Editor’s note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Tuesday, May 6. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit USA TODAY’s coverage for Wednesday, May 7.
Voicemails played in court on Tuesday at the trial of a woman accused of murdering her cop boyfriend betray rage and anguish: “John, I . . . hate you,” the woman screams.
The voice is that of Karen Read, the 45-year-old woman accused of hitting Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, 46, with her SUV in a drunken rage and leaving him for dead in January 2022. The messages date back to early morning hours leading up to the discovery of O’Keefe’s body in the snow outside the home of another Boston cop. Read’s lawyers say she was framed by police.
Prosecutors shared a log of calls Read made to O’Keefe after midnight of the day he died and up until 6 a.m., around when his body was found. In eight voicemails left over the span of 50 unanswered calls, Read vacillates between accusing her boyfriend of about two years of cheating, calling him a loser, a pervert and desperately asking where he is.
The voicemails give perhaps the most visceral sense so far of Read’s condition the night O’Keefe died. Witnesses have already testified about Read’s “crazy” and “erratic” behavior that morning; text messages between the couple show they were fighting the day before he died; and Read admitted afterwards she was drinking heavily.
Read’s voicemails were played in court as the trial out of Dedham, Massachusetts enters a third week of testimony. The former financial professor is back in court after a 2024 trial ended in a hung jury.
On Tuesday, jurors also heard from investigators at the scene the day O’Keefe was found. They collected evidence using rakes, brooms and red Solo cups. Read’s lawyers say their investigation was marred by bias and incompetence.
The new testimony comes after jurors have already heard from a star witness for the prosecution who shared a bombshell admission from Read, a firefighter who also testified that Read said “I hit him” and they’ve seen cryptic text messages a key witness against Read sent other witnesses.
Read’s case has turned into a years-long whodunnit legal saga that has garnered massive intrigue from true-crime fans across the country, spurring an array of podcasts, movies, and television shows.
Here’s what else happened in the Norfolk County courthouse on Tuesday.
Hours after O’Keefe was found, Kevin O’Hara, a lieutenant with the Massachusetts State Police and search and rescue coordinator for the state, arrived on the scene to search for evidence. O’Hara said his team sifted through the snow slowly and methodically using rakes, brooms, shovels and head lamps.
Less than half an hour after the search began, the team found a piece of broken taillight. A sneaker filled with snow was later found upside down against the curb.
O’Hara said six or seven pieces of taillight were found, including some that were at ground level, touching the asphalt beneath the snow. After about an hour, O’Hara said the search was suspended and although it was likely they didn’t find every piece of the taillight, they were never called back to the scene.
Read’s attorney questioned O’Hara about the security of the scene and his previous testimony.
O’Hara said the area was unsecured for an unknown period of time before his team arrived, but “with that being fresh, undisturbed snow, and with the man tracking we do we would be able to determine if anyone had accessed that area.”
O’Hara said four plainclothes officers arrived on scene after their search began, but he did not know exactly when because he was focused on the search. O’Hara said a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt also approached the team and asked about what they were there for, before going back into the residence.
Charles Rae, a lieutenant with the Canton Police Department, said after he learned O’Keefe had been taken to the hospital, he conducted a wellness check on the children at his home. Rae and another officer found no one at the home, but did see two cars at O’Keefe’s house.
Kerry Roberts, a friend of O’Keefe, previously testified that she, Read and another woman went to O’Keefe’s house to search for him on the morning of Jan. 29. Roberts said she parked behind Read’s Lexus and saw a piece missing from her taillight.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino returned to the stand on May 6 and walked jurors through the dozens of calls and texts from Read to O’Keefe on the morning he died.
Prosecutors played multiple profanity-laden voicemails that Read left O’Keefe, in which she says she hates him, accuses him of infidelity and tells him his children are alone. O’Keefe became the guardian of his niece and nephew after his sister and brother-in-law died.
Guarino previously took the stand to read aloud text messages between Read and O’Keefe in the days and hours before his death.
In their messages, O’Keefe and Read discussed their strained relationship, troubles with parenting and plans to see one another. At several points throughout the conversation, O’Keefe and Read bickered and acknowledged they were dissatisfied with the state of their relationship
“Tell me if you’re interested in someone else, can’t think of any other reason you are like this,” Read wrote at one point. O’Keefe replied: “Things haven’t been great between us for a while. Ever consider that?”
Robert Gilman, who has worked as a meteorologist for over 45 years, described the historic blizzard that struck Canton the day before O’Keefe died. Gilman said about two feet of snow accumulated on the frozen ground, visibility dropped below a quarter of a mile and wind gusts reached up to 50 miles per hour during the storm.
“This was the biggest January storm in history,” Gilman said.
Gilman said the snow started falling lightly around midnight on Jan. 29 – the day O’Keefe died – and picked up in intensity around 4 a.m., slowed down around 7 p.m. and ended altogether by 10 p.m. He said the temperature in the area was below freezing in the early morning hours on Jan. 29 and continued to drop as the storm worsened.
Alan Jackson, Read’s attorney, began his second day of questioning Gallagher by asking whether he failed to take certain investigative steps because other law enforcement officers were involved, suggesting the investigation was botched from the start. O’Keefe was found unconscious outside the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer.
Gallagher agreed that in his initial search he didn’t find evidence including a hat, shoe or pieces of broken taillight and didn’t secure security footage from the house of a Canton police officer who lived across the street from Albert. Gallagher also agreed that he never attempted to search the Albert house or separate the witnesses to take their statements.
Jackson asked if the reason Gallagher failed to do any of these things was because the homeowners were police officers.
“Absolutely not,” Gallagher said, later telling prosecutors he only performed a limited search because he had no reason to believe a crime had been committed.
Jackson also pointed out that Gallagher had a personal and professional relationship with Brian Higgins, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who was at the Albert home the night before O’Keefe was found, according to previous testimony. Gallagher said the Canton Police Department was removed from the investigation before he learned Higgins was involved.
Gallagher told jurors he arrived at 34 Fairview Road early Jan. 29, 2022, in his personal vehicle just after O’Keefe had been transported to the hospital. After seeing pink spots in the snow, Gallagher used a leaf blower to clear the area, revealing bright red blood and a broken cocktail glass.
Gallagher collected the bloody snow in red Solo cups obtained from an officer who lived nearby. The cups were then taken to the police department in a paper grocery bag.
Gallagher said he didn’t wait to get proper equipment to collect evidence because of the worsening weather. The area was not yet considered a crime scene.
“I expected it to be John’s DNA, and I wasn’t going to get a second chance at it,” Gallagher said. “It was either collect it or never have it.”
On the second day of questioning, Alan Jackson, Read’s attorney, showed Gallagher a photograph of the unsealed cups near Read’s SUV at the Canton Police Department and asked if the setup could be a “recipe for cross-contamination.” Gallagher disagreed, saying that a trained criminalist was present and prevented such contamination.
CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O’Keefe’s body was found outside a Canton home.
You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings begin at 9 a.m. ET.
Contributing: Michael Loria, Karissa Waddick and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Jessica Trufant and Brad Petrishen, The Patriot Ledger
