Karen Read retrial: No verdict after first full day of deliberations

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) – The jury did not reach a verdict Monday on its first full day of deliberations in the second murder trial of Karen Read, who is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend in a case that has generated more than three years of heated debate.

Jurors began deliberations late last week, more than a month after the trial started.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John O’Keefe with her car outside a suburban Boston house party and leaving him to die in the snow in January 2022. She has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene.

Read's lawyers say O’Keefe, 46, was beaten, bitten by a dog, then left outside a home in Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by the police that included planting evidence against Read.

Read's second trial followed similar contours to the first, which ended in a mistrial last year.

Read has never been jailed for O'Keefe's killing. She did not testify at her first murder trial or this one.

Defense attorney says Read is an innocent woman framed

Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his closing argument Friday by repeating three times: “There was no collision.” He told the jury that Read is an innocent woman victimized by a police cover up in which law enforcement officers sought to protect their own and obscure the real killer.

He also reminded the jury Read is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and a moral certainty.

Jackson suggested Brian Higgins, a federal agent, was agitated at a bar after Read didn’t respond to his text, and coaxed O’Keefe over to the Canton house party. Higgins had exchanged romantic text messages with Read and sent her a text message that said “um well” after seeing her with O'Keefe. He also gestured at O'Keefe while looking agitated, Jackson said.

“What happened inside that house, that basement or that garage? What evidence was there for investigators to look into? What did they ignore?” Jackson asked, noting the “obvious dog bites” on O’Keefe’s arm and the head injury from his falling backward onto a hard surface.

Jackson described the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as botched and biased from the very beginning.

He attacked the lead investigator in the case, Michael Proctor, reading aloud some of his offensive and sexist texts and explaining how he was fired for his “blatant bias” in the investigation. He also noted that the state never called Proctor as a witness in this trial, as they did during the first trial.

Prosecutors say Read made “a choice” to leave O’Keefe dying in snow

Prosecutor Hank Brennan opened his closing argument Friday by saying Read callously decided to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow, fully aware that he was gravely injured. He described that decision as “a choice” to let O’Keefe die.

He also said Read was well beyond the legal alcohol limit when she drove at the time.

“She was drunk, she hit him, and she left him to die,” Brennan said.

Pointing to data on Read's SUV, Brennan said it showed Read starting to drive off before reversing and accelerating. He admitted they can't say how Read hit O'Keefe but that she left “tons” of pieces of her taillight behind in the front yard and that O'Keefe's DNA was found on the vehicle. Data from O'Keefe's phone, he said, showed O'Keefe barely moved after getting out of the SUV, challenging the idea that he made it into the house party.

He also pointed to Read's own words — shown in a video interview for a documentary — and testimony from the scene in which she told first responders that she “hit him.” He said this evidence may not correspond to the idea that there was a vast conspiracy led by the “boogeyman” Proctor and “everyone setting up the girl” but he said these witnesses should be trusted.

As for Proctor, Brennan said the jury shouldn't be influenced by the fact he didn't testify. Brennan argued he wasn't needed and that there is no evidence that he did anything to corrupt the investigation.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be disgusted by the text messages. You should. They are not defensible,” Brennan said. “I don’t stand here and defend impropriety. I don’t. But that doesn’t change the physical evidence, the scientific evidence and the data.”

What are the charges Read faces?

Read faces several charges, the most serious being second degree murder. If she is convicted, she would face a maximum sentence of life in prison. She also faces manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

She also is charged with involuntary manslaughter which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, motor vehicle homicide which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, as well as operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. They carry a maximum sentences of 2 1/2 years and 15 years respectively.

Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.