The latest on the Karen Read murder case
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Watch: Jennifer McCabe returns to the stand in Karen Read trial
Jurors heard the 911 call McCabe placed after finding John O'Keefe's body, and the defense began its cross-examination Wednesday.
On the stand Wednesday:
Editor’s note: Below is a summary of Jennifer McCabe’s remaining direct examination in Karen Read’s murder retrial. A subsequent article offers highlights from her cross-examination.
10:30 a.m. update: Jurors hear Jennifer McCabe’s 911 call as prosecutors finish their questioning
Jennifer McCabe’s breathless voice floated out over the courtroom speakers Wednesday morning as jurors heard the 911 call she made shortly after finding her friend John O’Keefe unresponsive on Jan. 29, 2022.
“There’s a man unresponsive in the snow,” McCabe could be heard telling 911 dispatchers. She told them she wasn’t sure whether O’Keefe was breathing, later adding in a subdued voice, “I think he’s passed away.”
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McCabe previously testified about frantically searching for O’Keefe after his girlfriend, Karen Read, reported he hadn’t returned home after a night of drinking. Another friend of O’Keefe’s, Kerry Roberts, joined them on their search.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked McCabe to describe her mental state as she called 911 that morning.
“I guess the best way to describe it was I was in shock. My heart was racing. I was trying to be as helpful as I could,” McCabe testified, adding, “I was just trying my best to be as calm as I could, to get help there as fast as I could.”
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Brennan asked McCabe about her choice of words during the 911 call, particularly her reference to O’Keefe as a “man in the snow.”
“I think I just wanted to get out the most specific details,” she explained.
McCabe previously testified about drinking with Read and O’Keefe at a bar in Canton the night before. Her sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, were also present and invited the group back to their home at 34 Fairview Road, where prosecutors allege Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe shortly after midnight.
McCabe told jurors she called her sister after hanging up with 911, though Nicole Albert didn’t answer. She then took over CPR on O’Keefe but found no signs of life.
When the first police officer arrived at the scene, McCabe said she went into sort of a “mode” as she tried to relay the crucial details. She said she was friendly with one of the Canton officers who responded to the scene, Lt. Michael Lank.
“Karen’s just running around, crazy. Just yelling and screaming,” McCabe recalled. “A lot of repetitive, ‘Is he dead? Is he dead? Is he dead?’”
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She testified that she tried to comfort Read, taking refuge from the snow in the back of a police cruiser while Roberts huddled at the car’s door.
“We held hands,” McCabe said. “We prayed.”
She said Read had blood on her hands and asked at one point whether she could have gotten her period. According to McCabe, Read also asked who would take care of O’Keefe’s niece and nephew, who lived with their uncle after their parents died.
Brennan turned his attention to McCabe’s “hos long to die in cold” Google search, one of the most hotly contested pieces of evidence in the case. While Read’s lawyers allege McCabe made the search hours before finding O’Keefe’s body, she testified Wednesday that she only did so after Read asked her to Google “hypothermia” and “how long it takes for somebody to die in the cold.”
She chalked the “hos long” typo up to the cold and her multiple sclerosis.
As Read spoke with an officer and a first responder at the scene, McCabe alleged Read blurted out, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.” She said she was startled and asked Read what she was saying, adding, “I thought she was just talking crazy.”
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At the request of one of the police officers, McCabe entered her sister’s home and roused Nicole and Brian Albert, who were “sound asleep.” She said she briefed them on the situation, and they dressed and headed downstairs to speak with police.
Brennan played dashboard camera footage from a police cruiser showing Read, McCabe, Roberts, and first responders milling around the dark, snowy scene. McCabe testified she was still in a state of shock as paramedics rushed O’Keefe to Good Samaritan Medical Center.
“The best way I can describe it is the feeling of, ‘I’m present and everything’s going on around me and I’m just trying to process and make sense of everything,’” McCabe explained.
She added: “I think deep down I knew John was gone, but you know, until you hear it, I think there was that little bit of hope.”
As the morning dragged on, she said she faced many questions about what she’d seen and heard outside 34 Fairview Road.
“This didn’t make sense to anybody,” McCabe testified. “No one knew what had happened.”
She recalled speaking with Canton officers and Massachusetts State Police, including former Trooper Michael Proctor and State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik. McCabe said she didn’t mention Read’s broken taillight initially but told the troopers about the alleged “I hit him” statements.
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She also told jurors about visiting O’Keefe’s family with Roberts and their children the following day to offer condolences. McCabe said they stopped by Lank’s house afterward, as Roberts’s daughter was friends with Lank’s daughter and wanted to visit. Lank’s wife exited the house to speak with Roberts and McCabe, but McCabe denied trying to get inside information from her or sway the ongoing police investigation.
She testified that she and Roberts also made a timeline of what they could remember from the morning of Jan. 29, at the request of O’Keefe’s mother. McCabe said she didn’t question why Peggy O’Keefe wanted the timeline.
McCabe also maintained she was cooperative when police asked to take her phone and copy its contents as part of their investigation. She confirmed her signature on the consent form for the extraction.
“I wanted to help in any way I could,” McCabe explained.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his cross-examination of McCabe Wednesday before the mid-morning recess.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
Key witness Jennifer McCabe returns to the stand Wednesday in Karen Read’s murder retrial.
More on Karen Read:
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‘Everybody was in a great mood’: Jennifer McCabe takes the stand in Karen Read trial, testifies about atmosphere at Fairview Road
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Karen Read murder trial: Digital expert testifies about ‘hos long’ search, O’Keefe’s phone data
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Karen Read murder trial: Jurors visit alleged crime scene, hear about blood alcohol test
McCabe was one of two women with Read when she found her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, unresponsive on a snowy lawn in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. McCabe began her testimony Tuesday, recalling the frantic call she received at 4:53 a.m. that day from O’Keefe’s niece, with Read screaming in the background.
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McCabe described Read as “hysterical” during the ensuing search for O’Keefe and said Read pointed out a damaged taillight on her SUV and repeatedly asked, “Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?”
Prosecutors allege Read, 45, drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a house party shortly after midnight on Jan. 29. McCabe, whose sister and brother-in-law owned the home in question, was among the guests present at the time and testified about seeing a dark SUV outside that she believed was Read’s.
While McCabe testified that neither Read nor O’Keefe ever made it into the house, Read’s lawyers contend O’Keefe was attacked inside the home and later dumped in the snow. They claim Read was a “convenient outsider” framed in a massive conspiracy among law enforcement and party guests, McCabe included.
But on the stand Tuesday, McCabe said she liked Read and considered O’Keefe a close friend.
“He was a very good friend of mine that I knew I could call for anything,” she testified.
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial last summer after the jury returned deadlocked. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Tuesday, she said she has “nothing to say” to McCabe and told trial watchers to expect “a lot” from McCabe’s cross-examination.
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