Newsletter Signup
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
Karen Read trial: Witnesses describe what they did — and didn’t — see outside Albert home
One witness said she saw a "black blob" on the lawn as she was driven past the home early on Jan. 29, 2022.
On the stand Tuesday:
- Julianna Nagel, Canton, MA
- Sara Levinson, Canton, MA
- Tristin Morris, Easton, MA
- Caitlin Albert, Easton, MA
1 p.m. update: Another friend of Brian Albert Jr.’s testifies that she saw a ‘black blob’ on the front lawn outside 34 Fairview Road
Brian Albert Jr.’s friend Julianna Nagel testified Tuesday that she saw a “black blob” on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road as she was driven past the home early on Jan. 29, 2022.
She and another friend, Sara Levinson, were getting a ride home that morning from Albert’s aunt and uncle, Jen and Matt McCabe. As the group drove away, “I did notice something out of the ordinary, like a black blob on the ground by the flagpole,” Nagel testified.
She said it was dark outside at the time, and “the snow was kind of heavy at that point, so [I] couldn’t really see too much.”
Advertisement:
“As the vehicle is going by the house, as you make that observation, what, if anything, did you say in the back seat of the car?” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked.
“I did say out loud, I was like, ‘I think I might have saw something. I’m not kind of sure what it was.’ But I was also intoxicated, drinking, so didn’t really know what it was, what I saw,” Nagel said. “But Sara was like, ‘What, Julie?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know what it was.’ And then that was kind of really it.”
Advertisement:
Asked to describe the object’s size, she estimated that the “blob” was about five or six feet long. She said she couldn’t tell what it was as they drove by because she only got a quick glance.
John O’Keefe’s body was found near the flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road later that morning.
Nagel testified that she had initially texted her brother, Ryan, to ask for a ride home from Albert’s birthday celebration. She said she looked out the window and noticed an SUV outside 34 Fairview Road before her brother arrived but denied seeing anyone get out of the SUV.
Nagel said her brother pulled up to the house with a couple friends sometime after midnight, and she went outside to talk to them. When they declined to come inside and indicated they wanted to head home, she said she’d find another ride.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti confirmed that Nagel knew the McCabes before that night, had driven their daughters around and pet-sat for them, and even called Jen McCabe by a nickname.
While she didn’t remember whether an investigator or prosecutor had ever asked to see the text messages she exchanged with her brother that night, Nagel testified that Jen McCabe asked for screenshots of the texts.
Advertisement:
Yannetti pressed Nagel on whether she believed the object she saw on the Alberts’ front lawn on Jan. 29, 2022, was a person.
“When you’re leaving the property, after leaving the house at 1:45 a.m. and getting into the McCabe vehicle and passing the Albert lawn, you did not think that you saw a person who was in trouble, correct?” Yannetti asked.
“No,” Nagel replied.
“Or a person that may have needed help, correct?” Yannetti continued.
“I don’t know. No,” Nagel said. She also testified that she didn’t ask Matt McCabe to stop the car or back up, nor did she ask Jen McCabe to alert her brother-in-law, the elder Brian Albert, about the object on his lawn.
“The fact of the matter is, you did nothing, right?” Yannetti asked.
“Yeah,” Nagel said.
“And that’s because you did not see a body on that lawn, correct?” Yannetti asked.
“I mean, I don’t know what I saw,” Nagel said. “But I saw an object.”
She confirmed that she “put two and two together” when Brian Albert Jr. called her the next morning to tell her about O’Keefe but said she did not tell prosecutors or investigators with the Canton Police Department or Massachusetts State Police at the time.
11:50 a.m. update: Brian Albert Jr.’s friend testifies about leaving 34 Fairview Road, getting a ride from the McCabes on Jan. 29, 2022
Sara Levinson, a longtime friend of Brian Albert Jr., described a quiet night spent celebrating Albert’s birthday at his parents’ house on Fairview Road, the festivities stretching into the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022.
Advertisement:
Levinson testified that the atmosphere inside was happy, with no conflicts or arguments. She said other friends were there that night, as was Colin Albert, Brian’s younger cousin. Karen Read’s lawyers have sought to implicate Colin Albert in their third-party culprit defense, alleging that he had “bad blood” with John O’Keefe and could have taken part in an attack on O’Keefe.
Levinson said her friend Julianna Nagel’s brother pulled up outside 34 Fairview Road sometime after midnight to give Nagel and Levinson a ride home. Nagel stepped outside to talk to her brother briefly, and then she and Levinson coordinated with Brian Albert Jr.’s aunt and uncle, Jen and Matt McCabe, to get a ride home later on. Levinson testified that the four of them left Fairview Road sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., adding that she was looking down at her feet as she exited the house.
“And why were you looking down at your feet?” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked.
“I wore shoes that my mother told me not to wear because they didn’t have traction, but they went with my outfit so I wore them anyways,” Levinson explained. “And I knew if I had slipped and fell, she would say, ‘I told you so.’ So I made sure not to do that.”
She said Matt McCabe forgot his jacket inside the house and turned back to grab it, leaving his wife, Levinson, and Nagel waiting in the car. At that point, Levinson said she and Nagel noticed a loaf of bread sitting in the backseat.
Advertisement:
“We said something to Jen, because we thought it was weird,” Levinson testified. “And she said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, anyone want a peanut butter and jelly on the way?’ Like, making a joke.”
She testified that after Matt McCabe returned to the car and drove away, Nagel said something that prompted her to turn her head toward the window. Levinson said she asked for clarification but didn’t get any.
In previous court documents, prosecutors said Nagel told investigators that as the group drove past 34 Fairview Road, she “indicated that she thought she saw something she described as a dark object, in the snow by the flagpole, but could not determine what it was.”
O’Keefe’s body was found later that morning on the front lawn outside 34 Fairview Road, near the flagpole.
On cross-examination, Levinson confirmed that as she exited 34 Fairview Road, she had an unobstructed view of the front lawn, which was partially lit by a lamp post and a spotlight near the garage. She denied seeing a baseball cap, sneaker, pieces of a broken taillight, or an adult man “sprawled out” on the lawn.
“And as you drove past that front lawn, you saw nothing out of the ordinary, right?” defense attorney David Yannetti asked.
“I wasn’t looking, but yes,” Levinson replied.
10:30 a.m. update: Caitlin Albert’s boyfriend testifies about picking her up from 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29, 2022
Tristin Morris confirmed he had an unobstructed view of the front lawn outside 34 Fairview Road when he arrived at the house to pick up his girlfriend, Caitlin Albert, shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
Advertisement:
However, he added, “I wouldn’t be staring at her grass.”
Morris testified that as he sat in the driveway and waited for Albert to exit her parents’ home, he did not notice a hat, a sneaker, or broken pieces of taillight in the snowy yard.
“And you certainly did not see a 6-foot-2 man on the lawn of your girlfriend’s parents’ home, correct?” defense attorney David Yannetti asked.
“No, I did not,” Morris confirmed.
“You saw nothing unusual in that front area of the lawn, correct?” Yannetti continued.
“No, I did not,” Morris replied.
He said he never exited the car or went inside 34 Fairview Road, instead texting Albert to let her know he had arrived. When he pulled out of the driveway and drove away, the vehicle’s passenger side was facing the house, he said.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked Morris why he drove out to 34 Fairview Road on the 29th, given he’d left Albert and others at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton hours earlier so he could sleep before plowing snow in the coming storm.
“Well, she’s high maintenance,” Morris said of his girlfriend, earning some laughter from the courtroom. “I didn’t really want to have to deal with it.”
He said Albert wanted to come home to Easton because she didn’t want to get snowed in.
Advertisement:
Yannetti also questioned Morris about a photograph showing him with some members of the extended Albert family at Ned Devine’s in Boston in June 2022, the same month Karen Read was indicted in connection with John O’Keefe’s death.
“Were you and the Alberts and the McCabes celebrating the indictment of Karen Read?” Yannetti asked.
“No,” Morris replied.
9:50 a.m. update: Caitlin Albert confirms she didn’t notice anything unusual on her parents’ lawn
Judge Beverly Cannone allowed Karen Read’s lawyers some latitude in probing the relationship between Caitlin Albert and Canton firefighter Katie McLaughlin, two witnesses who went to high school together and shared mutual friends.
Defense attorney David Yannetti previously accused McLaughlin of trying to minimize her relationship with Albert, whose parents owned the home where John O’Keefe’s body was found on Jan. 29, 2022. McLaughlin was one of the first responders to arrive at the scene that morning and testified that she heard Read repeatedly say, “I hit him.”
Yannetti urged Cannone to revisit her previous decision to block the defense from showing jurors photos of Albert and McLaughlin together.
“After reviewing my notes of the testimony of Katie McLaughlin, my view hasn’t changed,” Cannone said Tuesday. “But I will give you a little bit of leeway with this witness.”
Facing questions from Yannetti, Albert confirmed that she’s seen McLaughlin several times since they graduated high school and that the two women have socialized with the same group of people before. However, she said their contact “was far and few between” over the years.
Advertisement:
Yannetti confirmed the details of some social events attended by both Albert and McLaughlin, but his attempts to grill Albert further were stymied as Cannone sustained a series of objections from prosecutors.
Later, Albert testified that she left her parents’ house around 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, because she didn’t want to get snowed in. Her boyfriend, Tristin Morris, drove over from Easton to pick her up.
Albert said she didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary outside her parents’ home, including yelling, screaming, a revving engine, or the sound of something smashing. As she exited the house, she did not see a hat, sneaker, pieces of a broken taillight, or a man’s body in the snow, she confirmed.
“You saw nothing unusual on that front lawn of your parents’ home, did you?” Yannetti asked.
“I did not,” Albert replied.
She further testified that she was looking down at her feet as she exited the house to make sure she didn’t slip in the snow. Once inside the car, Albert said her attention was focused on her boyfriend.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
The Karen Read murder trial resumes Tuesday with continued testimony from members of the Albert family, who owned the home where John O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022.
Then-homeowner Brian Albert faced cross-examination Monday, when he acknowledged that he traded in his cellphone shortly before prosecutors informed him he was required to preserve the phone and its data ahead of a pre-trial hearing. Read’s lawyers also grilled Albert on an “inadvertent” call he made to fellow witness Brian Higgins early on Jan. 29, 2022.
More on Karen Read:
Two of Albert’s children — Brian Albert Jr. and Caitlin Albert — followed him on the stand. All three Alberts testified that neither Read nor O’Keefe ever set foot inside 34 Fairview Road on the night in question.
Advertisement:
“John never came into my house that night,” Brian Albert said. “He would’ve been welcomed — and the defendant would’ve been welcomed — with open arms had they come in, and I wish they had. I really do.”
Read, 44, is accused of backing her SUV into O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, following a night of drinking. Yet while prosecutors say she left O’Keefe to die in the snow outside the Alberts’ house, Read’s lawyers argue she was framed in a widespread coverup. They allege O’Keefe was actually beaten inside the home and possibly attacked by the family’s dog, a German shepherd named Chloe.
Monday’s testimony left off with Caitlin Albert’s cross-examination. After Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed jurors for the day, defense attorney David Yannetti shared his plans to question Albert about her relationship with Katie McLaughlin, a Canton firefighter and paramedic who testified earlier in Read’s trial.
Both Albert and McLaughlin testified that while they went to high school together and have mutual friends, they would not consider each other close friends. Cannone previously blocked Read’s lawyers from showing jurors photos of the two women together.
Yannetti urged Cannone to reconsider, accusing McLaughlin of changing her story after she learned that 34 Fairview Road belonged to Albert’s family.
“We have the ability to expose her as somebody that’s misrepresented something very important to this court,” Yannetti said. “But if we can’t ask these questions and we can’t get in these photos, then we’re not able to do it.”
Advertisement:
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally questioned the photos’ origin and asserted that McLaughlin’s statements have been consistent throughout police interviews and testimony before a grand jury and during Read’s trial. Cannone said she will weigh in on the matter Tuesday morning.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com