Karen Read trial Watch Live: Day 18 with the ATF agent due back on stand
The fifth week of the Karen Read murder trial at Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham will start where the fourth week left off: the continued cross-examination of ATF agent Brian Higgins.
Higgins is one of the three people who the defense has suggested in pre-trial hearings could have been involved in beating John O’Keefe to death at 34 Fairview Road in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022.
The other two are Brian Albert, who at the time owned 34 Fairview Road with his wife Nicole, and Albert’s nephew Colin Albert. They have testified that they did not see O’Keefe enter the home that cold, snowy early morning.
The defense has argued that any combination of or all three beat O’Keefe to death, possibly with Brian Albert’s dog Chloe playing a role, and then framed Read.
Higgins’ testimony took up the entirety of Day 17 of testimony in the trial last Friday, a session that Judge Beverly Cannone extended a half hour, and cut 15 minutes out of the typical hour-long lunch break.
Tuesdays have been half days so far, but today will be the only day of testimony this week so Cannone has made it a full day.
Friday’s session ended with Defense Attorney Alan Jackson, who will not be present Tuesday, questioning Higgins on “destroying” his cell phone, and Higgins countered that he wouldn’t describe it as destroying but also taking place after an order to maintain it had ended.
Higgins also used a “kiosk” in a federal building to extract his text exchanges with Read and O’Keefe. Jackson said Higgins did that rather than handing over the phone so he could control what law enforcement had and accused Higgins of breaking federal law by using the kiosk for “personal gain.”
Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at age 46.
Prosecutors say that after a night out drinking the pair argued and she killed him by backing her Lexus SUV into him at high speed, leaving him to die in the cold during the major snowstorm.
Higgins’ testimony advanced the prosecution’s theory that Read and O’Keefe were on the outs, culminating in Read’s anger overflowing enough to kill O’Keefe that night.
“I just thought you were happy with your situation?” Higgins texted her one day.
“I was,” Read responded, “but things have deteriorated.”
Her primary complaints were taking care of the niece and nephew that O’Keefe had taken custody of when their parents died and her allegations that he cheated on her in Aruba.
Read and Higgins participated in a lengthy and flirtatious bout of texting on nine non-consecutive days leading up to O’Keefe’s death, with Read early on getting to the point: “You’re hot” she texted him on Jan. 13, 2022.
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