Karen Read‘s second murder trial began Tuesday with new faces at the prosecutor’s table but the same central defense claim as her first trial: she didn’t kill her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022.
Catch up quick: Read’s retrial comes after a hung jury last year on charges she killed John O’Keefe with her SUV.
- Read faces the same three charges.
Why it matters: The first trial was a local fixation. The second is a national true-crime obsession.
What’s new: This time around, special prosecutor Hank Brennan has replaced Norfolk County assistant district attorney Adam Lally as lead prosecutor.
- Instead of Read lawyer David Yannetti delivering opening statements, defense attorney Alan Jackson had the honors.
- The list of potential witnesses has doubled since the last trial, from 74 to nearly 150.
In his opening remarks, Brennan told jurors that Read said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” at the scene of O’Keefe’s death and claimed the couple’s relationship was unraveling.
- Jackson is sticking to the argument that locked up the jury last time: that “O’Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle.”
- The defense still claims the investigation into O’Keefe’s death was “corrupted by bias, incompetence and deceit.”
Between the lines: Judge Beverly Cannone has prohibited Read’s defense from naming potential third-party culprits in opening statements, saying they can “develop the theory through relevant, competent evidence at trial.”
By the numbers:
- 18 jurors, nine men and nine women, were selected.
- Judge Cannone estimated the trial should last six to eight weeks.
- The first witness of the retrial was Canton firefighter Timothy Nuttall.
What to watch: Jackson is likely to focus more this time around on former state trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation.
- Proctor’s status has changed since the first trial: The top investigator was fired after sending sexist texts about Read.
- Jackson singled Proctor out as a “cancer” that infected the investigation.
