(NewsNation) — Witness testimony resumed Wednesday in the retrial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of striking her police officer boyfriend with her car and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in 2022.
Several witnesses testified Tuesday after prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered opening statements in which they addressed theories about the death of John O’Keefe.
During opening statements, a prosecutor said the defendant’s own words will bolster evidence that she killed O’Keefe three years ago.
A defense attorney on Tuesday called the case “the definition of reasonable doubt.”
Read has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
The trial has sparked debate over police accountability, and a mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
Karen Read case: What to know about John O’Keefe’s death
Prosecutors alleged Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer, on Jan. 29, 2022.
After letting him out of the car, they allege Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV before driving away.
O’Keefe was found unresponsive in a snowbank outside the home the next morning. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital after suffering from hypothermia and a head injury, officials said.
Prosecutors have alleged Read intentionally struck O’Keefe because their relationship had soured in the month leading up to his death.
Read’s defense attorneys have dismissed that narrative, saying instead that several other officers are behind O’Keefe’s death and have colluded with other cops to cover up his death by framing his girlfriend.
NewsNation’s Anna Kutz, Caitlyn Becker, Safia Samee Ali, Jeff Arnold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.