Prosecutors in Karen Read's second murder case on Tuesday introduced a series of angry voicemails that she left for her Boston police officer boyfriend in the hours before he was found in the snow.
These recordings, along with evidence of scores of missed calls to John O’Keefe, followed testimony from a meteorologist who described the snowstorm that night as a “classic nor’easter,” and said freezing temperatures would have made the “ground impenetrable.”
Prosecutors say Read, 45, backed her SUV into O’Keefe, 46, and left him to die after dropping him off at a party hosted by a fellow officer. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and that someone inside the home that night in January 2022 must have killed him.
A mistrial was declared last year. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has appeared to be similar so far.
Karen Read was angry or distraught?
Prosecutors called State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino, who retrieved cellphone data from O'Keefe's phone.
He detailed how the data show Read called O'Keefe nearly 30 times that morning. The first batch continued for nearly an hour after 12:35 a.m. Most were missed calls. She also left several profanity-laced emails, including one in which she accused O'Keefe of sleeping with someone else and leaving his two adopted children home alone.
“John I (expletive) hate you," she yells in one voice message that was played to the jury.
The calls from Read resumed several hours later. Most didn't connect, but one voicemail just after 6 a.m. sounded like it came from the scene and included a muffled voice, apparently Read's, screaming and sounding distraught.
Solo cups and cocktail glasses
On Tuesday, Canton Police Lt. Charles Rae testified police officers searched the site on the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022. They found a shoe along the curb — O'Keefe was missing a shoe when he was found — and six or seven pieces of a broken taillight. The pieces were red and clear, and prosecutors showed the jury images of them. The search was suspended that day because of darkness.
Earlier in the day, former Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher finished up his testimony.
Both sides questioned Gallagher about evidence-gathering at the scene. In the first trial, Gallagher testified about the use of red Solo cups to gather O'Keefe's blood, and a leaf blower to clear snow.
Gallagher agreed this time that a plastic cup is not normally used to collect evidence, but he said the circumstances required quick thinking and improvisation.
“If we didn’t collect that biological matter, we weren’t going to get that biological matter,” Gallagher said.
On cross-examination late Monday and early Tuesday, Jackson aggressively questioned Gallagher on the methods police used in the investigation.
He questioned why police didn't search inside the Albert house nor interview the homeowner Brian Albert, who was also a Boston police officer. Gallagher responded they had no reason to do so, since “nobody could put John O'Keefe in the house including Ms. Read."
He also questioned why Gallagher didn't seek home security footage from a house across the street, which was owned by another police officer. Gallagher said he was familiar with that camera and believed it would only show the front step and front lawn of that house.
Jackson also sought to raise doubt about the chain of custody over evidence at the scene. He pressed Gallagher on the evidence collection, questioning why police didn’t go back to the station to get proper equipment including swabs and an evidence bag. Instead, they relied on a neighbor's cups, and transported the materials in a Stop & Shop bag to the station.
“With an evidence bag, you know exactly where it came from and who is handling it,” Jackson said.
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