Among the crucial witnesses in the murder retrial of Karen Read stated on Wednesday the disorderly minutes after they located Read’s partner, Boston law enforcement agent John O’Keefe, less competent in the snow outside a Massachusetts home in 2022 throughout her multiday statement.
District attorneys declare, adhering to an evening of alcohol consumption in Canton, that Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV beyond a party at an additional policeman’s home and left him to pass away in a snowstorm in January 2022.
After a court was not able to get to a decision in the preliminary murder test in 2014, she is being retried on fees consisting of second-degree murder, automotive homicide while running a lorry intoxicated of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident creating fatality. She has actually begged innocent and preserves her virtue.
Jen McCabe of Canton talks on the dock as Court Beverly Cannone eavesdrops the history throughout the Karen Read murder test in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on April 30, 2025.
Greg Derr/The Patriot Journal using AP, Swimming Pool
Jennifer McCabe, that had actually affirmed throughout the initial test, required to the stand once more beginning on Tuesday in the Dedham court house, informing jurors Check out was “hysterical” when they located O’Keefe in the snow outside the home.
McCabe affirmed Wednesday that while talking with an initial -responder at the scene, she listened to Read state, “I struck him, I struck him, I struck him.”
McCabe explained O’Keefe as “an excellent buddy” whom she fulfilled via his guardianship over his niece, a friend of her little girl. She claimed she fulfilled Read in summertime 2020 which they “clicked,” bonding over their common experience living with several sclerosis and interacting socially regularly at celebrations.
McCabe had actually participated in a celebration at a bar the evening prior to O’Keefe was located with him, Check out and others. She was additionally at the party adhering to the event at bench at a home coming from her sis and brother-in-law, a Boston law enforcement agent.
McCabe claimed she obtained a frenzied phone call from O’Keefe’s niece on Jan. 29, 2022, soon prior to 5 a.m., claiming O’Keefe had actually never ever returned home from the night out.
McCabe affirmed the niece handed the phone to Check out, that informed her that she and O’Keefe had actually “entered a battle” and she had actually left him at bench and he really did not return.
McCabe remembered informing Read she had actually seen the offender’s SUV parked beyond her sis’s home.
” She informed me that she really did not bear in mind existing,” McCabe affirmed Tuesday. “She began claiming, ‘Could I have struck him? Did I struck him?”
McCabe claimed she delved into “mommy setting” and offered to aid Check out discover O’Keefe. In addition to an additional buddy of O’Keefe’s– Kerry Roberts– an additional crucial test witness that affirmed recently– they drove via a snowstorm to look for O’Keefe at his home, where McCabe claimed Read mentioned she taillight on her SUV.
They remained to McCabe’s sis’s home, where she claimed they saw a body exterior.
” It had not been till I obtained extremely close over to them that I saw Kerry getting rid of the snow from John’s face,” McCabe affirmed Tuesday, her voice fluctuating.
” I was stunned,” she claimed. “I could not think that was him simply existing there.”
Karen Read pays attention to the statement of Jennifer McCabe throughout her murder test in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on April 30, 2025.
Greg Derr/The Patriot Journal using AP, Swimming Pool
McCabe claimed Read straddled O’Keefe, raised both their t-shirts and laid on top of him, in an effort to heat him.
” Kerry Roberts and I made eye call and I, like, recognized, I resembled, ‘I’m mosting likely to call 911,’ however I assume I recognized, because minute, that John was dead,” McCabe claimed.
The prosecution played the 911 hire court on Wednesday, throughout which McCabe is listened to informing the driver there is a “guy less competent in the snow” and they were not sure for how long he had actually been outside. Mute shouting behind-the-scenes can be listened to on the phone call.
McCabe recognizes the guy as 46-year-old John O’Keefe and claims he is hemorrhaging from his face.
” I assume he died,” she claims in the phone call.
McCabe affirmed she was “in shock” then.
” My heart was competing. I was attempting to be as handy as I can and obtain one of the most crucial details out as fast as I could, to the 911 drivers,” she claimed. “Yet additionally the scene there with Karen and Kerry was a little bit disorderly in between both of them.”
McCabe affirmed Wednesday that Read was “irregular” and was “doing a great deal of shouting and shouting” and at one factor asked her to Google “hypothermia” and “for how long it considers someone to pass away in the cold.”
She additionally stated going inside her sis and brother-in-law’s home to wake them up and educate them of what was taking place.
” They awakened alarmed and puzzled,” she affirmed Wednesday.
She claimed the case “really did not make good sense to any person” and nobody recognized what had actually occurred.
McCabe affirmed Wednesday that after remembering the occasions of the early morning, she determined to call cops and inevitably informed Massachusetts State Cops police officers what she remembered Read claiming, “I struck him,” and regarding the busted taillight.
Throughout Read’s initial test, her defense lawyer imposed claims that McCabe assisted in several acts of “collusion” in between witnesses to incriminate Read in the fatality of O’Keefe.
While examining her on the base on Wednesday, defense lawyer Alan Jackson asked McCabe if she ever before talked about statement with Roberts, to which McCabe claimed no.
” We have actually shared our experiences. We have actually come to be extremely close. We have actually both endured a distressing experience,” McCabe claimed.
Jackson claimed he was “worried” regarding both females talking about the realities of the instance and asked if they can have affected each various other’s assumptions of the day, to which McCabe claimed no.
Jackson additionally charged McCabe of existing to police officers from an additional police that pertained to her home to examine her regarding the instance. McCabe affirmed she at first informed the police officers at her home that, while in between their arrival and her talking with them, she had actually called 2 individuals– her other half and Roberts. Nevertheless, she verified that she later complied with up to inform them she had actually spoken with 3 added individuals– O’Keefe’s mom, her witness supporter with the neighborhood area lawyer’s workplace and her Boston law enforcement agent brother-in-law.
Jen McCabe of Canton remains on the dock paying attention to her 911 phone call the early morning John O’Keefe’s drab body was uncovered in the snow as Court Beverly Cannone pays attention throughout the Karen Read murder test in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
Greg Derr/The Patriot Journal using AP, Swimming Pool
McCabe claimed she really did not exist to the police officers, however had actually neglected that she had actually called.
Jackson additionally pushed McCabe on whether she called Roberts to figure out what she informed the police officers and “to make sure that your tale would certainly associate her tale,” which McCabe refuted, reacting she was just interested if Roberts had actually additionally been called by them.
” We both recognize what took place. We do not need to have a tale. There is no tale. There’s what took place, which’s it,” McCabe claimed.
McCabe affirmed her intent was just to offer Roberts a “directs” that police might be seeing her following, as she has actually carried out in the past when she has actually been come close to by the media and the offender’s private investigators.
” We’re similar to typical mothers,” McCabe claimed. “We’re not utilized to this.”
Jackson additionally smoked McCabe on her recollection of seeing Read’s SUV outside her sis’s home throughout the party. Asked if she listened to an accident or screams for assistance, she claimed no. She additionally claimed she did not see his body upon leaving regarding an hour later on and had actually not checked out the yard where he was uncovered.
Jackson vigorously examined McCabe on a disparity he insinuated existed in between her statement in this test and her statement to the grand court that fingered Keep reading the homicide and murder fees. Asked whether she informed the grand court that Read claimed, “I struck him, I struck him, I struck him,” at the scene, McCabe claimed she had not been certain.
” I have affirmed a variety of times, however I existed the early morning of Jan. 29 when your customer claimed, ‘I struck him, I struck him, I struck him,'” McCabe claimed.
He additionally examined McCabe on whether she communicated particular details to police officers in the very early days of the examination, including her statement that Read informed her she had a disagreement with O’Keefe the evening prior to he was located.
” It took me hours and sometimes red-letter day all things that Miss Read had actually claimed,” she claimed. “I remained in a state of shock.”
Court adjourned Wednesday mid-day, with Jackson’s interrogation of McCabe set up to return to on Friday.
McCabe claimed she hasn’t spoken with Check out given that the day O’Keefe was located dead.
Check out supposed McCabe was pushing the stand as the offender left court on Wednesday, claiming she never ever informed the witness to make a Google search that early morning.
” Every declaration’s various. Under vow. Not under vow,” she claimed. “This is extremely comparable to what we saw a year earlier.”
