Defense highlights internet search for hypothermia in Karen Read murder trial
An attorney for a Massachusetts woman accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend tried Wednesday to implicate a key prosecution witness in the woman’s trial, accusing the witness of carrying out a incriminating internet search hours before the man’s body was discovered, then deleted the search to take cover. her tracks.
Karen Read is accused of attacking John O’Keefe with her SUV on January 29, 2022, and leaving him for dead in a snowbank in the Boston suburb of Canton. She has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.
The case has gained national attention as the defense claims state and local law enforcement officials framed Read and released the real killer. O’Keefe’s body was found outside the home of another Boston police officer, Brian Albert, and the defense claims his relationship with local and state police tainted their investigation.
After a night out at several bars, prosecutors say Read dropped O’Keefe off at a house party hosted by Albert and his wife just after midnight. While making a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. Hours later, she returned to find him in a snowbank.
Jennifer McCabe, a friend of the couple and Albert’s sister-in-law, previously testified that shortly after O’Keefe’s body was found, Read shouted, “I hit him!” I hit him! I hit him!” and frantically asked her to do a Google search on how long it takes for someone to die of hypothermia.
But Read’s attorney showed jurors Wednesday cellphone records that showed McCabe had also searched the Internet four hours earlier for variations on “how long to die in the cold.”
“You did that search at 2:27 a.m. because you knew John O’Keefe was outside on your sister’s lawn dying of the cold, right?” attorney Alan Jackson asked McCabe. “Did you delete that search because you knew you would be involved in the death of John O’Keefe if that search was found on your phone?”
“I didn’t delete that search. I never made that search,” McCabe said. “I would never have left John O’Keefe out in the cold to die because he was my friend who I loved.”
Jackson said it was “incredibly convenient” that McCabe declined the search, which he said would exonerate his client. He also asked McCabe why she told grand jurors dozens of times that Read said, “Did I hit him?” or “Could I have hit him,” not the definitive “I hit him” that she now says she heard.
He suggested McCabe changed her story after experiencing what she described as “vicious” intimidation by Read’s supporters.
“You were upset in April 2023 because there was public outcry over your family’s involvement in the death of John O’Keefe,” he said. “And two months later, in June 2023, you testified for the first time in another proceeding, and lo and behold, you attributed the words ‘I hit him’ to my client.”
McCabe acknowledged she first used those words under oath in June, but insisted she also told an investigator the same thing in the days after O’Keefe’s death.
She also described “daily, almost hourly” harassment directed at her family, including a “rolling rally” past her home, although the judge warned jurors that there is no evidence that Read herself orchestrated this and that it was not against her may be used.
“I was outraged because I am a state witness being tortured for lies,” McCabe said. “I am not on trial and these people are terrorizing me.”