Related
DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The defense in the Karen Read murder trial rested its case Monday, setting the stage for closing arguments and jury deliberations after nearly two months of testimony.
The trial began in late April and the prosecution called more than 60 witnesses before resting its case on Friday.
Defense attorneys called a total of six witnesses.
Closing arguments are now scheduled for Tuesday. Each side will be limited to one hour for their arguments.
“You want to see what the definition of motor mouth is?” said defense attorney Alan Jackson while leaving the courthouse Monday. “That’s going to be tomorrow.”
Monday’s proceedings included testimony from three witnesses, including a retired medical examiner who testified he believed injuries to victim John O’Keefe’s right arm are consistent with a dog attack, rather than an interaction with the tail light of Read’s Lexus, as the prosecution has claimed.
“One of the things that struck me was there was a distinct absence of bruising on the torso,” said Dr. Frank Sheridan.
The prosecution claims Read hit O’Keefe with her SUV and left him to die in a snowbank.
The defense claims O’Keefe, who was a Boston police officer, was beaten to death at the Canton home where he was later found unresponsive in the snow. The defense also claims O’Keefe was bitten and clawed by a dog.
Sheridan reviewed photos and autopsy reports but did not examine O’Keefe’s body.
As he was cross examined, he testified he was unaware DNA testing done on swabs from wounds to O’Keefe’s arm found no evidence of a canine attack.
“I wasn’t aware of that, I must admit,” he said.
In his own testimony, an accident reconstruction expert hired by the Department of Justice as part of a separate investigation said he did various tests and concluded O’Keefe’s injuries and damage to Read’s tail light are not consistent with a pedestrian strike.
Daniel Wolfe said he and his team fired a piece of glass out of a cannon at 37 miles-per-hour to see what the damage would look like.
“The theory that Dr. Wentschler and I put forward is potentially an individual threw this drinking glass at the back of the Lexus, causing the tail light to fracture,” Wolfe said.
Andrew Wentschler was a colleague of Wolfe’s who studies how the human body reacts to an application of force.
In his testimony, he said O’Keefe would have suffered more than a major head injury and skull fracture if he had been hit by a car in the way prosecutors claim.
“You can’t deny the science and the physics as to what would have happened if he was struck by the vehicle,” Wentschler said.
More than two years after O’Keefe’s death, Read’s trial got underway in late April.
With her fate soon in the hands of the jury, Read was asked on Monday if she was feeling confident.
“I am,” she told 7’s Jonathan Hall. “Absolutely.”
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)