Karen Read's defense wants verdict slip simplified as jurors deliberate murder charge
Karen Read's defense team has filed a motion to amend the verdict slip in her retrial on murder charges as jurors return to the courthouse in Dedham, Massachusetts, for their first full day of deliberations in the death of a Boston police officer named John O'Keefe.
One of her attorneys, David Yannetti, told the court Friday after jurors broke for deliberations that he hoped his proposed amendments would make it less confusing after jurors deadlocked in Read's first trial last year, paving the way for the second, which began on April 22.
Testimony went on for more than 30 days before closing arguments. Judge Beverly Cannone spent about an hour reading jury instructions before jurors began deliberating around 2:40 p.m. Friday.
Read, 45, is accused of clipping the 46-year-old with the rear passenger side of her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV in a drunken hit-and-run during a blizzard in January 2022.
According to testimony from prosecution experts, he fell backwards and hit his head on the frozen ground, causing a fatal skull fracture on the lawn outside another officer's home, where friends were drinking at a house party.
The defense denies that a collision occurred between Read's vehicle and the victim and suggested that a romantic rival at the party could have beat him to death and put his body where it was found.
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Prosecutors allege that Read slammed it into reverse after a drunken argument and left him on the ground to die.
The relationship was on the rocks at the time of O'Keefe's death, according to testimony and text messages read at trial.
Read's first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last year after the panel could not reach a unanimous agreement on all of the charges against her.
She is accused of second-degree murder, drunken driving manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
Read could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top charge.
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