Karen Read murder trial enters third day of testimony

Livestream via NBC10 Boston.

The Karen Read murder trial enters its third day of testimony Thursday, with more witnesses expected to take the stand. 

Jurors on Wednesday heard emotional testimony from the mother of Read’s boyfriend, slain Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Through tears, Peggy O’Keefe recalled racing to Good Samaritan Medical Center after receiving a call that her son had been “found in a snowbank” the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. 

“He was bruised up,” Peggy O’Keefe recalled. “His eyes were closed. Just not a good scene.”

Also on the stand Wednesday was Kerry Roberts, John O’Keefe’s longtime friend and one of the two women with Read when she found her boyfriend unresponsive on a snowy lawn in Canton. 

Prosecutors allege Read, 45, drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a house party shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. They claim she drove off and left O’Keefe mortally wounded, only to return to the scene hours later after realizing he hadn’t come home. 

Yet Read’s lawyers allege she was a “convenient outsider” framed in a vast law enforcement conspiracy. They contend O’Keefe was actually beaten after walking into the party at 34 Fairview Road. 

Canton firefighter and paramedic Daniel Whitley testified Wednesday that first responders received orders to take Read to the hospital for a mental health evaluation after she discovered her boyfriend’s body. 

He testified that Read was “pretty upset” and crying, though her emotions fluctuated as they traveled to the hospital.

“She kept asking if there was any chance her husband [sic] could be alive, even sitting outside in the snow with no coat on for many hours,” Whitley recalled. He said firefighters tried to “give her hope” by telling her about hypothermia cases where patients miraculously survived with no deficits.

On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti highlighted the firefighter’s connections with Roberts, one of Whitley’s neighbors, and the lead investigator on the case, former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor. Whitley and Proctor attended school together, though they were two years apart. 

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.