Special prosecutor delivers crushing final blow in Karen Read trial: 'She left him to die'
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan wrapped up his closing argument in the murder trial of Karen Read Friday afternoon, telling jurors there is no doubt that she's the one who killed John O'Keefe, her 46-year-old boyfriend, a Boston cop and the adoptive father of his orphaned niece and nephew.
Read, 45, is accused of slamming her 2021 Lexus SUV into her 46-year-old former boyfriend and leaving him to die on the ground in a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022.
"She was drunk. She hit him. And she left him to die," Brennan said. "It's that simple."
Karen Read Trial Nears Its Finale: What Each Side Is Banking On
Multiple witnesses testified that they heard her repeating the phrase, "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him," Brennan said. But it was the hard data -- not accident reconstruction or witness accounts, that proves his case, he said.
O'Keefe's phone did not move from between the time Read slammed her 6,000-pound LX 570 in reverse until he was discovered dead on the lawn 5 and a half hours later.
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Although Read didn't testify in her own defense, Brennan used her own words against her in the form of multiple televised interviews she sat for.
He alleged that they illustrate that she knowingly left O'Keefe to die after hitting him and where to find the body when she went looking the next morning.
In one, she described O'Keefe as a "weird-shaped lump" and a "buffalo on the prairie," jutting out of the snow.
"John O'Keefe is not a body. John O'Keefe is not a buffalo on a prairie," Brennan said. "He was a person, and he was murdered by Karen Read."
Karen Read Announces She Will Not Testify In Her Defense As Massachusetts Trial Nears Conclusion
Read's lead defense lawyer Alan Jackson urged jurors to find her not guilty Friday in a closing argument that disputed the prosecution's entire timeline from the night O'Keefe died.
"There was no collision," Jackson told jurors. "There was no collision. There was no collision."
He argued that a sloppy investigation, a lack of physical evidence and witness testimony left a mountain of reasonable doubt in the case. He said the commonwealth's case is "cooked" after an expert analysis of O'Keefe's injuries and called the prosecution's crash reconstruction a "ridiculous blue paint kindergarten project."
The lead homicide detective got fired from the Massachusetts State Police and did not testify at trial.
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Special prosecutor Hank Brennan is up next.
The case is expected to go to jurors later this afternoon after more than 30 days of testimony.
Although Judge Beverly Cannone asked for an earlier start than normal, court kicked off with a sidebar conference that lasted over a half-hour.
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Read's defense and Brennan are expected to turn up the heat as they hope to convince jurors of their diametrically opposed claims about what happened to O'Keefe. According to the defense, her vehicle never hit him.
Read faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted on the top charge of second-degree murder. If convicted of drunken driving manslaughter, she would face 5 to 20.Original article source: Special prosecutor delivers crushing final blow in Karen Read trial: 'She left him to die'
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Experts weigh in on key moments that could decide Karen Read's fate in murder trial
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A Middleboro optician thought her vanity license plate was a cute tongue-in-cheek ode to her job until it became a rallying cry from for Karen Read supporters. Now the owner of the license plate "FRAMED" is getting shouted at and her car vandalized. "I've had people like literally speeding up to me on the highway, to like catch up to my driver side window to give me the thumbs up and stuff," said Lauren Downey. She has had the vanity plate for three years now, but during the Karen Read trial, her supporters have started to have her plate put on banners and wearable merchandise. One man in New Hampshire got the same plate for that state, and he wears it around his neck outside the courthouse. Supporters of Karen Read gather before the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Mark Stockwell / AP "My husband is over there, and he couldn't believe it," Downey said. "He's seeing the plate in real life. We saw it on t-shirt." The plate has also been all over social media. Car keyed twice The controversy surrounding the trial has carried home with Downey. Twice now, someone has keyed her car because of the plate. She has had people screaming obscenities at her or even run across parking lots to praise her plate. At times, her children are in the car. "People are giving me the middle finger in a parking lot or at an intersection," said Downey. "I would love to think they are that excited over glasses that would be great." Lauren Downey's "FRAMED" license plate. CBS Boston Downey put in for the license plate three years ago. It was supposed to be a play on her job as an optician who helps people find the correct eye glass frames. It also wasn't the only name she submitted. "When you sign up for a vanity plate, you submit for three different options and then the registry chooses which one you receive," said Downey. "I can change my plate, but that may not make sense at this point." The retrial of Karen Read is now in the jury's hands. Downey is waiting until the trial is over before fixing the damage to the car in case something else happens.
