Crime

Karen Read trial jurors will hear closing arguments Friday. Here’s what to know.

Read’s fate may be in the jury’s hands as soon as Friday afternoon, according to Judge Beverly Cannone.

Karen Read listens to her attorney David Yannetti address Judge Beverly Cannone during her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Charles Krupa / AP

By Abby Patkin

updated on June 12, 2025

4 minutes to read

With closing arguments on the horizon, lawyers in Karen Read’s murder retrial met Thursday morning to iron out a few more details before handing the case over to jurors.

During the charge conference, Judge Beverly Cannone and the attorneys hammered out the instructions to be given to jurors as they begin their deliberations on Read’s guilt or innocence. Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning, following nearly eight weeks of testimony.

Defense attorney David Yannetti renewed Read’s request for a required finding of not guilty, arguing prosecutors produced no witnesses who could say the injuries on Read’s boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, were consistent with a motor vehicle collision.

“And if he was not hit by a motor vehicle, none of these three indictments may stand,” Yannetti argued, later adding, “If there’s no collision, there’s no case.”

Defense attorney David Yannetti addresses Judge Beverly Cannone during the Karen Read trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. – Charles Krupa / AP

Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal collision in O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and remains free on bail.

While prosecutors allege Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty in Canton, her lawyers contend she was framed in a massive law enforcement conspiracy. They’ve suggested O’Keefe was actually beaten inside the home at 34 Fairview Road, attacked by the homeowner’s dog, and dumped outside in the snow.

Yannetti argued prosecutors came up “woefully short” in their case, which he said was “further weakened” after the defense called its own witnesses. In fact, he asserted, every defense witness “destroyed the commonwealth’s theory of the case.”

He reminded Cannone of the testimony offered by key defense witnesses, including experts from ARCCA Inc. who opined not only that the damage to Read’s taillight was inconsistent with prosecutors’ version of events, but that O’Keefe’s injuries were inconsistent with striking Read’s taillight.

The ARCCA experts “drove a stake through the heart of the commonwealth’s case,” Yannetti argued.

He also reiterated the defense team’s suspicions of witness Brian Higgins, who exchanged flirty texts with Read while she was dating O’Keefe. Yannetti asserted Read had “ghosted” Higgins shortly before O’Keefe died and that Read “[gave] her back” to Higgins during a group outing to the Waterfall Bar & Grille on Jan. 28, 2022. As the bar outing came to a close, Higgins “had to be restrained” and gestured at O’Keefe to meet him outside, Yannetti alleged.

Prosecutor Adam Lally addresses Judge Beverly Cannon during the Karen Read trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. – Charles Krupa / AP

Yet Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally urged Cannone to deny the request, suggesting defense witnesses offered conflicting testimony and exhibited “bias and advocacy.”

“The argument from counsel, the commonwealth would suggest, grossly exaggerates the strength of the defense witnesses and their case,” Lally added.

Cannone ultimately denied the defense motion for a required finding.

She also told Read’s lawyers they haven’t met their burden to argue either Higgins or 34 Fairview Road homeowner Brian Albert killed O’Keefe or had the motive to do so. However, she said the defense can suggest police were aware of Higgins’s flirtation with Read and failed to look into it as part of their investigation into O’Keefe’s death.

Discussing the basis for Read’s so-called Bowden defense, Yannetti argued police didn’t secure the crime scene, used improper evidence collection methods, and showed bias in their purported failure to pursue other leads. He said the defense will withdraw its motion for a “missing witness” instruction regarding Higgins, Albert, and the lead investigator, former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor.

Judge Beverly Cannone listens to defense attorney David Yannetti during the Karen Read trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. – Charles Krupa / AP

Cannone also confirmed she will give “some further language” on how the jury should signal they’ve reached a decision on each individual indictment, in light of last year’s mistrial.

“I will make it crystal clear,” Cannone said.

More on Karen Read:

Read’s lawyers have alleged five jurors from the first trial came forward to say the supposedly hung jury unofficially agreed to acquit Read on her murder and leaving-the-scene charges but deadlocked on the OUI manslaughter charge. The defense unsuccessfully appealed to several state and federal courts in a bid to get the two charges dismissed on double jeopardy grounds, though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to take up the case.

Yannetti offered a proposed verdict slip that he suggested would help avoid confusion around any lesser included offenses. Cannone said she would take a closer look at the proposed form, though she didn’t think she would allow it.

Also on Thursday, defense attorney Robert Alessi revisited the controversy over special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s erroneous suggestion that holes on the back of O’Keefe’s sweatshirt had occurred in the aftermath of a collision. In fact, a Massachusetts State Police criminalist cut those holes while analyzing the garment.

Cannone previously offered jurors a clarification Monday, but Alessi argued the jury appeared to have some lingering confusion that required further remedy. Lally disputed that claim, arguing the mistake was addressed almost immediately and to accentuate it further “is simply improper.” Cannone said she would consider Alessi’s request.

Defense attorney Robert Alessi addresses Judge Beverly Cannone during the Karen Read trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. *Charles Krupa / AP*

Closing arguments will begin Friday at 9 a.m., with each side receiving an hour and 15 minutes. Cannone said she’s hoping to give jurors an early lunch break, followed by jury instructions and the start of deliberations later in the day. She also said she’d ask the court officers to contact jurors and see if the jury can stay at the courthouse until 5 or 5:30 p.m. Friday.

“I just don’t think it’s fair, after they’ve sat through so much of this trial with the various delays that we’ve had, to not let them start deliberating,” the judge explained.