Jennifer McCabe, who's the sister-in-law of the man who owned the home where John O'Keefe's body was found, is took the stand after cross-examination was completed with her husband, Matthew McCabe.
www.necn.com
By Munashe Kwangwari and Eli Rosenberg • Published May 17, 2024 • Updated on May 18, 2024 at 12:41 am
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Matthew McCabe returns to the stand
Matthew McCabe returned to the stand on Friday morning
after beginning his testimony on Thursday.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally started by asking McCabe how he woke up on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
"I awoke to the screaming of 'Jen, Jen, Jen.' So when I woke up, I thought there was somebody in my bedroom."
When he woke up, he said he realized his wife Jennifer McCabe was actually on the phone.
"I asked my wife, 'What is going on?' and I could hear her saying, 'I'm on the phone with Karen -- she can't find John.'"
He said the phone conversation continued for a couple minutes, and then continued screaming from Read on the other end of the line.
"She didn't know where John was and the last time she saw him was at the Waterfall," McCabe said of what Read was saying to his wife.
He said his wife then started making phone calls to other people who had been at the Waterfall Bar & Grill the night before.
But Matthew McCabe said he remembered seeing Read's vehicle outside 34 Fairview Road that morning.
"I thought she was crazy," he said of Read. "Because I saw her vehicle... I saw the black SUV arrive to 34 Fairview that morning."
He said Jennifer McCabe told Read that, but she said she didn't remember going there.
Matthew McCabe said he also heard Read say something to the effect that she had "broken her taillight" on her vehicle.
"We were completely confused as to where John was... we knew that John had mentioned that he was potentially going to be meeting up with another person, so my wife called that individual to see if by chance... did John not go with her, did he get out of the car, did he go somewhere else?"
He said his wife made several phone calls, but no one answered.
Matthew McCabe said he tried texting and calling O'Keefe, saying "Where the hell are you? Now Karen and Jen are out looking for you," but never received any response.
He said his wife went downstairs and Matthew McCabe started getting dressed. They were planning to drive to the house of the man they thought O'Keefe might have met up with. He said he then heard yelling in his front yard, and realized it was Read.
"I told my wife, 'Peaase tell her to shut up. She's going to wake up the whole neighborhood,'" he said.
Matthew McCabe said he assumed O'Keefe was just sleeping on someone's couch.
He said his wife and Read then went out looking for O'Keefe, while he stayed home with their four kids. About an hour later, he said his wife called him and said they had found O'Keefe at 34 Fairview Road. He finished getting dressed and drove to Fairview to meet them.
He recalled seeing an ambulance, and said Kerry Roberts was also there. She said she was dropping Karen off and was going to go pick up O'Keefe's parents.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti asked about Jan. 22, 2022, when Matthew McCabe and his wife went to the Hillside Pub in Canton and ran into O'Keefe and Read. They hung out with them for about an hour, along with Brian and Nicole Albert and several others.
McCabe said during that time, O'Keefe and Read appeared to be enjoying each other's company.
Yannetti then moved to the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022, asking what the mood was like and if O'Keefe and Read were getting along.
"Everything was good," McCabe said. "There were no arguments that I saw."
Yannetti also asked McCabe about Brian Albert and Brian Higgins, who were both at the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022, and whether he saw them practicing fighting.
"I recall them grabbing each other, I don't recall them squaring up like they were fighting each other," he said. "They were playing grab-ass with each other."
Asked what he meant by "grab-ass," he said it was a "figure of speech."
"Like a bear hug or something. I thought I recalled them doing a bear hug. That's what's in my memory."
McCabe also confirmed that Albert and Higgins were two of the people who went back to Brian Albert's home on Fairview Road. He acknowledged that others in the group, including O'Keefe and Higgins, were also invited to the Albert home.
McCabe said he was one of the last people to leave the Waterfall that night. His wife was already in their car in the parking lot, and he met her there and they drove to the Albert home on Fairview Road.
He said they parked in the driveway, and there were "at least two" other vehicles already parked there.
When he arrived, he said there was also a Jeep with a plow parked at the end of the driveway, in front of the mailbox. He later found out the Jeep belonged to Higgins.
McCabe also confirmed he saw a black SUV parked in front of the Albert home at some point that night, and Higgins' Jeep was still parked in front of the mailbox at that time. Yannetti also questioned McCabe about several inconsistencies between Friday's testimony and his previous testimony about the location of the black SUV.
During his previous testimony, he had said he only saw the black SUV in two different spots, but on Friday he said he saw it in three locations. But McCabe denied Friday that he had contradicted himself.
At one point, Yanetti asked McCabe, "Is this funny?" after he noticed that McCabe was smiling in response to his questions.
"It's not funny, sir. It's been two years of misery," McCabe replied.
Yannetti then returned to a phone conversation Jennifer McCabe had with O'Keefe as the McCabes were driving to the Albert home on Jan. 28, 2022. O'Keefe had texted Jennifer McCabe asking for directions to the Albert home, and she called O'Keefe to tell give him specific directions.
Matthew McCabe said he assumed that O'Keefe and Read would be arriving at the Albert home.
McCabe also testified Friday that he never saw O'Keefe inside the black SUV, never heard any yelling, crash noises or screams of pain coming from outside the Albert house.
"There was music playing in the house, so I didn't hear anything," he said.
McCabe said when he left the Albert house that night, he left with his wife and Karen Levinson and Julie Nagel, previous witnesses in the case who the McCabes were giving a ride home. The black SUV was no longer there, and he said he didn't see anyone or anything on the lawn.
McCabe also testified that he never heard Nagel say "What was that?" or anything about the "black blob"
she testfied earlier this week she saw on the lawn as they left.
Yannetti also asked McCabe about a group text exchange he was part of in the days after Jan. 29, 2022 with his wife, Brian Albert and Nicole Albert. On Feb. 1, three days after O'Keefe's death, he asked McCabe if he was at or near the Albert home on 34 Fairview Road, watching what investigators were doing in that area.
"I was not monitoring anything that the troopers were doing," McCabe said. "If I had driven down the street dropping somebody off or picking somebody up and saw the troopers, I saw the troopers."
Yannetti then showed McCabe a text McCabe reportedly sent to the group text saying that state police troopers were out in front of the Albert home, close to one of the next-door neighbor's home.
Brian Albert responded with a question, "Right now?" and Matthew McCabe said yes.
McCabe then texted the group that he was trying to get a picture of what he was seeing.
"I said I was going to try to take a photo," he said. "I just happened to be driving through the neighborhood... I was not monitoring what was going on, I just happened to drive by at that moment."
Court took a break shortly after 11 a.m., returning just before 11:30 a.m. with Matthew McCabe back on the stand.
Yannetti then displayed images from the group text exchange mentioned before the morning break.
"Troopers back out front... And looks like more has been dug up there or at least looks like it" Matthew McCabe said in one text message sent to the group.
Brian Albert replied, "Right now" and McCabe responded, "Yes."
Albert then responded again, saying, "Ok."
McCabe then texted the group, "I had to pick up a car. So drove through."
He then texted. "Trying to get picture."
Yannetti then produced three more pages of text messages to McCabe, which McCabe confirmed were from the same group chat mentioned earlier.
One of the texts included McCabe talking about the ongoing investigation into O'Keefe's death.
In that exchange, Albert wrote at one point, "Hope they don't think she's making it up after the fact for some reason," referring to an interview Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor had conducted with Kerry Roberts, who was one of the three women, along with Read and Jennifer McCabe, who found O'Keefe's body. Albert added in a text moments later, "but if they barely interviewed her, that's on them."
Yannetti also asked about several other texts, including one on Feb. 1, 2022, at 12:51 p.m., in which McCabe said "Ask Chris to ask some questions," referring to Chris Albert, Brian's older brother. He then texted, "Tell them the guy never went in the house," which he said was in reference to O'Keefe.
Brian Abert's response in the text chain was, "Exactly"
Yannetti asked McCabe if the text chain was everyone trying to get their stories straight that O'Keefe never went inside the Albert house.
"John never went in the house. It's not a story, it's a fact," McCabe said. "I was saying, 'We don't know what happened. He never came in the house.'"
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