Editor’s note: This is a summary of jury deliberations in the Karen Read trial for Monday, June 16. For the latest on the deliberations, visit USA TODAY’s story for Tuesday, June 17.
Jurors in Karen Read’s second murder trial ended their first full day of deliberations Monday without a verdict in the case over whether the Massachusetts woman killed her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the evening, telling them to come back refreshed Tuesday at 9 a.m.
The 12-person panel began discussing Read’s fate Friday, June 13, for about two hours, after lawyers finished delivering closing arguments in the eight-week-long murder retrial. By 4:25 p.m. on Monday, after more than nine hours of deliberations, they still had not reached a decision.
Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty on three charges, including second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
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Prosecutors accuse Read of backing into John O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV after a night out drinking in January 2022. Her defense team has suggested she was framed for the crime by sloppy and biased investigators.
“Don’t you have questions?” one of her lawyers, Alan Jackson, said, prodding jurors in his final message to them. He told them their confidence in the case against Read needed to be “unshakeable” to convict her.
Catch up with our coverage and analysis from the most pivotal moments of the retrial.
The deliberations come nearly a year after the prosecution’s first case against Read ended in a mistrial, when a jury could not come to a unanimous verdict on the charges against her.
Crowds of people dressed head to toe in pink, Read’s favorite color, milled outside the Dedham, Massachusetts courthouse Monday to cheer for Read as they waited for a verdict. The demonstrations have become a common site, as the years-long legal saga has garnered massive intrigue and captivated true-crime fans,
