There is light at the end of the Karen Read murder trial — the judge “can safely say” jurors will be handed the case in the last week of June.
“Jurors, I know you want to know when this case is going to end, and I don’t mean that in any negative way. After speaking with the lawyers, I can safely say you will get this case for your deliberations sometime the last week of June,” Judge Beverly Cannone said just before noon, the conclusion of the unusually short trial day Thursday and the end of the three-day week in Norfolk Superior Court.
The case will resume for a sixth week on Monday at 9 a.m. and will see full days of testimony every day of that week except for Tuesday, when court will be off, Cannone said.
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik continued his testimony from Wednesday when he said that Read consumed seven drinks at C.F. McCarthy’s bar in central Canton before heading across the street to meet up with others at the Waterfall Bar and Grill.
On Thursday he finished Read’s drink count for the evening preceding John O’Keefe’s death in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022: Read, according to what he saw from security camera footage, consumed at least two more drinks at Waterfall before then driving herself and O’Keefe to 34 Fairview Road, the home they were invited to along with everyone else in their party at Waterfall and the home on whose front lawn O’Keefe’s would be found at around 6 a.m.
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.
Prosecutors say that she struck O’Keefe with her SUV following a drunken argument and left him to die in a snowstorm in front of the house. Defense attorneys counter that outside actors killed O’Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame Read for his murder.
This is a developing story.
Background
The 21st day of testimony in the Karen Read murder trial will begin at 9 a.m. with the continued testimony of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, one of the principal investigators in the case.
Bukhenik took the stand yesterday, making him only the second member of the agency responsible for the investigation of the homicide of John O’Keefe to testify, other than MSP Crime Lab scientists.
Today is a short court day and is scheduled to end at noon. There is no court tomorrow, making for a three-day week five.
Bukhenik testified to the beginning stages of the investigation, from interviewing witnesses Jennifer and Matthew McCabe and Brian Albert at the McCabe home, to questioning Read and taking her phone and Lexus SUV, to analysis of the the vehicle’s busted taillight and securing security footage from the two bars Read and O’Keefe were at before his death.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing death. The charges stemmed from the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police force and Read’s boyfriend of two years, in the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
