Latest news with #MichaelProctor
Fox News
20 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Lead detective's text messages cast shadow over Karen Read murder trial
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan may have dulled the impact of inappropriate text messages the lead homicide detective sent regarding Karen Read days before she was charged with the murder of John O'Keefe – but they're still damaging to the state's case and not just because he used vulgar and obscene language, experts say. The texts were a bomb that blew up the first trial when they were read with Michael Proctor on the witness stand, and it ended with a deadlocked jury last year. This time around, prosecutors decided not to call him as a witness, and it was his childhood friend Jonathan Diamandis who – visibly uncomfortable – walked the jury through the conversation. But beyond the crass remarks about Read, experts say less explosive messages about Proctor's early opinions of the investigation could be damning. "Proctor is mentally begging [the defense] to call him," retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor Jack Lu told Fox News Digital. "Now that the texts are in, they will not call Proctor unless they are convinced they have lost – the old 'Hail Mary' pass." Lu said the defense team gained some ground with Diamandis on the stand, but with Brennan facing the text chain head-on, the messages were likely not a significant shift in Read's favor. "Will the jury be truly shocked by abusive texts from a police officer investigating a person they think is a murderer?" Lu said. "I doubt it." Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her Lexus SUV during a drunken argument before leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of a friend's home in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022. Diamandis testified he has been in a group chat with Proctor for more than a decade and was privy to text messages sent during the investigation into O'Keefe's death. The Massachusetts State Police fired Proctor in March after an internal investigation found he had shared sensitive and confidential information about the case with people outside of law enforcement. Read's first trial revealed inappropriate text messages the lead investigator sent as the case was unfolding. "The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human – not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper," his sister, Courtney Proctor, previously said in a statement. On cross-examination, Brennan asked Diamandis to read to the jury Proctor's messages from the day O'Keefe's body was discovered. "She waffled him," Proctor wrote, referring to Read. "I looked at his body in the hospital." Proctor weighed in with his own observations of what may have happened to O'Keefe, initially agreeing with another member of the group chat that the Boston police officer may have been beaten to death. "That's what I initially thought after talking to [a] Canton paramedic," Proctor wrote. "Then I saw the guy." Asked for more details, Proctor replied with a message implicating Read, telling his friends, "she hit him with her car." "Gotcha," one pal wrote. "[O'Keefe] was frozen in the driveway, and she didn't see him." "That's another animal we won't be able to prove," Proctor replied. "They arrived at the house together, got into an argument, she was driving and left." The text messages raise the possibility that Proctor reached a conclusion on O'Keefe's death before the investigation finished, according to Massachusetts defense attorney Grace Edwards. He sent them around 11 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 – the day O'keefe had been found. An autopsy wasn't completed until two days later. "These text messages were from the night of John O'Keefe's death, and it appears that Michael Proctor has already come to a conclusion about the case – before the medical examiner's report," Edwards told Fox News Digital. "His conclusion was premature." Proctor's alleged rush to implicate Read could have caused him to ignore evidence pointing to other possibilities surrounding the cause of O'Keefe's death, according to Edwards. "Michael Proctor is not qualified to make a determination about how John O'Keefe died," Edwards said. "That is what we have medical examiners for. Based on the text messages, Michael Proctor had come to that conclusion all on his own within hours of O'Keefe's death." Criminal defense attorney Mark Bederow also pointed to Proctor's professional inability to determine what – or who – killed O'Keefe, and how the immediate assumption could have been detrimental to the investigation. "[Proctor] is not qualified to say that," Bederow told Fox News Digital. "There is an abundance of evidence of Proctor's investigative tunnel vision and bias." As the tone of the texts shifted, Diamandis told the courtroom he did not want to continue reading the messages aloud because they contained "uncomfortable words," prompting Brennan to read them and ask Diamandis to confirm that what he was reading was an accurate depiction of the texts on the chain. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB "Yeah, she's a babe," Proctor wrote. "Weird Fall River accent though. No a--." The text chain turned obscene at points, including mocking Read over a purported medical issue. Proctor is subject to witness sequestration and declined to comment. Proctor is on the defense witness list, but Read's team called Diamandis instead, in what Edwards believes is a risky move by the defense. "Brennan has now taken the wind out of the sails of the defense because the reading of those texts did not have the impact that they did during the first trial when Michael Proctor read them himself," Edwards said. The choice to call Proctor's childhood friend could be viewed as a safe way for the defense team to drop the bombshell text chain without risking cross-examination by the state. On the other hand, the defense can now point to the fact that prosecutors declined to put their lead investigator on the witness stand, Bederow said. "They'll likely pursue a 'missing witness' instruction from the court in which the judge will inform jurors they may draw an adverse inference against prosecution for their failure to call Proctor," he said. "It is virtually unheard of for the prosecution not to call the lead investigator in a murder case, but of course it's also extraordinarily rare that the lead investigator was terminated for unprofessional behavior and bias on [the same] case."
CNN
a day ago
- General
- CNN
Fired investigator's texts presented to jurors in Karen Read's retrial
FacebookTweetLink Follow Jurors in the retrial of Karen Read on Monday heard a spate of sexist messages the lead investigator of the case sent his friends, after the judge ruled to allow the since-fired Massachusetts State Police trooper's texts into evidence. 'She's a whack job c*nt,' Michael Proctor wrote about Read, according to testimony Monday by his childhood friend, Jonathan Diamandis, who was on the group chat where Proctor sent the message. 'Yeah, she's a babe,' Proctor said, less than 24 hours into the investigation of the death of Read's boyfriend, John O'Keefe. 'Weird Fall River accent though. No a**.' The contents of the text messages – which were notably presented to jurors under cross-examination by Massachusetts prosecutors and not Read's defense attorneys – were publicly known, having been presented at Read's first trial, which ended with a hung jury. But this is the first time jurors in her second trial have heard them. In a hearing last week outside the presence of the jury, the defense signaled the texts were important for helping jurors understand Proctor's state of mind. Prosecutors sought to exclude a presentation of the messages through Diamandis, arguing the defense should have to put the former trooper on the stand – an idea defense attorney David Yannetti appeared to resist. Monday, Judge Beverly Cannone sided with the defense. Prosecutors have accused Read of drunkenly striking O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home in January 2022. But Read's defense claims she was framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed O'Keefe and conspired to frame her. Proctor is a key figure in the case: While he led the investigation into O'Keefe's death, his text messages have been used by Read's defense attorneys to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation. Jurors have already heard testimony about sexist texts the investigator sent his colleagues – including his superiors – at the Massachusetts State Police, in which he said he had found 'no nudes' during a search of Read's cellphone. State police announced Proctor had been relieved of duty last July, the same day Read's first trial ended in a mistrial. In March, weeks before Read's retrial began, the agency announced he was fired following an internal review. A MSP trial board determined Proctor had committed several violations of MSP policy, including sending inappropriate text messages about a suspect and providing sensitive or confidential information about an investigation to individuals who were not law enforcement, according to a personnel order obtained by CNN. The board also found Proctor had created the appearance of bias in his dealings with a homicide suspect, and/or brought himself and the agency into disrepute. An attorney for Proctor declined to comment Monday. Last year, during the first trial, Proctor apologized on the stand for the 'unprofessional' comments. Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Diamandis testified Monday he has known Proctor for about 30 years, going back to middle school. The two remain close friends, Diamandis said, and he confirmed he and Proctor were on a text message chain with several other friends from high school. When Yannetti presented him with a document, Diamandis confirmed it contained a portion of the approximately 38,000 messages on that text chain. Aside from the messages that disparaged the defendant, others showed Proctor sharing with his friends details about the victim and the investigation more broadly. At one point, Proctor signaled that whether Read struck O'Keefe intentionally or not, 'That's another animal we won't be able to prove.' On cross-examination, special prosecutor Hank Brennan sought to have Diamandis read the texts aloud. But when Brennan tried to have him read the texts that referred to Read as a 'whack job' and her looks, the witness declined. 'I'm not really comfortable reading these,' he said. 'Do I have to say these words out loud?' Ultimately, the court decided to have Brennan read aloud the text messages, with the prosecutor asking Diamandis to confirm their content. 'She's f**ked,' Proctor wrote just before 11:07 p.m. on January 29, 2022 – less than 24 hours after the commonwealth says Read struck O'Keefe with her vehicle. Someone else in the chain responded, 'No a** b*tch,' and Proctor responded with a 'laugh' reaction, Diamandis confirmed. Still, while the texts were crude and offensive, they never indicated Proctor committed misconduct in the case, Diamandis said under questioning by Brennan. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor,' Brennan asked, 'has he ever suggested that he planted evidence in this case or any other case?' 'No,' Diamandis said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested framing a defendant, including this defendant?' 'Absolutely not,' the witness said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested tampering with evidence in this case or in any other case?' 'No, absolutely not.' Proctor's texts were entered into evidence Monday as questions swirl about whether the former state trooper himself will be forced to take the stand. The commonwealth did not call Proctor to testify while presenting its case in chief – a notable decision, considering he was the lead investigator. Instead, they called Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, who testified to much of the investigation, saying any homicide case required a team effort. In his opening statement, defense attorney Alan Jackson likened Proctor to a 'cancer' that had infected the entire case. But the defense has signaled in recent days resistance to the idea of calling him to the stand, though he remains on its list of potential witnesses. Last Friday, while Brennan argued the defense should have to call Proctor to admit his text messages, Yannetti said that was the defense's choice to make. He contended the commonwealth wanted to force the defense to call a witness 'that they do not have confidence in to call themselves.' 'It's unheard of in a murder case that you don't call the lead investigator, but that's what happened in this case,' Yannetti said. 'We should not be forced to call Michael Proctor so that Mr. Brennan can then cross-examine him and lead him through basically his entire closing argument.' This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN
a day ago
- General
- CNN
Fired investigator's texts presented to jurors in Karen Read's retrial
FacebookTweetLink Follow Jurors in the retrial of Karen Read on Monday heard a spate of sexist messages the lead investigator of the case sent his friends, after the judge ruled to allow the since-fired Massachusetts State Police trooper's texts into evidence. 'She's a whack job c*nt,' Michael Proctor wrote about Read, according to testimony Monday by his childhood friend, Jonathan Diamandis, who was on the group chat where Proctor sent the message. 'Yeah, she's a babe,' Proctor said, less than 24 hours into the investigation of the death of Read's boyfriend, John O'Keefe. 'Weird Fall River accent though. No a**.' The contents of the text messages – which were notably presented to jurors under cross-examination by Massachusetts prosecutors and not Read's defense attorneys – were publicly known, having been presented at Read's first trial, which ended with a hung jury. But this is the first time jurors in her second trial have heard them. In a hearing last week outside the presence of the jury, the defense signaled the texts were important for helping jurors understand Proctor's state of mind. Prosecutors sought to exclude a presentation of the messages through Diamandis, arguing the defense should have to put the former trooper on the stand – an idea defense attorney David Yannetti appeared to resist. Monday, Judge Beverly Cannone sided with the defense. Prosecutors have accused Read of drunkenly striking O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home in January 2022. But Read's defense claims she was framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed O'Keefe and conspired to frame her. Proctor is a key figure in the case: While he led the investigation into O'Keefe's death, his text messages have been used by Read's defense attorneys to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation. Jurors have already heard testimony about sexist texts the investigator sent his colleagues – including his superiors – at the Massachusetts State Police, in which he said he had found 'no nudes' during a search of Read's cellphone. State police announced Proctor had been relieved of duty last July, the same day Read's first trial ended in a mistrial. In March, weeks before Read's retrial began, the agency announced he was fired following an internal review. A MSP trial board determined Proctor had committed several violations of MSP policy, including sending inappropriate text messages about a suspect and providing sensitive or confidential information about an investigation to individuals who were not law enforcement, according to a personnel order obtained by CNN. The board also found Proctor had created the appearance of bias in his dealings with a homicide suspect, and/or brought himself and the agency into disrepute. An attorney for Proctor declined to comment Monday. Last year, during the first trial, Proctor apologized on the stand for the 'unprofessional' comments. Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Diamandis testified Monday he has known Proctor for about 30 years, going back to middle school. The two remain close friends, Diamandis said, and he confirmed he and Proctor were on a text message chain with several other friends from high school. When Yannetti presented him with a document, Diamandis confirmed it contained a portion of the approximately 38,000 messages on that text chain. Aside from the messages that disparaged the defendant, others showed Proctor sharing with his friends details about the victim and the investigation more broadly. At one point, Proctor signaled that whether Read struck O'Keefe intentionally or not, 'That's another animal we won't be able to prove.' On cross-examination, special prosecutor Hank Brennan sought to have Diamandis read the texts aloud. But when Brennan tried to have him read the texts that referred to Read as a 'whack job' and her looks, the witness declined. 'I'm not really comfortable reading these,' he said. 'Do I have to say these words out loud?' Ultimately, the court decided to have Brennan read aloud the text messages, with the prosecutor asking Diamandis to confirm their content. 'She's f**ked,' Proctor wrote just before 11:07 p.m. on January 29, 2022 – less than 24 hours after the commonwealth says Read struck O'Keefe with her vehicle. Someone else in the chain responded, 'No a** b*tch,' and Proctor responded with a 'laugh' reaction, Diamandis confirmed. Still, while the texts were crude and offensive, they never indicated Proctor committed misconduct in the case, Diamandis said under questioning by Brennan. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor,' Brennan asked, 'has he ever suggested that he planted evidence in this case or any other case?' 'No,' Diamandis said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested framing a defendant, including this defendant?' 'Absolutely not,' the witness said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested tampering with evidence in this case or in any other case?' 'No, absolutely not.' Proctor's texts were entered into evidence Monday as questions swirl about whether the former state trooper himself will be forced to take the stand. The commonwealth did not call Proctor to testify while presenting its case in chief – a notable decision, considering he was the lead investigator. Instead, they called Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, who testified to much of the investigation, saying any homicide case required a team effort. In his opening statement, defense attorney Alan Jackson likened Proctor to a 'cancer' that had infected the entire case. But the defense has signaled in recent days resistance to the idea of calling him to the stand, though he remains on its list of potential witnesses. Last Friday, while Brennan argued the defense should have to call Proctor to admit his text messages, Yannetti said that was the defense's choice to make. He contended the commonwealth wanted to force the defense to call a witness 'that they do not have confidence in to call themselves.' 'It's unheard of in a murder case that you don't call the lead investigator, but that's what happened in this case,' Yannetti said. 'We should not be forced to call Michael Proctor so that Mr. Brennan can then cross-examine him and lead him through basically his entire closing argument.' This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN
a day ago
- General
- CNN
Fired investigator's texts presented to jurors in Karen Read's retrial
Jurors in the retrial of Karen Read on Monday heard a spate of sexist messages the lead investigator of the case sent his friends, after the judge ruled to allow the since-fired Massachusetts State Police trooper's texts into evidence. 'She's a whack job c*nt,' Michael Proctor wrote about Read, according to testimony Monday by his childhood friend, Jonathan Diamandis, who was on the group chat where Proctor sent the message. 'Yeah, she's a babe,' Proctor said, less than 24 hours into the investigation of the death of Read's boyfriend, John O'Keefe. 'Weird Fall River accent though. No a**.' The contents of the text messages – which were notably presented to jurors under cross-examination by Massachusetts prosecutors and not Read's defense attorneys – were publicly known, having been presented at Read's first trial, which ended with a hung jury. But this is the first time jurors in her second trial have heard them. In a hearing last week outside the presence of the jury, the defense signaled the texts were important for helping jurors understand Proctor's state of mind. Prosecutors sought to exclude a presentation of the messages through Diamandis, arguing the defense should have to put the former trooper on the stand – an idea defense attorney David Yannetti appeared to resist. Monday, Judge Beverly Cannone sided with the defense. Prosecutors have accused Read of drunkenly striking O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home in January 2022. But Read's defense claims she was framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed O'Keefe and conspired to frame her. Proctor is a key figure in the case: While he led the investigation into O'Keefe's death, his text messages have been used by Read's defense attorneys to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation. Jurors have already heard testimony about sexist texts the investigator sent his colleagues – including his superiors – at the Massachusetts State Police, in which he said he had found 'no nudes' during a search of Read's cellphone. State police announced Proctor had been relieved of duty last July, the same day Read's first trial ended in a mistrial. In March, weeks before Read's retrial began, the agency announced he was fired following an internal review. A MSP trial board determined Proctor had committed several violations of MSP policy, including sending inappropriate text messages about a suspect and providing sensitive or confidential information about an investigation to individuals who were not law enforcement, according to a personnel order obtained by CNN. The board also found Proctor had created the appearance of bias in his dealings with a homicide suspect, and/or brought himself and the agency into disrepute. An attorney for Proctor declined to comment Monday. Last year, during the first trial, Proctor apologized on the stand for the 'unprofessional' comments. Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Diamandis testified Monday he has known Proctor for about 30 years, going back to middle school. The two remain close friends, Diamandis said, and he confirmed he and Proctor were on a text message chain with several other friends from high school. When Yannetti presented him with a document, Diamandis confirmed it contained a portion of the approximately 38,000 messages on that text chain. Aside from the messages that disparaged the defendant, others showed Proctor sharing with his friends details about the victim and the investigation more broadly. At one point, Proctor signaled that whether Read struck O'Keefe intentionally or not, 'That's another animal we won't be able to prove.' On cross-examination, special prosecutor Hank Brennan sought to have Diamandis read the texts aloud. But when Brennan tried to have him read the texts that referred to Read as a 'whack job' and her looks, the witness declined. 'I'm not really comfortable reading these,' he said. 'Do I have to say these words out loud?' Ultimately, the court decided to have Brennan read aloud the text messages, with the prosecutor asking Diamandis to confirm their content. 'She's f**ked,' Proctor wrote just before 11:07 p.m. on January 29, 2022 – less than 24 hours after the commonwealth says Read struck O'Keefe with her vehicle. Someone else in the chain responded, 'No a** b*tch,' and Proctor responded with a 'laugh' reaction, Diamandis confirmed. Still, while the texts were crude and offensive, they never indicated Proctor committed misconduct in the case, Diamandis said under questioning by Brennan. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor,' Brennan asked, 'has he ever suggested that he planted evidence in this case or any other case?' 'No,' Diamandis said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested framing a defendant, including this defendant?' 'Absolutely not,' the witness said. 'In your conversations with Mr. Proctor, has he ever suggested tampering with evidence in this case or in any other case?' 'No, absolutely not.' Proctor's texts were entered into evidence Monday as questions swirl about whether the former state trooper himself will be forced to take the stand. The commonwealth did not call Proctor to testify while presenting its case in chief – a notable decision, considering he was the lead investigator. Instead, they called Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, who testified to much of the investigation, saying any homicide case required a team effort. In his opening statement, defense attorney Alan Jackson likened Proctor to a 'cancer' that had infected the entire case. But the defense has signaled in recent days resistance to the idea of calling him to the stand, though he remains on its list of potential witnesses. Last Friday, while Brennan argued the defense should have to call Proctor to admit his text messages, Yannetti said that was the defense's choice to make. He contended the commonwealth wanted to force the defense to call a witness 'that they do not have confidence in to call themselves.' 'It's unheard of in a murder case that you don't call the lead investigator, but that's what happened in this case,' Yannetti said. 'We should not be forced to call Michael Proctor so that Mr. Brennan can then cross-examine him and lead him through basically his entire closing argument.' This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Prosecution rests in trial of Karen Read who's charged in death of Boston police officer boyfriend
The prosecution in the second trial of Karen Read rested Thursday after about a month of testimony spotlighting evidence from the scene and witnesses who heard the defendant repeatedly say 'I hit him' in reference to the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend. Read, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving the 46-year-old officer to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officer's home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and someone in the home that night killed him. A mistrial was declared last year and the second trial has attracted massive media attention and become the subject of a Hulu documentary series. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has often looked similar to the first trial. If she is found guilty of the most serious charge of second-degree murder, she could spend the rest of her life in prison. Simplified approach The prosecution, led this time by Hank Brennan, has taken a more streamlined, focused approach. Unlike the first trial where witness after witness undermined the prosecution's case, Brennan did everything to avoid those mistakes. Most significantly, he refrained from putting Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, on the stand. Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues. His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys used his text messages to attempt to show Proctor was biased and ignored the possibility of other suspects. Brennan also didn't put Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the house where O'Keefe's body was found, on the stand. He also passed on putting on Brian Higgins, a federal agent who had exchanged flirty texts with Read, on the stand. All three testified in the first trial and could be called by the defense as it seeks to show O'Keefe was beaten at the house party hosted by Albert and left outside to die. Read's attorney, Alan Jackson, still managed to raise concerns about Higgins and Proctor. During the cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, he made him read all the flirtatious texts between Higgins and Read. Jackson also brought up a text message chain with Bukhenik in which Proctor said, 'I hate that man, I truly hate him' about David Yannetti, an attorney for Read. Stick to the evidence Broken pieces of Read's taillight. A broken cocktail glass. Read's words the scene. Prosecutors have spent much of the trial building their case through evidence from the scene. Like before, they started by introducing several law enforcement witnesses who were among the first responders and recalled hearing Read repeatedly say 'I hit him' after she found O'Keefe. They also played several clips of interviews Read has done since the first trial, in which she talked about how much she drank and made comments suggesting she knew what she did. She also talked about pulling a piece of glass from O'Keefe's nose. 'Could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and incapacitated him?' she said during an interview for a documentary on the case 'He didn't look mortally wounded, as far as I could see' but 'could I have done something that knocked him out and in his drunkenness and in the cold didn't come to again.' Prosecutors called a neurosurgeon who testified O'Keefe suffered a 'classic blunt trauma injury' associated with falling backward and hitting the back of his head. Prosecutors also showed jurors pieces of the Read's broken taillight, which they say was damaged when she hit O'Keefe. The defense argues the taillight was damaged later when she was backing out of O'Keefe's house and hit O'Keefe's car. Prosecutors also introduced evidence of a broken cocktail glass, found at the scene, which they said O'Keefe was holding when Read backed into him. DNA evidence played a part Andre Porto, a forensic scientist who works in the DNA unit of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, detailed various items he tested, including the broken rear taillight and pieces of a broken cocktail glass found in in the yard. Only O'Keefe was a likely match for both. Porto found three DNA contributors but only O'Keefe was a likely match. He also tested DNA from parts of a broken cocktail glass found in the yard and only O'Keefe was seen as a likely match. Porto also tested a hair found on the taillight. Later in the trial, analyst Karl Miyasako of Bode Technology testified that tests of the hair sample taken from Read's vehicle found a mitochondrial DNA match to O'Keefe. He said that means the DNA could be a match to O'Keefe or any one of his maternal relatives. What's next for defense The trial could easily continue several more weeks as Read's defense team makes its case. Read has said the defense's case will be 'more robust' this time. It listed over 90 witnesses who could testify. 'I'm anxious for everyone to learn what we know,' she said last week. Read's defense has vigorously questioned the prosecution's witnesses and called into question evidence presented about O'Keefe's death. During opening statements in April, Brennan said Read 'admitted what she did that night' and pointed to a television interview in which Read said 'could I have clipped him?' about O'Keefe's death.
