Karen Read murder trial: Day two

Karen Read and her legal team have arrived at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham for the second day of her murder trial.

READ: The Herald primer on the Karen Read case

Monday, the first day of the trial, heard opening arguments from both the prosecution and the defense.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, was indicted June 9, 2022, on charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.

She is accused of running down John O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston cop and her boyfriend of two years, with her Lexus SUV shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. The pair had been at two Canton bars — first C.F. McCarthy’s and then the Waterfall Bar and Grill across the street — with others during the night and were invited to meet up at 34 Fairview Road, a home then owned by Boston Police Sgt. Brian Albert.

Prosecutor Adam Lally used his opening to describe a failing relationship between Read and O’Keefe.

Lally described jealousy and nearly constant fighting in the month leading up to O’Keefe’s death. When first responders found his body on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton at around 6 a.m., Lally said, first responders heard her say, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”

Yesterday ended with testimony from Canton Police Officer Steven Saraf, who was the first on the scene. Dashcam footage from his cruiser pulling up to the address captured Read — who had arrived earlier with two other women while out looking for O’Keefe — pacing the scene frantically and in obvious distress.

“She kept saying, ‘This is all my fault. This is my fault. I did this.’ She was very hysterical,” Saraf said, confirming that she repeated the phrase and was “yelling pretty good.”

He added: “She kept asking, ‘Is he dead? Is he dead? is he dead?’”

Today is expected to begin with the defense’s cross-examination of Saraf.

This is a developing story.

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