Editor’s note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Thursday, June 12. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit USA TODAY’s coverage for Friday, June 13.
Judge Beverly Cannone gave jurors in Karen Read’s second murder trial the day off Thursday, as lawyers hashed out the final details of the criminal proceedings.
The defense and prosecution met briefly for a “charging conference” where they discussed Friday’s schedule and the instructions Cannone will give to jurors before they begin deliberations.
Witness testimony in the case over whether Read, 45, killed her Boston cop boyfriend John O’Keefe ended Wednesday after the defense concluded questioning of Andrew Rentschler, a biomechanist and accident reconstruction expert.
The jury will be back in court before 9 a.m. Friday to hear closing arguments. They’re expected to begin deliberations before the weekend.
Throughout the eight-week-long trial, jurors have heard from more than 40 witnesses about the days and hours before O’Keefe’s body was found lying frozen and unconscious outside the Canton, Massachusetts home of another cop, Brian Albert, on Jan. 29, 2022.
Read is accused of deliberately backing into O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV after she dropped him off at a house party hosted by Albert. Prosecutors say she hit O’Keefe in a drunken, jealous rage and then left him to die on the front lawn during a historic blizzard.
She is charged with second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
The defense says police were biased against Read. They’ve argued detectives didn’t properly investigate Albert or others inside the home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, where O’Keefe was found, and questioned whether his injuries matched those of car crash victims
Her first trial ended in a hung trial last year.
The judge said she expects to hand Read’s case to the jury by the end of the day Friday.
“I don’t want to end the charge and send them home for the weekend,” Cannone said about giving the jury their instructions. “That’s not fair after they’ve waited so long.”
She said the jury will enter the courtroom by 8:45 a.m. on Friday and will begin hearing closing arguments before 9 a.m. After a lunch break in the afternoon, the judge will read the jury instructions. She said she has asked the jury to stay until 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. to deliberate.
Cannone will allow the defense and prosecution each an hour and 15 minutes to present their closing arguments.
The judge said Read’s defense did not meet the evidence threshold needed to argue that Brian Albert or Brian Higgins, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms who was at 34 Fairview Road, killed O’Keefe.
One of Read’s lawyers, David Yannetti, said they plan to use a “Bowden defense,” arguing that police failed to properly investigate Albert, Higgins and other potential suspects. It marks a shift from Read’s first trial, when her team used a third-party culprit defense and directly cast blame on the men for O’Keefe’s death.
Cannone denied the defense’s motion for a required finding of not guilty, which alleged that there was not enough evidence for the jury to convict Read on the charges against her.
The defense submitted, and the judge denied, a similar motion after the prosecution rested its case in May.
CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O’Keefe’s body was found outside a Massachusetts home.
You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings began at 10 a.m. ET.
