Attorneys in the Karen Read murder case have seated a jury of 19 for the upcoming trial.

A total of 12 jurors will decide the fate of Mansfield’s Read, 44. The other seven will serve as alternates. The Norfolk District Attorney’s office confirmed that five new jurors were seated Wednesday after the case had lost five others seated in days before due to various reasons, including pleas of hardship. Jury selection began on April 16.

Tomorrow will hear final motions ahead of trial. Friday will be a break day. Opening arguments are expected Monday.

Read was indicted in June of 2022 for second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of John O’Keefe, 46, a 16-year member of the Boston Police Department and Read’s boyfriend of two years.

Prosecutors say that Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV outside the Canton home of Brian Albert, a detective sergeant with the Boston Police Department, after a night out drinking together with friends. Prosecutors say Read was drunk and that the couple had significant relationship problems.

The defense countered with their own theory that Albert or others inside his then-home, 34 Fairview Road, killed O’Keefe and put his body on the lawn to frame Read. They bolster their theory with arguments of a cover-up of the truth orchestrated by police and prosecutors. They filed two motions to dismiss their case based on these accusations, both of which Judge Beverly Cannone denied.

It had been difficult to seat a full jury in this case which has garnered not only significant local media attention and a very vocal local following but also national attention. It’s even the subject of a mysterious federal probe.

Each day’s jury pool saw a significant number of county residents, averaging roughly 90 a day. During general questioning, the vast majority of candidate jurors had indicated that they had at least heard of or discussed the case. A significant number further indicated that they had developed an opinion on the case and a good number of those said that they were already biased in the case one way or another.

Following general questioning, jurors had to fill out a questionnaire that further helped attorneys identify problems with potential candidates. Three of the questions on the form directly questioned each potential jurors contact with media coverage of the case while another one questioned the coverage’s impact on the juror’s mind: “Have you already started to make up your mind about this case?”

Thursday will be reserved for ironing out final motions filed in the case during the jury selection process.

One of those is the defense’s motion that the jury box be moved or altered so that every juror can see the “demeanor” of each witness, to which the prosecution has offered up the idea that the case be moved to a smaller courtroom on the same floor which has a jury box that does not have features of concern but may not be able to fit many spectators.

Another is the prosecution’s motion that the defense provide evidence as to why Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey and a victim’s advocate assigned to the office should take the witness stand during trial.

Karen Read looks at the pool of jurors entering the courtroom. (Pool image by Greg Derr / The Patriot Ledger)