with deliberations imminent, a look at some highlights from Trial 2

Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the Fairview Road house, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the front lawn.

With the verdict watch about to begin, here’s a look at 10 key moments from the second trial.

Crime scene testimony – ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him’

Katie McLaughlin, a paramedic/firefighter with the Canton Fire Department, points to defendant Karen Read, in Dedham, Mass., on Monday, May 5, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)Pat Greenhouse/Associated Press

Jurors heard testimony from emergency responders and a civilian witness, Jennifer McCabe, who said that a frantic Read repeatedly shouted “I hit him” after the two women and a third person, Kerry Roberts, discovered O’Keefe’s snow-covered body on the front lawn shortly after 6 a.m.

Read’s lawyers said the testimony was false and that one of the first responders, paramedic Katie McLaughlin, had socialized on multiple occasions with Caitlin Albert, a high school classmate whose parents owned the Fairview home at the time of O’Keefe’s death.

McCabe’s disputed dying in cold search

Witness Jennifer McCabe continues her cross examination testimony during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)Greg Derr/Associated Press

Jurors also heard testimony from forensic experts regarding a Google search on McCabe’s phone for “hos [sic] long to die in cold,” which was time stamped at 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, nearly two hours after Read allegedly hit O’Keefe with her SUV.

McCabe had testified that she twice attempted in frigid weather at the crime scene to Google the information at Read’s request, and digital forensic experts Ian Whiffin and Jessica Hyde told jurors they believe the time stamp was inaccurate, instead indicating when McCabe first opened the browser tab that was later used to make the search around 6:30 a.m.

Barros breaks the Blue Wall

Read’s lawyers allege that authorities tampered with her taillight when her SUV was brought to a Canton police garage on the evening of Jan. 29, 2022, and later planted pieces of broken taillight at the scene in an effort to frame her.

They called Nicholas Barros, a police officer in Dighton, to bolster that contention. Barros testified that the damage to Read’s taillight was more extensive in a photo taken at the police garage than it was earlier, when it was parked outside the Dighton residence of Read’s parents. The SUV was towed from there to the Canton garage.

Barros was in Dighton with State Police troopers, who seized the vehicle after speaking with Read.

“That taillight is completely smashed out” in the garage photo, Barros said. “That middle section was intact when I was there.”

Barros told prosecutor Hank Brennan on cross-examination that video footage from O’Keefe’s driveway at 5:07 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, showing a white portion of the right taillight that would be red if the taillight was fully intact was “consistent” with the damage he later saw in Dighton.

Higgins appears angry at bar, later visits police station

Witness Brian Higgins answers a question from defense attorney Alan Jackson regarding text messages between Higgins and defendant Karen Read, during Read’s trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Jurors also viewed surveillance footage of ATF agent Brian Higgins that the defense contends is highly suspicious.

Higgins had swapped flirtatious texts with Read in the weeks leading up to O’Keefe’s death, and he was seen on video footage at the Waterfall, the second bar the group visited on the night in question, gesturing aggressively in O’Keefe’s direction as the group prepared to leave around midnight for the afterparty on Fairview. At one point in the clip, another patron seems to restrain Higgins by grabbing his forearm.

In addition, the jury saw footage of Higgins briefly entering the Canton police station, where he had an office, around 1:30 a.m., about an hour after Read allegedly struck O’Keefe. He then headed back out to the parking lot, where he retrieved an empty duffel bag from another vehicle amid heavy snowfall. He also retrieved a garden hoe from another part of the lot.

Higgins did not testify at the retrial.

Former R.I. chief medical examiner testifies

Dr. Elizabeth Laposata defines a specific head injury for the defense during the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Pat Greenhouse/Associated Press

Among the defense witnesses who testified was Dr. Elizabeth Lopasata, the former chief medical examiner in Rhode Island.

Lopasata told jurors that O’Keefe’s injuries, including a skull fracture, abrasions on his right arm, swelling to his eyes, cuts over his right eye and to his nose, and bruises on his hand and right knee, weren’t consistent with a vehicle strike.

“By looking at the body, I could tell that there was no evidence of impact from a vehicle,” she testified.

Government expert says otherwise

Dr. Judson Welcher, an accident reconstruction expert, testifies, during the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Mark Stockwell/Associated Press

Lopasata’s opinion was contradicted by Judson Welcher, a biomechanical engineer who testified for the prosecution and told jurors the abrasions on O’Keefe’s right arm were consistent with the geography of Read’s shattered taillight.

Welcher also described a test he ran with a replica Lexus SUV in which the right taillight area was painted blue as the vehicle lightly contacted him, leaving blue paint on his arm in the same general area as O’Keefe’s wounds.

Welcher’s colleague also provides key testimony

Digital forensics analyst Shanon Burgess testifies during the Karen Read trial Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Matt Stone

The government also called Welcher’s colleague, Shanon Burgess, who reviewed the information from Read’s Lexus and told jurors it showed she put her SUV in reverse at almost the same time O’Keefe’s phone stopped moving on Fairview.

Expert Daniel Wolfe returns to the stand in the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday June 9, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.Pat Greenhouse/Associated Press

Jurors also heard testimony from Andrew Rentschler and Daniel Wolfe, two analysts from the crash reconstruction firm ARCCA who found the damage to Read’s SUV and O’Keefe’s injuries weren’t consistent with him being struck by the vehicle.

The analysts were initially hired by the Justice Department, which launched a federal grand jury probe into state law enforcement’s handling of O’Keefe’s death, and the defense later retained them separately.

No one was charged with any federal crimes in connection with the case, and jurors were barred from learning about that probe at trial.

A dog bite expert testifies

Dr. Marie Russell, an emergency physician and forensic pathologist, is questioned during Karen Read’s murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Libby O’Neill/Associated Press

Another defense witness was Dr. Marie Russell, a veteran emergency room physician in Los Angeles and former Malden police officer, who testified that the pattern of the cuts on O’Keefe’s right arm suggested they were caused by a dog attack.

A Boston police officer gives tense testimony

Dedham, MA June 2 Boston Police officer Kelly Dever, formerly with Canton Police, testifies. The murder retrial of Karen Read continues in Norfolk Superior Court, in Dedham, MA on Monday June 2, 2025. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

The defense also called Boston police officer Kelly Dever, a Canton police officer at the time of O’Keefe’s death.

In a tense exchange, Read attorney Alan Jackson asked her about an interview she gave to the FBI in which she said Ken Berkowitz, the Canton police chief at the time, and Higgins were in the police garage for a “wildly long time” on the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022.

Dever said that was her recollection at the time she spoke to the agents.

She told Brennan on cross-examination that she knew her shift ended at 3:45 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, and that she left then. Dever said the defense later produced a timeline showing the SUV came into the garage after that, “meaning it is not possible that I saw that.”

Dever said it was a “false memory” that she “provided in good faith,” which she then “retracted immediately [upon] being provided evidence that it was not possible.”

She said her false memory may have been colored by media reports she saw about the case.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].