DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The prosecution rested Thursday in the Karen Read murder retrial after 23 days of testimony.
Crash reconstruction expert Dr. Judson Welcher took the witness stand again earlier Thursday morning.
Things became heated between Welcher and Alessi on Thursday. At one point, Welcher told Alessi to go to the next slide during a presentation, to which Alessi responded, “I choose which slides!”
Welcher talked about evidence on Wednesday, detailing how he believes Boston police officer John O’Keefe’s injuries correlated to the damage on Read’s SUV.
The defense had some credibility questions for Welcher. Read’s lawyers grilled him on why he changed his report several times.
This trial has been very different from the first one around.
Read has made a number of public statements and Brennan has played clips for the jury, including ones he used to end his case.
“I thought, ‘could I have run him over? Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn’t know it?'” Read asked in a clip from Investigation Discovery.
7NEWS Legal Analyst Tom Hoopes says it’s unclear if playing these clips will pay off for the state because it’s so rare defendants in murder trials speak out publicly.
“We haven’t seen this kind of thing, not only in Massachusetts very often, but in the country very often,” said Hoopes. “So, this is kind of a test case.”
7NEWS asked Read how would she sum up the state’s case.
“Unjust,” Read responded.
Read is accused of killing O’Keefe, her boyfriend, by hitting him with her SUV in January 2022. Prosecutors say she left him to die in the snow outside a home in Canton. Her lawyers argue she is being framed in a police coverup.
The first trial ended in a hung jury.
After the prosecution rested, Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the day.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)