love.

When asked how she would spend the time waiting, Read smiled and said “I’m going to eat something.”

Once she got into her car, a friend from high school went to Read’s car window and they hugged.

“I wanted to show her my support and that I love her,” said Jennifer, who was wearing a pink shirt.

Jennifer declined to give her last name but said she just came from the hospital and is undergoing medical treatment.

“She was telling me to stay strong,” she said. “And I said, ‘No, you stay strong.’

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

With jurors gone, the lawyers briefly discussed some exhibits that would go to the deliberation room.

As defense attorney Elizabeth Little rose to quickly address Judge Beverly Cannone, a wide-eyed Read was observed talking with another member of her legal team, Alan Jackson, at the defense table.

The defense team was later seen huddling with Read at the table, as a clerk swore in a court officer to keep the jury safely secluded during deliberations.

Read attorney David Yannetti told Cannone the defense continues to have “concerns” with the verdict slip, since the manslaughter count has multiple options for guilty verdicts beside each lesser included offense, but only one option for not guilty at the top for the main charge.

Yannetti said the defense wants a not guilty option listed for each lesser included offense in the manslaughter count.

Cannone said she wouldn’t do that unless the defense can provide her with case law stating that she can.

By Claire Thornton, Globe staff

Jenn Weidman, 28, stood in front of the courthouse around 3 p.m. with her father and sister, who wore a bright pink T-shirt. Weidman said she started to feel nervous as soon as the jury was handed the case and began deliberating.

“You never know exactly what the jury is thinking,” said Weidman, who lives in Franklin.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors that the court expects them to reach “an impartial verdict” based on the evidence presented at trial.

The jury left to begin deliberating just before 2:40 p.m.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Six jurors were selected at random to be alternate jurors. The remaining 12 jurors, seven women and five men, will decide the case.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone said jurors should continue deliberating until a final verdict is reached.

“I remind you that no juror is better qualified to determine the truth of the facts in this case, to dispute or to deliberate on a verdict solely because of education, background or experience,” Cannone said.

She said all jurors’ voices carry equal weight in deliberations.

While jurors shouldn’t be afraid to change their opinions as the evidence is weighed, “no juror should surrender an honest conviction to the opinion of fellow jurors simply for the purpose of reaching a verdict,” Cannone said.

She urged jurors to listen to one another in the deliberation room.

“Don’t be shy or hesitant to speak up,” Cannone said. “You should participate actively ... If you use these strategies, then you will do your part to reach a decision that is as fair as humanly possible, and that is your responsibility as jurors.”

Cannone said that while she can’t answer questions about the facts, jurors can submit written questions to her about the law.

“Don’t tell anyone, including me, how the jury stands numerically or otherwise on the questions before you until such time as you reach the unanimous verdict,” Cannone said.

She then called the lawyers to a sidebar.

Following the sidebar, court staff determined the alternates by lottery.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone said jurors should consider evidence, including the speed of Read’s SUV, its condition, the time of day, the weather, the road conditions, and “any other factors” they deem relevant.

She said jurors can also find Read guilty of the lesser included offense of operating under the influence in the charge of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence if prosecutors have proved she was driving drunk.

“As a general rule you’re permitted, but not required, to infer that a person who intentionally uses a dangerous weapon on another person intends to kill that person or cause grievous bodily harm, or intends to do an act which, in the circumstances known to him or her, a reasonable person would know creates a plain and strong likelihood that death would result,” Cannone said.

She said the judge in Massachusetts selects the jury foreperson.

Cannone asked Juror #5, a man, to serve as foreperson.

He said he would.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors that to convict Read of second-degree murder, prosecutors must prove multiple elements, including that she caused John O’Keefe’s death and meant either to kill him or cause “grievous bodily harm.”

She said the charge of manslaughter while operating under the influence has a lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter, which involves “wanton or reckless” conduct resulting in death.

“It is enough for the Commonwealth to prove the defendant acted negligently,” Cannone said, adding that prosecutors must prove Read’s actions “went beyond negligence” for that offense.

A second lesser included offense of motor vehicle homicide is also an option under the manslaughter count, Cannone said, which has elements such as Read drove “in a negligent manner so that the lives of safety of the public might be in danger.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone said that in deciding whether Read intended to kill John O’Keefe, jurors can consider any “credible evidence” that she was affected by alcohol consumption.

Cannone continued laying out the elements prosecutors must prove to win convictions on the various charges.

On the question of alcohol impairment, Cannone said someone is under the influence if they’ve consumed enough to reduce their ability to drive safely.

“The Commonwealth is not required to prove that the defendant actually drove in an unsafe or erratic manner,” Cannone said. “But it is required to prove that the defendant’s ability to drive safely was diminished by alcohol” with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or greater.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone said indirect or circumstantial evidence alone can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

She said jurors “may, but do not have to draw inferences whatsoever” on the circumstantial evidence, but “it must be logical. It must be a natural one, which is not too remote in the ordinary course of events.”

Cannone said an example of a reasonable inference would be someone coming home and finding mail in the mailbox, and inferring that the postal service delivered the mail that day.

“You may have noticed that Ms. Read did not testify at trial,” Cannone said. “The fact that Ms. Read did not testify has nothing to do with the question of whether she is guilty or not guilty.”

She said jurors can’t draw any “adverse inference” from Read’s decision not to testify, which she’s not required to do under the law.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone said Read must be acquitted on a charge if prosecutors failed to prove “one or more elements of a particular charge” beyond a reasonable doubt.

She said jurors should not “automatically” believe or disbelieve law enforcement witnesses just because they’re police officers.

“You may consider the demeanor, candor, and appearance of the witness in testifying,” Cannone said.

She said to consider whether witness statements are reliable or “honestly mistaken.”

Cannone said jurors heard testimony that law enforcement failed to conduct certain tests.

“If you find that any omissions in the investigation were significant and not adequately explained, you may consider whether the omissions tend to affect the quality, reliability, or credibility of the evidence presented by the Commonwealth,” Cannone said.

She said jurors can’t consider Read’s prior bad acts, such as a contentious argument with John O’Keefe in Aruba about a month before his death, as proof that she has a “criminal personality” or “bad character.”

She said the evidence was submitted solely to illuminate the state of her relationship with O’Keefe at the time of his death.

The same holds true for the voicemails Read left on O’Keefe’s phone, Cannone said, adding that those messages were admitted only insofar as they go to her state of mind at the time.

Regarding the expert witness testimony, Cannone told the jury their statements are “not necessarily” more believable based on their credentials; jurors still have to evaluate the evidence.

“It is up to you whether to accept or reject” any opinion offered by any witness at trial, Cannone said.

“You do not have to believe something simply because it’s written on a piece of paper or appears in a photograph,” Cannone said, nor do jurors have to disbelieve anything because it’s presented in those formats.

She said jurors can also use their common sense and life experience when evaluating the evidence, and that drawing “reasonable inferences” is permissible.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly Cannone advised jurors not to speculate on information that was removed from exhibits because it was deemed not relevant.

She said answers to lawyers’ questions that she struck from the record aren’t evidence.

“Your job is to decide the case without bias, fear, sympathy, or favor,” Cannone said.

She said jurors’ notes are for personal use but are not evidence, and that jurors should not share their notes.

“Your decision as to each charge must be unanimous,” Cannone said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone initially thanked jurors “for serving on this jury and for being so attentive.”

She then launched into her instructions.

“You must take the law as I give it to you,” Cannone said. “You may not quarrel with it.”

She told jurors that a “fundamental rule” is that every criminal defendant is presumed innocent unless the government proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Ms. Read does not have to do anything to convince you that she is innocent,” Cannone said, adding that Read “does not have to testify.”

Read did not testify at either trial.

By Travis Andersen, Globe staff

Jurors returned to the courtroom to hear instructions from Judge Beverly J. Cannone around 1:30 p.m.

The lawyers were first called to a sidebar.

After Cannone gives a lengthy set of instructions, the jury will begin deliberating.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Before he left for a lunch break, Read lawyer Alan Jackson spoke to the large crowd across the street from the courthouse, warning them about volume level.

There was a brief moment in court before the lunch break that the crowd could be heard cheering.

“This means more to us than you could imagine, but if the volume comes up even a little bit, we’re going to be ordered to stay in the building, and y’all are going to be ordered off the lawn,” Jackson said.

Jackson made the sign language love sign and said “This means as much as you yelling out.”

“Bless your heart,” he said and shook one supporter’s hand.

“Thank you, Jackson,” one supporter yelled, as others said “shhh.”

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

The crowd outside the Dedham courthouse has grown throughout the day, with hundreds of people waiting outside during the lunch break.

Spirits are high with the sun shining down as “Free Karen Read” supporters chat and young kids run around in Crocs.

Some supporters are live streaming, including Brandi Magnoli who has a phone case that resembles a Massachusetts license plate with the word “FRAMED” in block red letters and “Karen Read” underneath.

As a fire truck roared by, blaring its siren, supporters cheered and waved their American flags.

By Globe Staff

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

When prosecutor Hank Brennan mentioned former State Trooper Michael Proctor and how his “distasteful” texts do not change the facts of the case, Read looked over at her attorney, Elizabeth Little, and widened her eyes, shaking her head slightly in disbelief.

Brennan continued walking around the room and speaking to the jury. Throughout his closing argument, he pointed at Read to emphasize some points and occasionally walked over to one of the screens in the room to show a part of his PowerPoint presentation.

Read briefly looked at Brennan when he pointed to her at one point, but mainly looked forward, at the screen, or her attorneys.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said investigator Michael Proctor’s profane texts aren’t defensible, but don’t change the data, facts, physical evidence, and science.

“It’s unfortunate, it’s distasteful, it’s dishonorable,” Brennan said of the texts. But “it doesn’t create a conspiracy, it doesn’t invent a dog, it doesn’t make somebody in the house … it just doesn’t.”

Brennan said it’s clear the taillight fragments weren’t planted by investigators, since it was repeatedly documented in photos that her taillight was damaged on the morning of Jan. 29, long before law enforcement seized her vehicle.

“Trooper Proctor’s still in his pajamas,” Brennan said. “He’s not even on the case” at that point.

Brennan said Dighton police officer Nick Barros testified that Read’s taillight was far less damaged in Dighton than it was later at the Canton police garage, and he insisted that he had testified similarly at the first trial.

“Did you see the redness creep over his face,” Brennan said, when he showed him his trial testimony from the first time, which said otherwise. “In fact, he testified to the opposite” the first time.

Brennan said Dr. Marie Russell, a veteran emergency room physician in LA who said O’Keefe’s right arm cuts appeared to come from dog bites, used faulty methodology and had changed her testimony over time.

Turning to O’Keefe’s lack of lower body injuries, Brennan said jurors heard testimony that people can be hurt in a variety of ways from a vehicle strike.

Brennan said the defense experts from ARCCA, who found the evidence didn’t line up with a vehicle strike, shared opinions that carry “no more” weight than those of the jurors.

He said one of the defense experts, who admitted to communicating with the defense via the encrypted Signal app, clashed with Brennan repeatedly when he questioned his methodology.

Brennan said he asked the other ARCCA expert about documentary video footage showing the expert lunching with the defense after testifying at the first trial.

“What we have inevitably, is we have a timeline that never moves,” Brennan said.

“Data that never changes. Physical evidence that can’t be” disputed.

Read was “drunk” at the time of the collision, Brennan said.

He also played video footage of the ARCCA crash tests on the dummy showing a big debris field of the taillight exploding near the dummy.

“Can someone have a collision without lower body injuries?” Brennan asked. “You bet they can.”

Read hit O’Keefe and “left a man who was kind, and generous, and thoughtful” and “left him alone to die.”

Brennan put up a final photo of a smiling O’Keefe and said he was not a “buffalo on a prairie,” nodding to Read’s remarks to an interviewer.

“John O’Keefe was a person,” Brennan said in closing. “And he was murdered by Karen Read.”

Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors out for lunch and called the lawyers to a sidebar. After lunch, Cannone will give the jury instructions before it begins to deliberate.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said the first responders who went to the scene are “heroes” who were “born to help” people.

“They tell you what happens at the scene,” Brennan said.

He said one paramedic remembers Read repeatedly saying, “I hit him.”

”She is now coming to terms with the moment," Brennan said. “She’s recognizing what she did.”

Brennan said people reporting that phrase are “good people” who arrived to help someone in distress.

“I know that doesn’t reconcile with the bogeyman [Michael] Proctor and the bad government,” Brennan said.

“I know it doesn’t reconcile with no DNA on this piece or that piece and it doesn’t reconcile with everybody setting up” Read.

“But the reality is, you have independent core people who hear her say, ‘I hit him, I hit him.’”

Brennan said Jennifer McCabe, the “villain of the story” according to the defense, told Read to “shut up” at the scene in an effort to protect her.

“The irony,” he said.

Brennan said O’Keefe’s phone temperature drops steadily until it shuts off at 1:36 a.m.

Then after 6 a.m., he said, Kerry Roberts picks up O’Keefe’s phone and puts it in her pocket, causing the temperature to rise and O’Keefe’s health data “starts to move” again.

He said McCabe made the dying in cold searches after 6:20 a.m. for Read and also for her own benefit, since she was concerned about O’Keefe.

“She gets vilified as a murderer,” Brennan said. “This soccer mom who came to help.”

A government expert said a deleted search on her phone was deleted automatically, Brennan said.

The defense wants you to believe she made the searches at 2:27 a.m., Brenann said.

“Every time they say something like that, you look the other way,” Brennan said, adding that the defense hopes jurors “don’t look at” Read’s conduct.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said Kerry Roberts, Read, and Jennifer McCabe went back to 34 Fairview Road.

Read and McCabe see nothing but Read shouts “let me out” and “knows exactly where he is. ... Because she knows where she left him.”

Brennan played another video clip of Read telling an interviewer that John O’Keefe’s body looked like a “buffalo on the prairie” or an oddly shaped “lump.”

”A weird shaped lump in a blizzard, and you equate that with John O’Keefe?" Brennan asked. “She tells us, she knows where she left John O’Keefe.”

Brennan said O’Keefe’s cell phone battery has dropped and the healthcare data on O’Keefe’s phone “starts to move” as the women try to help him. Brennan said Read also indicated she pulled a piece of glass out of O’Keefe’s nose and blood spurted out.

Brennan also noted that a drinking straw was found at the scene.

“That’s what happens on an impact,” he said. “Things move.”

He said Roberts and McCabe saw “their best friend,” meaning O’Keefe, lying on the ground.

“There is not one suggestion from anybody that John ever went into that house,” Brennan said. “Not one time has anybody said ‘what time did he leave? I thought he went in there.’ Not even a whisper of it.”

Brennan said a matching piece of glass was found on the street, and O’Keefe carried the broken glass with him, “leaving the evidence behind” as he made his way to his final resting place.

Brennan played another clip of Read telling an interviewer that as soon as she pulled the glass from O’Keefe’s nose, “it just gushed blood down his face.”

McCabe called 911, Brennan said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said data from Read’s SUV shows she drove 33 feet “at least” in reverse before striking him.

Brennan said the data doesn’t tell you when precisely O’Keefe was struck.

“But it’s in that pocket of time and we know it,” Brennan said. “He stops moving. John O’Keefe stops moving. Forever. Forever.”

Brennan reiterated that “data doesn’t lie” and shows Read depressing the accelerator to about 75 percent.

“Anger can be inferred,” Brennan said. “For somebody to come out that hard, that fast, that reckless,” it creates an obvious likelihood of death.

“When Ms. Read leaves, she leaves behind tons of her taillight, all over the yard,” Brennan said, citing the “debris field.”

Brennan said O’Keefe takes his “last steps” at 12:32:16 a.m.

“As John O’Keefe sadly lays on the ground abandoned,” Brennan said, jurors must be convinced that Read knew she hit him. “She tells you that she knew.”

Brennan played a video clip of Read telling an interviewer that she considered at one point whether she “ran over his foot” and also wondered if she could’ve “clipped him.”

”She didn’t think he was mortally wounded," Brennan said.

“But she knew she hit him. She knew she hit him.”

She said Read began calling O’Keefe’s phone at 12:33 a.m., just a minute later, and made 52 additional calls that night.

“Not one to 911. ... Not one to a hospital. Not one to anybody but him.“

Brennan played one voicemail where a distressed Read tells O’Keefe, “I [expletive] hate you,” in a booming voice.

O’Keefe’s phone temperature, Brennan said, has “plummeted” to 66 and then 61 degrees, as he misses dozens of calls.

“He’s not wrestling with Brian Higgins, he’s not in a fight,” Brennan said.

At 12:59 a.m., Read tells O’Keefe via voicemail that no one knows where he is.

“She hasn’t called anybody else,” Brennan said. “Nobody’s called her.”

Yet Read says in the voicemail that no one can find O’Keefe, Brennan said.

“Drunken denial, it’s setting in,” Brennan said. “She knows exactly where she is, and she’s frantic.”

So Read wakes up O’Keefe’s niece and tells her to call Jennifer McCabe, later telling McCabe she left O’Keefe at the Waterfall bar.

“Now it’s gone from panicked to self-preservation,” Brennan said, referring to Read, who later “pivots” and calls Kerry Roberts, telling her, “John’s dead; I think he got hit by a plow.”

Read knew, Brennan said, that “there was a collision with a large motor vehicle and she had a substitute for a 6,000 pound Lexus.”

He said McCabe, a “soccer mom,” answers a call and gets “dragged into this farce” out of loyalty to her friend.

At 5:07 a.m., Brennan said, Read’s taillight was already broken.

“It’s a nudge,” Brennan said, adding that Read went to an undetermined location for some 28 minutes before arriving at McCabe’s house around 5:35 a.m.

“Did she stop somewhere on the way by?” Brennan asked of Read. “Did she just see death?”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Hank Brennan said experts identified a “triggering event” on Read’s SUV when she made a three-point turn near Fairview Road, and that’s the time the car’s clock is able to match the clock on O’Keefe’s phone by making an adjustment of 21 to 29 seconds.

“The data matches up perfectly,” Brennan said. “Perfectly.”

He said the data and witness testimony showed Read parked in front of the flagpole on the lawn at 34 Fairview.

O’Keefe, Brennan said, remained in the SUV with Read for a number of minutes, based on healthcare data on O’Keefe’s phone.

“The data is the data,” Brennan said. “You can’t change it as much as you want to. It’s data.”

He said Read and O’Keefe were “arguing” in the SUV, citing what she later told a paramedic at the crime scene.

Brennan said the dome light on Read’s SUV comes on when O’Keefe opens the door to exit.

At 12:31:56 a.m., Brennan said, O’Keefe moved for the last time “in his life” for about 20 seconds.

“It does not say he walks to the house,” Brennan said.

“That’s not what the data says. ... Twenty seconds of his life, and he moves.”Brennan said that could be pacing or the phone “shaking.”

”We don’t know," Brennan said, adding that O’Keefe at 12:32:09 a.m. sees a text from Jennifer McCabe, looks at it, and closes his phone, based on the data.

“And then it happens,” Brennan said. “We know from the uncontroverted data from that [Lexus] black box. We know that Karen Read, after Mr. O’Keefe gets out of the car” drives about 33 feet away from him.

But “she doesn’t drive away,” Brennan said. “She takes that 6,000-pound Lexus and she makes a decision. And the decision is that she steps on the gas” in reverse, strikes O’Keefe, and “drives away.”

He said the data shows Read was accelerating in reverse at 24 m.p.h. at the time of the collision.

“And if there’s no doubt in your mind that she intended to put that accelerator in reverse, and that that conduct will create a clear and plain likelihood of death, then she’s guilty of that crime” of second-degree murder, Brennan said.

When Read drunkenly reversed back “for the last word” and decided to press down at 74 percent on the pedal, “I suggest to you that that is second-degree murder,” he said.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Prosecutor Hank Brennan walked to the front of the defense table. As he spoke about the case being about Read’s “decision” to back up her car, he tapped on the desk right in front of Read.

Later, he slapped on the podium to emphasize how Read stepped on the gas.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said Read had “over a half dozen mixed drinks in just a few hours” at McCarthy’s, the first pub, before moving to the Waterfall, where she had another mixed drink.

Brennan said that while the texts between Brian Higgins and Read may not be “honorable,” there’s no evidence from the bar that Higgins wanted to harm John O’Keefe, who was holding a drinking glass when he left the Waterfall.

Referring to the sparring footage between Higgins and Brian Albert at the Waterfall, Higgins asked sarcastically if it really constituted evidence that Higgins was getting ready for a violent struggle.

Brennan said experts were able to track O’Keefe’s movements “step by step” after leaving the Waterfall.

They created “an impenetrable timeline that can’t be broken,” Brennan said.

He said O’Keefe’s phone health care data is “critical” because it shows when he stopped moving.

“Alcohol fuels tension,” Brennan said, adding that there’s a “trigger” for Read after leaving the bar as she’s driving with O’Keefe to Fairview Road for the afterparty.

Brennan then played a video clip of Read telling an interviewer that when they were lost on the way to Fairview Road, she called Jennifer McCabe, who told them the Fairview house was located near the home of a woman O’Keefe had “hooked up” previously.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Prosecutor Hank Brennan began his testimony pacing in front of the jurors.

They watched him closely, their eyes tracking his movements.

John O’Keefe’s mother held a tissue in her hand and brought it to her face as Brennan described her son as a “good man.”

Read, who had been watching her lawyer Alan Jackson closely, stared straight ahead without looking at Brennan, who walked just to the right of her chair.

Brennan also used a PowerPoint presentation, showing video clips of interviews Read had given, and clips from the Waterfall pub.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan told jurors that John O’Keefe, 46, was a “good man” who “helped people.”

”When his niece and nephew had nobody, he took them in," Brennan said.

“John O’Keefe seemed to be the type of person who would help anybody at any time.”

But O’Keefe needed help on Jan. 29, 2022, Brennan said.

“You see, John O’Keefe had just been hit by Karen Read” on Fairview Road, and she “made a decision” to abandon him as he was lying “helpless” on the front yard, Brennan said.

“She made a decision about herself,” Brennan said. “In her Lexus, she drove away. She was drunk. She hit him, and she left him to die.”

He said data from the Lexus and O’Keefe’s phone data charts Read’s movements.

“We know in that window she hits him, because he never moves again,” Brennan said, citing his “healthcare data.”

He said O’Keefe had a skull fracture and related “raccoon eyes” from the swelling.

O’Keefe and Read were in a “toxic relationship” at the time of his death, Brennan said.

He said Read reached out to Brian Higgins via text message at a time when her relationship with O’Keefe was “crumbling.”

The couple perhaps appeared fine in public, Brenann said, but in private it was “not so lovey-dovey” based on their texts.

“They are not getting along,” Brennan said. “This relationship is unstable and at its end.”

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

The final slide on the defense’s PowerPoint presentation read “You can’t trust the Commonwealth.”

“We are after the truth,” Jackson said to the jury.

Jackson spoke in a lowered voice until he said “truth,” when his voice rose to a shout.

The jurors continued to watch Jackson and the PowerPoint attentively. They were not allowed to take notes.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson said video footage of Read’s SUV in the police garage was inverted, concealing what authorities were doing in close proximity to the right taillight.

Jackson said prosecutor Hank Brennan asked a defense expert repeatedly about holes in the back of John O’Keefe’s sweatshirt, “dramatically tapping on that plexiglass” containing the garment.

“The truth is the Commonwealth created those holes,” Jackson said. “They aren’t holes from roadrash. ... Those are cuttings from the Commonwealth’s own crime lab, folks.”

(Brennan said in court that he made a “mistake” on the holes.)

“That’s more than negligence,” Jackson said. “Why would the Commonwealth stoop to a stunt like that? It’s desperation. ... There was no collision.”

Jackson said there are “massive” holes in the government’s case.“

Reasonable doubt is not a sliding scale, it’s a wall,” Jackson said. “The truth is, Karen Read is not guilty. Not because of technicalities, but because of facts, the law, the science, the physics, the data – they all say so. They demand it.”

Prosecutors, Jackson said, “failed to prove” that O’Keefe was hit by a vehicle.

They also “failed to maintain a fair and honest, unbiased investigation,” Jackson said.

 “They failed to present you with the truth. ... How can they ask you to be morally certain based on this evidence?”

Jackson urged jurors to “not let the Commonwealth get away with this,” and not “let [investigator] Michael Proctor get away with it.”

Jackson noted that Proctor texted “yeah” when a friend said “something stinks.”

”Let the community feel through your verdict, that justice cannot be bent, and that it will not be buried," Jackson said. “Find Karen Read not guilty, not guilty, not guilty.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson said authorities ignored ATF agent Brian Higgins’s flirtatious texts to Read as well as his suspicious trip to the Canton police station “while drunk” at 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

“He would know that the CPD would be the first to get the call when someone reported John missing or injured,” Jackson said.

“He would know what to look for, what to listen for, to determine if the report had been made.”

Jackson said that a former Canton police officer who now works for the Boston police department testified that she initially told authorities she found it strange that Higgins and Ken Berkowitz, the Canton police chief at the time, were in the police garage together with Read’s SUV for a “wildly” long time. She testified that she later determined she had left after her shift ended before the SUV arrived at the police garage, so it must’ve been a false memory.

“She couldn’t have been clearer, she couldn’t have been more specific” in her initial comments to authorities, Jackson said.

And then when she’s called to testify at Read’s trial, Jackson said, the Boston police commissioner called her into his office and told her, “we support you, Officer Dever.”

She told jurors “‘my entire career depends on what I say here on the stand,’” Jackson said. “You bet it does. That’s how it works. And that’s how we got here.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson said Read was charged because the legal system “failed badly.”

He said Michael Proctor of the State Police did “nothing” to properly investigate John O’Keefe’s death.

“A police officer is found dead on the front lawn, and no one secures the scene,” Jackson said.

“They didn’t treat the house as a crime scene, and shamefully, they didn’t treat the yard as a crime scene.”

He said one law enforcement witness said authorities didn’t immediately know a crime had occurred, despite a dead man lying in the snow with wounds consistent with a fight.

“And John’s phone was tucked neatly under his back shoulder,” Jackson said.

He said a Canton police official who lived across the street from Brian Albert, who owned the home where O’Keefe’s body was found, had a Ring camera in his front yard, but investigators never viewed the footage.

Jackson told jurors to consider that in the context of Proctor texting a friend that Brian Albert wouldn’t face any scrutiny since, like O’Keefe, he’s also a Boston police officer.

Proctor texted friends that his higher-ups wanted “answers ASAP” and that “there will be some serious charges brought on the girl,” whom he described as a “[expletive],” using a derogatory term for women, and also mocked her medical condition.

“This was his mindset,” Jackson said.

He said Proctor also bragged about “looking for naked pictures” of Read, a text he sent to his “supervisors at the Massachusetts State Police, for God’s sake.”

One supervisor reacted with a thumbs-up emoji, Jackson said.

Proctor was “fired for his blatant bias,” Jackson said. “If the Massachusetts State Police can’t trust him, how can you trust him? ... The lead investigator in a murder trial was never called to testify. Think about that.”

Proctor was “clearly radioactive” after being canned for “bias in this case. ... All the evidence that was brought before you in this trial went through his hands one way or another,” he said. “The shirts, the shards. Remember that when Mr. Brennan gets up and gives his closing arguments.”

Jackson said authorities claim that microscopic pieces of plastic were recovered from O’Keefe’s clothes months after his death.

“There was no blood, no skin, no tissue, no DNA found on a single shard of the taillight that the Commonwealth claims cut and sliced into John O’Keefe’s arm,” Jackson said.

He said authorities say O’Keefe’s DNA was found on the “outer smooth part” of the taillight housing, which would be expected since he and Read were dating.

The housing also had two other male DNA contributors, Jackson said.

A hair found on the back of the SUV, Jackson said, “is supposed to have” stayed there “on a 37-mile drive in a blizzard” from Dighton to Canton.In addition, Jackson said, glass found on the bumper didn’t match the broken glass found near O’Keefe.

“Therefore, that glass had to be placed there” on the bumper, Jackson said. “The only thing it matched was Michael Proctor.”

Jackson said plow driver Brian Loughran saw a Ford Edge, a vehicle linked to the Albert family, in front of the home when he drove his plow past the house during the predawn hours and saw no body on the lawn.

The Edge was “parked in a spot specifically to block the line of sight in the exact position where John’s body” would later be found, Jackson said.

He said Proctor “completely ignored” the Ford Edge, and that other witnesses said they saw Read parked in front of 34 Fairview by herself, with no sign of O’Keefe.

“There’s only one place he could be,” Jackson said. “We could all say it together if you could talk with me: he was in the house.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson said John O’Keefe’s right arm had about 36 abrasions.

“How did 36 shards of acrylic go through nine tiny little puncture holes?” Jackson said. “Why is there no blood, no skin, no tissue, on a single shard of taillight that they claim” contacted O’Keefe’s arm. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Jackson said government expert Judson Welcher said O’Keefe was struck at 12:31:38 a.m.

Jackson said the data establishes a collision couldn’t have happened “because John was interacting with his phone after 12:31:38, which is the time Welcher clocked for the moment of the impact, and he was taking steps and walking with that phone after 12:31:38.”

Jackson asked the jury if they could “believe” Welcher’s colleague Shanon Burgess, who also testified for the prosecution.

He said that even Burgess, whose CV falsely stated he had obtained a bachelor’s degree, said the data “shows that John O’Keefe was still very much alive and walking around after they claim he was hit and incapacitated.”

Jackson said O’Keefe’s health data shows he wasn’t lying out in the cold but was inside where it was warmer.

Prosecutors say O’Keefe was lying directly on top of his phone on frozen ground, yet the device never dropped below 50 degrees for the next “four and half hours; basically the entire night.”

O’Keefe, Jackson said, “was not outside. He was someplace warmer, like a basement or a garage.”

All the experts, Jackson said, agree that O’Keefe died from a backwards fall from a standing position. What could cause that?

“Add a laceration to the right eye, consistent with a fist or a punch, then you’ve got your answer,” Jackson said. “And look at the arm. Just look at John O’Keefe’s arm. ... These are dog bites, and scratches. These are animal wounds.”

He said Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a former chief medical examiner in Rhode Island, told jurors three times on the stand that O’Keefe wasn’t hit by a car, “because it’s true, not just because she says so, but because the medical evidence proves it.”

Jackson said “there is no evidence that John was hit by a car; none. ... This case should be over right now, done. Because there was no collision.”

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

The jury of nine men and nine women watched Read lawyer Alan Jackson as he delivered his closing argument.

A PowerPoint presentation that included words, images, and short videos played as Jackson spoke, and jurors’ eyes shifted back and forth between the screens and Jackson.

Jackson played video clips from the Waterfall pub, and showed images of O’Keefe’s arm, as well as an explanation for “reasonable doubt.”

Words flashed across the screen in black print saying, “John’s arm was not damaged by a taillight” and “No evidence of pedestrian vehicle collision.”

Jackson also showed images of “what a body looks like after a 25 mile per hour collision” and a photo of a white car after hitting a person at 25 miles per hour.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson said that prosecutors described the crime scene as “bedlam” when Read discovered John O’Keefe’s body on the Fairview Road lawn shortly after 6 a.m., prompting an emergency response outside Brian Albert’s bedroom window.

Albert, a Boston police officer, never came outside, Jackson said, and State Police investigator Michael Proctor never went inside.

“Their investigation was flawed from the start because their investigator [Proctor]” was corrupted from the start by “personal loyalties,” he said.

Jackson said medical experts testified that O’Keefe’s injuries weren’t consistent with being hit by a vehicle.

“It’s literally the most important point in the entire trial,” Jackson said.

He reminded jurors that Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the medical examiner who performed O’Keefe’s autopsy, testified that she “did not see any evidence of an impact site” on O’Keefe’s body.

“That in and of itself is reasonable doubt,” Jackson said. “You don’t need anything more. The Commonwealth’s case is done. It’s cooked.”

He said Scordi-Bello “refused to conclude that John’s death was a homicide.”

Jackson said “that SUV’s taillight was not damaged by striking an arm, and John O’Keefe was not struck by a 6,000-pound SUV.”

He said defense experts testified that their crash tests showed the taillight damage was inconsistent with striking an arm, compared to the “ridiculous blue paint” test conducted by the prosecution’s experts, which he likened to a “kindergarten project.”

Jackson said Read’s taillight on video footage was “completely illuminated at 5:07 a.m.” and later at 4:12 p.m. in Dighton when the SUV’s being towed.

“The Commonwealth will have claims that those diffusers, the portion that lights up the light, were already scattered over 34 Fairview,” Jackson said.

Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, ignored the compromising surveillance footage, Jackson said. Proctor was later fired after the first trial, when he was forced to read boorish texts he sent about Read to friends and coworkers during the investigation to the jury.

Read, Jackson said, called O’Keefe repeatedly after she left Fairview and became irritated that her boyfriend wasn’t responding.

“She didn’t know what was happening with Higgins and Albert and with her boyfriend, John O’Keefe,” Jackson said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read lawyer Alan Jackson told jurors that prosecutors must prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt for a conviction.

“If you think it’s possibly true, or probably true, [that Read killed John O’Keefe], your vote must be not guilty,” Jackson said.

He said the law defines moral certainty as the highest level known in human affairs.

“The Commonwealth comes nowhere near, nowhere close, to reaching that extreme burden of proof,” Jackson said.

He said the Alberts, who have “quite the reputation” in Canton, were drinking with friends before Read and O’Keefe arrived at the Waterfall pub. ATF Agent Brian Higgins was also there.

“We know that [Higgins] had a romantic design on Karen,” Jackson said, referring to the flirty texts he had exchanged with Read.

Jackson asked the jury to consider video footage of Higgins at the Waterfall and said Higgins was “agitated” after a day of drinking when he saw O’Keefe kiss Read at the bar after he texted her, “umm ... well.”

From there, Jackson said, the footage shows Higgins and Brian Albert play-sparring at the bar.

“Sparring,” Jackson said. “Fighting techniques.”

He said Chris Albert, Brian Albert’s brother, “forcefully grabs Higgins’s arm” as he gestures toward O’Keefe.“But Brian Higgins is having none of it,” Jackson said. “He appears to be hyperfocused on one person and one person only: John O’Keefe. In an instant he angrily jerks his arm away from Chris. He rubs his brow and he directly gestures at John, a gesture that looks a lot like, ‘let’s stop outside.’”

Higgins later texted O’Keefe “you coming here???” with “three question marks,” Jackson said, referring to the afterparty at Brian Albert’s house.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson launched into his closing.

“There was no collision,” he said. “There was no collision. There was no collision.”

He thanked the jury for its attention during the case.

“Courage is what this moment demands,” Jackson said, adding that the jury must “stare directly at injustice and say ‘not here, not now, not on our watch.’”

He told jurors to pay attention to the physical evidence as well as “the lengths to which some, some police officers will go to protect their own ... at the expense of Karen Read, an innocent woman.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Following the sidebar, Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors they won’t be permitted to take notes during closing arguments, as the summations themselves are “not evidence.”

”You folks are the fact-finders," Cannone said.

She said the government’s burden remains “proof beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty,” which is why prosecutors will go last.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

During the court’s five-minute recess, Read smiled and hugged her mother.

Some members of O’Keefe’s friends and family abruptly left the courtroom, as Read continued to smile and speak with her friends, family, and attorneys. One of O’Keefe’s family members shook her head as she left the room.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Cannone called the attorneys to sidebar at the start of Friday’s session.

Read and O’Keefe’s parents and their respective supporters are seated in separate sections of the spectators’ gallery.

Court officers are standing between the two sections at the entrance to the courtroom.

Read was seen intently looking over material on a laptop at the defense table.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Karen Read, wearing a blue and pink dress and a black suit jacket, entered Norfolk Superior Court at 8:25 a.m., waving to supporters as she walked down the sidewalk.

When reporters asked how she was feeling, Read gave a thumbs up and a smile. She did not give any further comment.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Karen Read’s father addressed the media outside the Dedham courthouse at 8:24 a.m.

“Well, I wish I wasn’t here, but this is what corruption is all about,” William Read said.

He said John O’Keefe’s injuries “don’t correspond” with the allegations that he was hit by a car.

“I want justice for John O’Keefe, but that may come at a later day,” he said. “It’s all about the science.”

He encouraged the media to listen closely to the closing argument of Alan Jackson, Read’s lawyer.

“Digest it all,” he said. “Take it in.”

“Because someday it could be your son or your daughter,” he continued. “God forbid.” O’Keefe’s family, including John O’Keefe’s mother, entered the courthouse at 8:22 a.m.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jurors will hear closing arguments in Karen Read’s murder retrial on Friday in Norfolk Superior Court.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone said Thursday that she’ll give both sides an hour and 10 minutes to address the jury, before she issues instructions and the panel starts deliberating.

Cannone said she’ll ask jurors to stay as late as 5:30 p.m. Friday as they begin weighing the evidence.

Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

She allegedly backed her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Fairview Road home in Canton following a night of bar-hopping.

Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the property, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the lawn.

Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury and she remains free on bail.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

Among the crowd is Brenda Sweeney and her husband, Dennis, who live down the street from Fairview Road, where Karen Read allegedly hit John O’Keefe.

The Canton natives have been following the trial in support of Read since the beginning.

“We need the murders out of town,” Brenda Sweeney said, not referring to Read.

Brenda, 68, wore a pink shirt and held an American flag in support of the “First Amendment.” Dennis, 69, held two flags and a white shirt that read “criminals control Norfolk County.”

“The corruption is just horrific,” Brenda said. “And this is America.”

The pair are retired, Brenda said.

“This isn’t how I thought I’d spend my retirement, I’ll tell you that,” Brenda said laughing.

She’s “confident” the jury will have a verdict today.

“It just takes an hour,” she said.

By Ava Berger, Globe Correspondent

At least 100 people gathered as early as 7:45 a.m. behind the metal barriers near Norfolk Superior Court for closing arguments in the Karen Read trial. The “Free Karen Read” crowd is lively and careful to remind each other of the judge’s rules for spectators. There are five large American flags and dozens of pink shirts.

“It’s going to be the last day,” one supporter shouted.

“School may be out, but I’m here still learning about corruption,” a sign next to her read.

State Police are monitoring the crowds closely and ensuring everyone stays on the sidewalk.