This account from the trial details the chain of custody of the evidence.
stands accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for dead in Canton in January 2022.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, allegedly rammed her vehicle into
John O’Keefe after dropping him off outside a Fairview Road home early on Jan. 29, 2022 following a night of bar hopping and heavy drinking. She returned to the scene hours later with two other women and found O’Keefe’s snow-covered body on the front lawn, repeatedly yelling “I hit him” in the presence of first responders,
witnesses have testified.
Attorneys for Read say she’s being framed and that O’Keefe entered the Fairview home, where he was fatally beaten in the basement before his body was planted on the lawn.
Catch up on the Karen Read trial, in 60 seconds
Here’s a
rundown of some of the key witnesses who’ve testified so far.
Here’s how testimony unfolded on Wednesday.
4 p.m. — State Police investigator testifies that Read has six drinks at first bar
Prosecutor Adam Lally showed a still photo from Ring footage showing Read pulling out of O’Keefe’s driveway shortly after 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, with apparent damage to her right taillight visible. Yuri Bukhenik, a State Police investigator, told Lally he went to McCarthy’s pub, the first bar Read and O’Keefe went to, on Feb. 1.
Bukhenik said investigators collected video footage from the establishment and he identified still photos of Read and O’Keefe talking at the bar. He pointed out a “vase-style cocktail glass” near Read at the bar.
Lally played additional footage of O’Keefe walking into McCarthy’s with his friend, Michael Camerano. Bukhenik said the timestamp of the bar’s video footage was 12 minutes “behind real time.”
When Read enters the bar, O’Keefe waved at her as she made his way to him and put an arm around her while they talked, Bukhenik said. The video showed Read taking a cocktail glass from the bartender about seven minutes after she enters, he testified. She received a second drink about 15 minutes after that and later received a “shot glass beverage” that she poured into her cocktail glass, he said.
She later “receives another shot glass beverage” and puts that in her cocktail glass for a fourth drink, Bukhenik said. She is later captured on the footage receiving another “tall cylindrical cocktail glass” as well as another shot, which she placed inside the cocktail, for drinks five and six.
The video later showed Read and O’Keefe leaving the bar. Read had “a tall, cylindrical glass in her hand,” Bukhenik testified.
Lally then handed Bukhenik a document that contained the transaction receipts from McCarthy’s that night and asked him to whom they pertained. The first was opened under the tab for Karen A. Read, Bukhenik said, and a charge for $52.80 was paid using O’Keefe’s credit card. Lally asked Bukhenik if both receipts included orders of Tito’s vodka, and he confirmed that they did.
Bukhenik said investigators also gathered evidence from the Waterfall Bar & Grille, where Read and O’Keefe went after McCarthy’s. Video showed O’Keefe leaving at 12:11 a.m. holding a cocktail glass in his right hand, Bukhenik said.
Lally then played video showing O’Keefe walking into the second bar with Read, who greets a group that is already
inside. At 11:39 p.m., the video shows Read taking a drink and consuming it, Bukhenik testified. The judge then ended testimony for the day.
3:15 p.m. — State Police investigator continues his testimony
Prosecutor Adam Lally played a lengthy video clip of the SUV arriving at the garage. In the footage, police appear to photograph the interior and exterior of the SUV, including the damaged taillight. They also appear to clear snow from the area before putting yellow caution tape around the vehicle.
”We’re establishing a perimeter around the vehicle with yellow tape in order to” advise people “to stay away from the” SUV, Bukhenik testified.
Asked if he or fellow investigator Michael Proctor touched or manipulated the right taillight at any time, Yuri Bukhenik said “no, we did not.”
He said Proctor executed a search warrant on the SUV on Feb. 1. The next day, the SUV was taken to the Milton police station. Bukhenik said Canton police had “recused themselves” from conducting interviews by then, and once the SUV had been processed the department needed the spot in their sally port. The vehicle was moved to Milton for safekeeping, he said. On Feb. 2, he said, “I noted the taillight [had been] removed and the evidence collected.
Bukhenik testified that State Police also sought Ring camera footage from O’Keefe’s home in Canton.
No death investigations are a “one-man show,” Bukhenik said, adding that the probes are a “team effort” with troopers in his unit.
”We conduct interviews with two people,” either two troopers, or a trooper and a local detective, Bukhenik said.
He said Proctor was the “case officer” on the Read investigation and that Proctor wrote the affidavit for the warrant for the security footage from O’Keefe’s home. Authorities obtained the footage and reviewed it, Bukhenik said.
”It was presented in a sequential order,” he said of the video footage.
After a sidebar Lally played video taken from O’Keefe’s Ring camera.
One daytime clip from before the snowstorm shows Read backing her SUV out of O’Keefe’s driveway, making a slight turn near his car parked in the back of the driveway.
A second clip from 5:07 a.m. on Jan. 29 shows Read backing out of the driveway under heavy snow and darkness. The SUV appears to come close to O’Keefe’s vehicle, again parked in the back of the driveway. Bukhenik said investigators later saw no damage to O’Keefe’s vehicle or any debris on the ground near it.
The defense has asserted that Read may have hit O’Keefe’s vehicle when she backed out of the driveway on the morning of Jan. 29, providing an alternate theory for the taillight damage.
As the SUV completes its turn and starts pulling away, the video shows visible damage to the taillight. Additional footage was played of Read and her father pulling into O’Keefe’s driveway later in the day. Read’s brother is shown clearing snow off parts of her vehicle in O’Keefe’s driveway. Asked by Lally if he saw Read’s brother clearing snow from the right passenger taillight area in the footage, Bukhenik said, “I did not.
2:45 p.m. — Asked about the damage to her SUV, Read said, “I don’t know, it happened last night,” investigator testifies.
Yiri Bukhenik, a State Police investigator who went with fellow investigator Michael Proctor to Read’s parents house in Dighton on Jan. 29, said police introduced themselves and told Read they wanted to know what she remembered from the night before. They asked her “to walk us through” the past 24 hours, he said.
Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors they were about to hear statements Read “allegedly made” during the interview. Cannone said the jurors must determine whether any statements she gave were made voluntarily.
Bukhenik said that he asked Read to recount any events that occurred.
”She stated that she was willing to answer our questions,” he said. She said she didn’t want to go into “too much detail,” which he said he understood since she had just been through a traumatic event.
Read told authorities that she and O’Keefe had fought on the morning of Jan. 28 “over what the niece and nephew” had for breakfast, and that she met O’Keefe that night at McCarthy’s pub, where she drank “vodka soda.”
Read said she “did not” leave McCarthy’s with a beverage and that he did not get into any verbal or physical altercations with anyone there or at the Waterfall bar where they went next.
He said Read indicated she later “dropped Mr. O’Keefe off” on Fairview Road. She “stated she did not” see him walk into the Alberts’ house. Read said she made a three-point turn and left, Bukhenik said.
Asked about the damage to her SUV, Read said, “‘I don’t know, it happened last night,’” Bukhenik testified.
Read indicated she was “having stomach issues,” which was why she didn’t want to go into the Fairview home, where an afterparty was being held.
”She stated that when she woke up, she began looking for Mr. O’Keefe ... and began CPR on Mr. O’Keefe” when “she found him in the snow,” Bukhenik said. He said Read also said O’Keefe was bleeding from the nose and mouth and that both his eyes were swollen.
Bukhenik said he asked Read to give a step-by-step recounting of the three-point turn and what she did next.
“At that point was the interview terminated?” Lally asked.
“Yes it was,” Bukhenik said. Once it ended, he told Read that authorities would be seizing her phone and her vehicle.
Bukhenik said a truck came to tow Read’s SUV, and investigators later learned there was security video footage from the driveway of the Dighton home.
Lally later played video of Read’s SUV pulling into the driveway on the afternoon of Jan. 29, with Read exiting the passenger side and her father getting out of the driver’s side.
“I observed the defendant and her father at the rear right taillight” gesturing toward it in the footage, Bukhenik said.
He viewed video footage of the SUV being placed on a flatbed truck and pointed out a “white light” emanating from the damaged right taillight.
Bukhenik said he and Proctor followed the tow truck from Dighton to the Canton police station.
“The vehicle was unloaded and put into a heated sally port” at the station, Bukhenik said.
Inside the garage, the temperature rose above freezing and the snow “began to melt off of the vehicle,” he said.
2 p.m. — State Police investigator continues his testimony
Yuri Bukhenik said after the lunch break that O’Keefe’s clothing was initially placed in one bag at the hospital.
When they got back to the evidence room, the items were laid out on butcher’s paper and “allowed to dry naturally because they were soaking wet,” he said.
He told prosecutor Adam Lally the plastic pieces later recovered at Fairview Road were never placed in the same bag as any of O’Keefe’s clothing.
Bukhenik said investigators from crime scene services arrived at the hospital on Jan. 29 to photograph O’Keefe’s body. He identified photos of O’Keefe’s body when Lally handed them to him.
Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors they were about to see photos that could be considered “graphic” and that they “must separate any emotional reaction” from their assessment of the evidence.
The photos of O’Keefe’s body were then displayed on the monitor.
”I observed the swelling of the eyelids,” Bukhenik said, as well as the slight laceration on his nostril and eyelid. He said he also observed the cuts on O’Keefe’s arm, as well as additional wounds on his “bicep, shoulder area.”
Bukhenik said he asked for police in Dighton police to respond to the address of Read’s parents as he and Michael Proctor, the lead investigator, drove there from the hospital. They arrived around 2:30 p.m. and waited for a “significant amount of time” for a local officer to arrive.
He said they requested the presence of uniformed officers in part because he felt it would be difficult for the Reads to identify him and Proctor as law enforcement, based on how they were dressed.
Bukhenik said Read’s vehicle was in the driveway.
”I observed a damaged rear right taillight fixture,” Bukhenik said. Pieces of the taillight were missing.
Read’s father directed the officers to the garage door, since the front door couldn’t be opened because so much snow had fallen, Bukhenik said.
Proctor stayed outside with the vehicle, Bukhenik said. He said he did not see Proctor or any other officer touch the vehicle at any time.
Inside the home, Read was sitting on the couch in the living room with her laptop open and her phone resting nearby, he said. Read’s mother was also there, Bukhenik said. He said the conversation was “polite, courteous” and the troopers at the time were in the “information-gathering” phase of the investigation.
1 p.m. — State Police investigator continues his testimony
Yuri Bukhenik said he has been involved in more than 500 death investigations, many involving head trauma.
He said O’Keefe had sustained “bruising to the eyelids of his face.” His face was swollen and discolored.
”I also observed a cut to his nostril, and [one to] an eyelid, which was very small in size,” Bukhenik said.
He said O’Keefe had “abrasions to his upper forearm and lower bicep area” on his right arm.
”Each abrasion appeared to me to be linear and concentrated in a specific location on the arm,” he said, adding that the wounds were “concentrated” a few inches above and below the elbow.
Bukhenik said he and State Police investigator Michael Proctor then went to Read’s parents’ home in Dighton after learning she was there.
Bukhenik then removed O’Keefe’s torn gray sweatshirt from an evidence bag and, with gloves on, displayed it for jurors. He also removed O’Keefe’s orange T-shirt from an evidence bag and displayed that for jurors, followed by the sneaker recovered from the hospital.
Bukhenik then removed O’Keefe’s jeans and belt from another evidence bag and briefly displayed them. Judge Beverly Cannone called a half-hour lunch recess shortly after 1 p.m.
12:30 p.m. — The next witness is State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik
Bukhenik, an investigator in the Read case, briefly recounted his time in the Marine Corps before he moved to civilian law enforcement.
He said he was on call as a supervisor on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. He said the on-call detective that morning was Trooper Michael Proctor, whom he supervised.
The on-call schedule is generally compiled about a month in advance, Bukhenik said.
He said he got a call around 6:44 a.m. informing him that “there was a body in [a] snowbank in Canton.”
Bukhenik said he called Proctor and “advised him to contact Canton police.”
He said he told Proctor he would begin “shoveling out” and that they met at the Canton police station around 9:15 a.m.
Bukhenik said he drove in his personal truck because it had four-wheel drive, which was better for the inclement weather. Proctor was in the parking lot when Bukhenik arrived at the station and they walked in together, he said.
He said they went to the detectives’ unit and spoke to Sean Goode, a Canton police sergeant, for about 25 to 30 minutes. Bukhenik said he learned the victim was “Mr. John O’Keefe” and that he had been taken to a Brockton hospital, as had Read.
Witnesses have said Read was taken to the hospital after making “suicidal statements” at the crime scene.
Bukhenik said he and Proctor proceeded to the Canton home of Matt and Jennifer McCabe. McCabe’s sister and her brother-in-law Brian Albert lived at the Fairview Road home where O’Keefe’s body was found near the curb. Bukhenik said they first spoke with Jennifer McCabe, then her husband Matt, then Albert, who had come to the home. Each interview was conducted separately, Bukhenik said.
From there, the investigators went to the emergency department at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where they saw “Mr. O’Keefe’s body” on a gurney, with his clothing “a couple of feet away at the foot of the bed.”
He said that after viewing O’Keefe’s body, the troopers identified the clothes and placed them into evidence bags.
Bukhenik said troopers notate who located an item of evidentiary value, as well as the time and place of recovery.
O’Keefe’s clothing was on the floor at the hospital and “soaking wet,” he said.
The clothing included jeans, plaid boxers, a black Nike sneaker, an orange T-shirt, and a gray long-sleeved shirt, he said.
”I also recognized, due to the aroma and visual observations, traces of vomit on the clothing,” Bukhenik said. “Once we went through the clothing we collected each item and put it into a large evidence bag.”
He said the items were double-bagged and he asked that paramedics check the ambulance for O’Keefe’s other sneaker. Witnesses have testified that O’Keefe’s other shoe was found upside down and buried under snow, flush against the curb on Fairview Road.
12:15 p.m. — Crime lab specialist testifies under cross-examination
Read lawyer Alan Jackson asked if Christina Hanley, a forensic scientist at the State Police crime lab, examined the drinking glass, the glass pieces from Read’s bumper, a group of nine pieces of glass recovered at the crime scene at Fairview Road in Canton, and a separate, single piece of glass found there. Hanley said that was accurate.
She said she compared the drinking glass to the nine pieces of glass found at the scene where O’Keefe’s body was found. Some pieces “did not match the cup,” Jackson said. “Correct,” Hanley said.
”None of the items on the bumper were deemed to match the cup, correct?” Jackson asked.
“Correct,” Hanley said.
She told Jackson the single piece of glass found at Fairview also did not match the cup.
”You tested the single piece of glass ... against the nine pieces of glass,” Jackson said. “And they did not match, correct?”
”There was no physical match,” Hanley said.
Jackson asked if the cup was “not found to match any items” on the bumper.
”That is correct,” Hanley said.
Jackson also asked if the single piece of glass found at Fairview did not match the cup or the other nine glass pieces found at the scene.
”In other words, it stands alone,” he said.
”That’s correct,” Hanley said.
On redirect, Hanley told prosecutor Adam Lally the drinking glass matched six pieces of glass found at Fairview Road. Hanley concluded her testimony and the lawyers went to sidebar.
11:15 a.m. — Christina Hanley, a forensic scientist at the State Police crime lab, is the next witness
Prosecutors next called Hanley, a forensic scientist at the State Police crime lab. Hanley said she has worked at the lab for about 16 years and described her educational and professional background.
Hanley said she currently works as a supervisor in the lab’s trace unit, which examines and compares evidence such as paint, fibers, hair, glass, tape, and other miscellaneous items, among other functions.
Hanley said she has examined glass “numerous times” in various cases involving crimes such as “a hit-and-run” or a breaking and entering. She said she encounters a “variety” of different types of glass in the course of her work.
In the Read case, she said she examined an “apparent drinking glass” and the “clear apparent glass pieces recovered from the bumper of a vehicle.” The drinking glass appeared to have “broken, irregular edges,” she testified.
Witnesses have said Read pulled a drinking glass out of her pocket when she entered a bar on the night of O’Keefe’s death.
The glass found on the bumper of Read’s SUV “consisted of five clear pieces ... all with broken or irregular edges,” she said.
Hanley said she examined the glass microscopically. She said she checked to see if there was a physical match between the pieces; some matched and some did not, she testified.
The items that did match, she said, “were at one time together as one unit.”
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