Massachusetts State Police Trooper Yuriy Bukhenik displayed the clothing John O’Keefe was found in as he lay dead or dying on a Canton front yard Jan. 29, 2022, during his testimony in the Karen Read murder trial today.
Bukhenik donned purple forensic examination gloves before opening four separate paper evidence bags that contained, respectively, O’Keefe’s hooded long-sleeved shirt or sweatshirt, orange graphic T-shirt, a single black Nike sneaker and blue jeans — which had been cut open — and a black belt. Each of the items were entered into evidence before court recessed for lunch a little after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Sgt. Bukhenik is the second trooper to take the stand in the Read trial, following Monday’s testimony of MSP Lt. Kevin O’Hara, the team commander for the MSP Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), which had searched the front yard of 34 Fairview Road in Canton the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022, where O’Keefe’s body was discovered at around 6 that morning.
Bukhenik is a central figure in the case and, along with chief MSP investigator Trooper Michael Proctor, has appeared in a wide number of pretrial motions filed in the case. The two troopers led the investigation into O’Keefe’s homicide. Bukhenik testified that under Massachusetts law, such investigations are the purview of MSP investigators station at the county district attorney offices.
Bukhenik testified that he received a call at 6:44 that morning reporting that “there was a body in (a) snowbank in Canton” and that he met with Proctor at the Canton Police Department station at around 9:15 a.m., a delayed arrival because of the heavy snow across the region, which forced him to take his own all-wheel-drive truck instead of his MSP cruiser, which was a front-wheel-drive sedan.
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After speaking with Canton Police Sgt. Sean Goode, the night-shift patrol leader at the time of the incident who testified earlier in the trial, he learned the victim was O’Keefe. He said that he and Proctor then went directly to the residence of Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, where he said he conducted separate interviews of each of them as well as Brian Albert, the then-Boston Police Sgt. who owned the Fairview Road home where O’Keefe was found.
Their initial investigation then led them to Brockton’s Good Samaritan Medical Center, where O’Keefe had been transported. O’Keefe’ clothing was all over the floor and Bukhenik said he saw “traces of vomit” on the clothing.
The evidence was transported to the MSP evidence room that neither he, even as a supervisor, nor Proctor had access to. This testimony appears to pre-empt likely cross-examination of possible tampering of the evidence, which defense attorneys alluded to during cross-examination of two MSP Crime Lab forensic scientists earlier in the day.
Bukhenik said that he has worked on “scores” of death cases, many with head trauma, before describing “bruising” to O’Keefe’s eyelids, as well as “a cut to his nostril” and to one eyelid, “abrasions” to O’Keefe’s “upper forearm and lower bicep area,” with the wounds “concentrated” a few inches on either side of the elbow.
He and Proctor then went to Read’s parent’s home in Dighton, he testified, after learning that she was there.
The case is expected to resume for the day a little after 1:40 p.m.
This is a developing story.
Earlier testimony
Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab forensic scientist Ashley Vallier, who examined evidence from the scene of John O’Keefe’s death including pieces of the taillight plastic police say came from Karen Read’s Lexus SUV, concluded her testimony this morning.
For the first hour of questioning, under direct examination by prosecutor Adam Lally, Vallier painstakingly described her process of photographing, examining and finding “mechanical fit” for the various pieces of the taillight housing. Evidence photos shown in court started with the individual shards of taillight and progressed through reassembly of the pieces like a forensic jigsaw puzzle.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney David Yannetti, Vallier agreed that pieces of taillight evidence collected by MSP Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, were larger and evidently collected much later than the initial bag of taillight pieces collected by another trooper. It’s similar for articles of O’Keefe’s clothing.
The first set of taillight pieces, which included 14 pieces of red, colorless and black “apparent plastic” — both she and other forensic scientists say “apparent” ahead of each type of material since the items haven’t been tested for their chemical makeup — were marked as having been collected on Feb. 3, 2022, days after O’Keefe’s body was discovered on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton the morning of January 29.
Several pieces were labeled as having been collected by Trooper Proctor on Feb.11, 2022, nearly two weeks after O’Keefe died, Vallier testified. She also said that Proctor delivered items of O’Keefe’s clothing on March 14, 2022, six weeks after O’Keefe’s death.
“You do not know what Trooper Proctor did with the (clothing) prior to you getting it?” Yannetti asked.
She answered after Lally’s objection was overruled: “I do not.”
Court took its short morning break at around 10:40 a.m. The breaks are usually 15 to 20 minutes. Court usually breaks for the full lunch break at 1 p.m.
This is a developing story.
Background
The second of three days of the Karen Read murder trial scheduled for this week is set to begin at 9 a.m. in Norfolk Superior Court. Massachusetts Crime Lab forensic scientist Ashley Vaillier’s continued testimony is expected to begin the day.
On Monday, the first Massachusetts State Police trooper took the stand. Lt. Kevin O’Hara, the team commander for the MSP Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), testified that he was called to 34 Fairview Road in Canton to search for evidence the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022, the day John O’Keefe died.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at age 46.
O’Hara said that he and his team conducted a nearly hour-long search in the front yard of the home in the general area he was told O’Keefe’s body was found. During that search, he said, the team located “six or seven” pieces of a taillight, both red and clear plastic portions, as well as a black Nike sneaker.
Maureen Hartnett, a forensic scientist with the State Police crime lab, testified that she took those samples from the police and also analyzed Read’s Lexus SUV and other evidence in the case.
Hartnett said she allowed the frozen “red-brown stains” to thaw and then swabbed one of the cups to have it analyzed by an outside lab. She said she found similar “red-brown” stains on the t-shirt O’Keefe wore, as well as his hooded long-sleeved shirt or sweatshirt.
She also took a look at Read’s 2021 Lexus LX570 inside the police station’s sallyport. She said she conducted an “overall physical evaluation” of the vehicle for anything that should be reported for the investigation and remarked that the car was “in overall good condition,” but with damage to the rear passenger-side area.
This is a developing story.
