The Karen Read retrial for the murder of John O’Keefe returned to court today after a five-day weekend. Watch proceedings live in the player below.

Learn the fundamentals of the case here: what to know and who to know. Get caught up to speed with the retrial so far here.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.

She’s accused of ramming her Lexus LX570 SUV into O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer she had dated for about two years, and leaving him to freeze and die on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

The defense says that no vehicle strike ever occurred and that others killed O’Keefe and conspired to pin it all on Read.

The trial recently

The previous several days of trial have been science heavy, both laboratory forensics and computer forensics, with Massachusetts State Police crime lab analyst Maureen Hartnett leading it off on May 14. She testified that she was called to the Canton Police Department on Feb. 1, 2022, to examine the exterior of the alleged murder weapon: Read’s SUV.

She testified that she examined the clothing O’Keefe was wearing, the SUV’s vehicle taillight housing and evidence from the scene, including the apparent blood the Canton police collected in red SOLO plastic cups. She said she also collected “apparent glass” and “an apparent hair” from the vehicle’s bumper.

Several more crime lab scientists would testify to working with the materials Hartnett collected as well as more brought over by the MSP.

They testified that pieces of plastic found at the scene fit Read’s taillight housing, and that a scraping of O’Keefe’s hooded T-shirt uncovered microscopic plastic pieces that were also a match. Other scientists testified that O’Keefe’s DNA contributed — to a very high degree of scientific certainty — to a hair found on the SUV’s bumper and to DNA found on the taillight housing.

Medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that O’Keefe died from blunt-force trauma to the head and hypothermia.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Aizik Wolf testified that his examination of autopsy photos and Scordi-Bello’s report paints a clear picture that this was a “classic blunt trauma injury,” and that O’Keefe fell and hit his head on “solid ground.”

Digital forensics examiner Shanon Burgess, of Aperture LLC, testified that the vehicle registered a “back-up event” at 12:32 a.m. on Jan. 29.

Burgess’ testimony was all but drowned out by a tense cross examination that primarily dealt with what the defense called “academic dishonesty” by Burgess, who does not hold a bachelor’s degree, for listing a bachelor’s degree on his CV, his LinkedIn profile, and on his biography on his employer’s website.

Medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that O’Keefe died from blunt-force trauma to the head and hypothermia.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Aizik Wolf testified that his examination of autopsy photos and Scordi-Bello’s report paints a clear picture that this was a “classic blunt trauma injury,” and that O’Keefe fell and hit his head on “solid ground.”

This is a developing story.

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