Things to know about the retrial of Karen Read in the killing of her police officer boyfriend

The defense in Karen Read's second murder case repeatedly sparred Friday with a key witness who was with Read the morning she found her Boston police officer boyfriend dead in the snow, hoping to undermine her testimony.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson tried to suggest that past inconsistencies showed Jennifer McCabe’s testimony couldn’t be trusted. He also suggested that she and several other witnesses coordinated their version of events around the death of John O'Keefe.

Prosecutors say Read, 45, backed her SUV into O’Keefe after dropping him off at a party hosted by a fellow officer in January 2022 and left him to die in the snow. Defense attorneys say she was a victim of a conspiracy involving the police and have suggested he was killed by someone inside the home.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene, began April 22 and has thus far looked similar to the first.

Questioning McCabe's testimony

On Friday, Jackson tried to convince the jury that McCabe's testimony has shifted over time or she left out key details about the events before and after O'Keefe's death.

McCabe, he said, never mentioned that she called her sister just before O'Keefe was found in the snow — something she denied. The two also sparred over what she told former State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, about a broken taillight on Read's vehicle. Jackson said she told Proctor that it was cracked, while McCabe testified that she "believed I said it was broken and cracked and it was missing pieces.”

After Jackson challenged McCabe about the route she took to the house, McCabe sounded exasperated.

“I was in shock,” she told the court. “So a lot of things from that day are foggy. Certain things, certain details I may have forgotten.”

Jackson responded that “all of your testimony over the last several days is based on that memory that you just described to these jurors, correct?

McCabe then shot back that “there are certain things I’ll never forget.”

Jackson accused McCabe and other witnesses of coordinating their versions of events in the hours and days after O'Keefe died. He brought up a group chat that included McCabe and several others in which they talked about the case and acknowledged listening to a police interview of another witness, Kerry Roberts, who was also with Read and McCabe that morning.

“In the text that we just saw, you were colluding with other witnesses, percipient witnesses in this case through those text messages, were you not?” Jackson asked, prompting McCabe to deny it. He pressed further, suggesting she listened to Roberts' interview to help shape her own version of events, which McCabe again denied.

Finding O'Keefe in the snow

During her second day of testimony Wednesday, McCabe recalled a chaotic scene when they reached the house where O'Keefe, 46, was later found lying in the snow. She called 911 to report a body while Read and another friend Roberts tried to warm O'Keefe up and perform CPR.

Read, she said, was running around and screaming so much that police suggested she sit in a police cruiser. The three sat together praying, and McCabe remember Read wondering aloud who would take care of O'Keefe's two adopted children. As O'Keefe's body was moved to an ambulance, Read screamed for Roberts to go check on him and wondered if he was dead.

Then, McCabe testified that she was standing next to a police officer and a paramedic as Read told them “I hit him” three times — corroborating earlier testimony from paramedics.

But Jackson challenged McCabe, questioning why those comments couldn't be found in earlier police reports or in the 227 pages of her grand jury testimony. Instead, Jackson said she told the grand jury that she recalled Read saying to a paramedic, “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him? Is he dead? Is he dead? Is he dead?”

“In point of fact, in your entire grand jury testimony, you never said my client said the words I hit him.” he said.

McCabe insisted she had told police what Read said — even if it wasn't in the reports — and that it wasn't in the grand jury testimony because she wasn't asked specifically about it. As for the comments in her grand jury testimony, she said there were many conversations with paramedics and police at the scene.

“'I hit him. I hit him. I hit him,' is just as fresh today as it was three years ago,” she said.

Getting a panicked call from Read

On Tuesday, McCabe described having fun with Read, O’Keefe and others at a local bar the previous night. Afterward, she went to the house party hosted by her sister and brother-in-law. She said she saw Read’s SUV outside but that Read and O’Keefe never came into the house.

McCabe said she was awakened the next morning by a call from O’Keefe’s niece. Read then got on the phone screaming, she said.

“She was hysterical. It was very hard to follow what she was saying,” she said. “It was loud enough and long enough that my husband shot up in bed thinking one of my kids had come in the room screaming.”

Read initially said she had left O’Keefe at the bar, but when McCabe said she had seen the SUV at her sister’s house, Read said she didn’t remember being there and repeatedly asked, “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?”

The two women and another friend searched O’Keefe’s home and then went to McCabe’s sister’s house. As they approached the house, Read screamed, “There he is! Let me out!”