Karen Read’s retrial resumes as testimony enters Day 2

Wednesday afternoon, the state called Trooper Nicholas Guarino, who has worked in gathering forensic data for the Massachusetts State Police since November 2019.

Guarino extracted data from various cell phones involved in the investigation into John O’Keefe’s death and prepared the data for authorities. 

On the day O’Keefe’s body was found, Guarino received O’Keefe and Read’s phones to conduct an analysis. Guarino testified a colleague extracted data from Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe’s phones.

Guarino testified the department utilized Cellebrite software, which allows investigators to search for specific data within cell phones. Guarino used this tool to isolate calls and text messages between Read and O’Keefe, along with other individuals involved in the investigation.

Guarino was dismissed from the stand, with both the prosecution and defense agreeing he can be called as a witness in the future.

During a brief hearing without the jury in the courtroom, the prosecution showed two clips from Karen Read’s previous television interviews discussing her interaction with John O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy, immediately after the family learned of his death.

The defense is asking the judge not to allow the jury to see a clip from Read’s 2024 interview with Investigation Discovery, in which she imitates Peggy while recounting an alleged conversation between the pair about what happened to John.

“His mother leans over the kitchen island and says to me, ‘I think he looks like he got hit by a car, he looks like he got hit by a car,’” Read said.

During Peggy’s witness testimony on Wednesday, she denied ever confronting Read inside John’s house the day his body was found, telling prosecutors she does not remember speaking with Read at all.

John O'Keefe's mother Peggy recounts hearing about her sons death during the Karen Read trial in Norfolk Superior Court at Dedham, Mass., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Following a lunch break, the prosecution called the team’s third witness and John O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy.

Peggy immediately teared up upon being asked about her immediate family, telling the court how her daughter passed away in November 2019 from a cancerous tumor. Months later, her daughter’s husband also passed away, leaving the couple’s two young children in John's care.

Peggy testified about the moment she learned her son had been killed, with Kerry Roberts driving Peggy and her husband to the hospital to see John. Upon arriving at the hospital, Peggy saw Karen Read, with Read yelling, “Is he dead? Is he dead?” as Peggy walked away.

Shortly after, Peggy testified Read arrived at John's home with her father and brother, going upstairs to gather a few things from a bedroom.

After a brief and emotional line of questioning, Alan Jackson declined to cross-examine Peggy, instead offering his condolences. 

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan gives his opening argument with his cell phone at Karen Read's second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Following yesterday’s opening statements, the Boston Herald slammed prosecutor Hank Brennan in a scathing op-ed.

As Brennan spoke for the prosecution in Karen Read’s retrial, he “immediately put a worldwide audience not just to sleep, but into a deep coma,” Howie Carr wrote.

The newspaper focused on Brennan’s choice to call emergency responder Timothy Nuttall as the state’s first witness, zeroing in on Nuttall’s testimony surrounding Read’s alleged crime scene confession.

Nuttall testified Read said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” as first responders arrived on scene and attempted to resuscitate John O’Keefe - a claim that has been denied by Read’s defense team.

“Karen Read’s lawyers have had nine months to pick apart the piss-poor prosecution in the first trial, and the pathetic arguments of the Commonwealth haven’t improved with age,” Carr wrote.

The op-ed goes on to pick apart Brennan’s prosecution, citing Nuttall’s concession of having an unreliable memory on the stand and previous inconsistencies in his testimony.

Carr ends the piece with a forecast for Read’s retrial, writing, “this is going to be a slaughter. Let’s hope so.”

Karen Read appears in court for her trial at Norfolk Superior Court at Dedham, Mass., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

During cross-examination, Kerry Roberts confirmed she was with Jennifer McCabe working on a timeline of events when investigators arrived at McCabe’s house to conduct interviews regarding John O’Keefe’s death.

Attorney Alan Jackson questioned Roberts on previous testimony she provided, telling investigators she overheard Karen Read asking McCabe to google “hypothermia” while they were sitting in the back of a police cruiser as O’Keefe’s body was being loaded into an ambulance.

Upon further questioning, Roberts revealed she never actually heard Read ask McCabe to perform the Google search, despite providing testimony to a grand jury claiming she had, and had learned about the alleged request while she was working on a timeline with McCabe.

“What you told the grand jurors was not true,” Jackson said. “You never heard her, my client, ask anyone to Google anything, did you?”

“I did not,” Roberts said.

“And yet that’s what you testified to, under oath, under penalty of perjury, in front of the grand jury, didn’t you?” Jackson said.

“I did,” Roberts said.

The timing of the Google search, "hos (sic) long to die in cold" has been a key dispute between prosecutors, who say it came after O'Keefe's body was discovered, and the defense, which argues that it was made hours beforehand, before the witnesses should have known he was missing or dead under the commonwealth's timeline.

Witness Kerry Roberts testifies during the Karen Read trial in Norfolk Superior Court at Dedham, Mass., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Alan Jackson questioned Kerry Roberts on her conversations with investigators following her discovery of John O’Keefe’s body outside Brian Albert’s home. 

Roberts testified Karen Read and Jennifer McCabe were helping her perform CPR on O’Keefe as they waited for first responders to arrive. Jackson played dash cam footage from when officers arrived on scene, focusing on the audio captured by the video, before questioning Roberts on O’Keefe’s injuries. 

Roberts told Jackson she noticed O’Keefe had two black eyes, a cut on his face and “scratches” on his arm upon arriving at the hospital. 

Jackson confirmed with Roberts that she previously testified upon arriving at O’Keefe’s house, Read noticed her vehicle’s broken taillight and asked if Roberts thought she could have hit O’Keefe. 

Jackson then turned to home surveillance footage showing the three women arriving at O’Keefe’s home and not speaking about the broken taillight. Jackson pointed to statements Roberts made to investigators in the days after where she did not include Read’s alleged statement regarding the damaged vehicle, and later described the tail light as “broken in the middle,” and not shattered.

Kerry Roberts, who was with Karen Read when the body of Read's police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe was discovered, speaks at Read's second murder trial Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Prosecutor Hank Brennan zeroed in on the morning John O’Keefe’s body was found while questioning witness Kerry Roberts. Roberts testified she was with Jennifer McCabe and Karen Read when the women discovered O’Keefe’s body in Brian Albert’s front lawn. 

Dash cam footage shared by the prosecution shows McCabe present at the crime scene as investigators attempted to resuscitate O’Keefe. 

Read’s defense team previously pointed to cell phone data revealing McCabe allegedly looked up on Google how long it takes to die in the cold prior to O’Keefe’s body being found. 

Brennan replayed dash cam video showing first responders arriving at the house while asking Roberts to walk through what was happening between Read, McCabe and emergency personnel.

An evidence photo presented by the prosecution shows Karen Read’s Lexus SUV missing a tail light. (Pool)

Karen Read’s trial resumed on Wednesday with testimony from Kerry Roberts, a childhood friend of John O’Keefe who was with Read when O’Keefe’s body was discovered the morning after his death. 

Prosecutor Hank Brennan showed Roberts photos of Read’s missing tail light on her Lexus SUV, with Roberts testifying Read asked if it was possible she hit O’Keefe with her car. 

Roberts went on to describe the harrowing moments the women discovered O’Keefe’s lifeless body outside another officer’s home, telling Brennan how both she and Read performed chest compressions on O’Keefe as they waited for first responders to arrive.

Roberts testified a frantic Read was asking first responders, “Did I hit him?” while they attempted to resuscitate O’Keefe, telling her “If anything happens to John, I’m going to kill myself, you’re going to have to take care of the kids.” 

Roberts then became emotional upon being shown a photo of O'Keefe in a hospital bed, confirming the police officer's identity to the court.

Canton Police Chief Helena Rafferty announced she will be retiring later this year. (Canton Police Department)

The Massachusetts police chief who reportedly worked to implement changes within the Canton Police Department in the wake of John O’Keefe’s death announced her retirement as Karen Read’s retrial kicked off this week, according to 7 News WHDH.

Chief Helena Rafferty took the position in June 2022, roughly five months after O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, was found dead outside a fellow Boston officer’s home in Canton.

An audit was conducted into the Canton Police Department’s handling of the investigation into O’Keefe’s death. The audit found the police department mishandled the initial investigation, but did not uncover any corruption as alleged by Read’s defense team.

Rafferty’s last day with the department will reportedly be June 30, which is when her current contract is set to end.

The Canton Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Karen Read with her attorney Alan Jackson during jury selection in the murder trial of Read at Norfolk Superior Court Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Nancy Lane/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

During opening statements, both sides painted entirely different versions of events to the jury.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson opened with a challenge to the heart of the prosecution's case: that O'Keefe died from injuries sustained when Read's Lexus SUV allegedly struck him during a nor'easter.

"The evidence in this case will establish, above everything else, three points," he said. "There was no collision with John O'Keefe. There was no collision. There was no collision."

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told a different story in his own opening statement, minutes earlier, saying to jurors that Read, allegedly drunk and angry, intentionally hit the gas and rammed O'Keefe with the back bumper, then left him on the ground, where he was later found with severe head injuries and hypothermia.

Read the full story here. 

Karen Read speaks to the media at Karen Read's second murder trial on April 22. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

The second day of Karen Read’s retrial is set to kick off after both sides presented opening statements yesterday. Read is facing second-degree murder charges for allegedly ramming John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, with her Lexus SUV after a drunken argument in January 2022.

Prosecutors allege Read struck O’Keefe with her vehicle before leaving him to die in a blizzard, but Read’s defense team insists she was framed in an elaborate scheme that involved a “corrupted” investigation led by now-fired investigator Michael Proctor.

Yesterday, the jury heard testimony from first responder Timothy Nuttall and O’Keefe’s childhood friend, Kerry Roberts, who was with Read when she found O’Keefe’s body the morning after his death.