As Karen Read’s second murder trial enters its sixth week, prosecutors appear poised to wrap their case in the coming days against the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her boyfriend.
Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors last week that the trial was ahead of schedule. It was expected to last six to eight weeks.
Prosecutors say Read, 45, struck her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her SUV and left him to die in the snow outside the home of another cop after a night of heavy drinking in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed for O’Keefe’s murder in a conspiracy theory devised by the owner of the home, Brian Albert, and other Massachusetts police officials.
More: The dog did it? What to know about the German Shepherd tied to the Karen Read trial
Jurors have so far heard from witnesses about a bombshell admission Read allegedly made the morning O’Keefe’s body was found, damage discovered on her Lexus SUV, phone records that could lay out a timeline of the incident and the injuries O’Keefe sustained.
On Tuesday, they were hearing testimony from a crash reconstruction expert believed to be critical to prosecutors’ argument that Read backed into O’Keefe.
Read’s defense attorneys will also soon have a turn at calling witnesses. At every turn in the trial, they’ve so far sought to sow doubt about the integrity of the case, arguing that the investigation into O’Keefe’s death was riddled with bias, incompetence and deceit.
Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury in 2024. The legal saga has fixated true-crime fans across the country, spurring an array of podcasts, movies and television shows.
Here are the latest updates from Day 21 out of the Norfolk County court.
Defense team scrutinizes key crash witness
Read’s defense attorney questioned crash reconstruction expert Judson Welcher, one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, without the jury present to determine his competency to testify and the admissibility of evidence he plans to present. The process is known as voir dire.
They pressed Welcher on recent changes he made to his presentation and people he spoke with at Massachusetts State Police in the last few weeks.
How to watch the Karen Read trial
CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O’Keefe’s body was found outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home.
You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings began at 9 a.m. ET.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read trial updates: Key crash reconstruction expert testifies
DJ Kamal Mustafa
I’m DJ Kamal Mustafa, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of EMEA Tribune, a digital news platform that focuses on critical stories from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. With a deep passion for investigative journalism, I’ve built a reputation for delivering exclusive, thought-provoking reports that highlight the region’s most pressing issues.
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