Closing arguments in Karen Read’s murder retrial

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Prosecutors and defense attorneys in Karen Read’s murder retrial are set to give their closing arguments Friday morning, their final pitch to jurors nearly eight weeks of testimony in the making.

Read’s defense rested earlier this week after calling its last witness, ARCCA biomechanics expert Andrew Rentschler. According to Rentschler, whose company was originally retained as part of a federal probe into Read’s case, the abrasions on John O’Keefe’s right arm were inconsistent with striking Read’s taillight.

“I don’t think his arm was even impacted by the car,” Rentschler opined Wednesday.

Prosecutors beg to differ. They allege Read, 45, drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read has denied leaving her boyfriend of two years to die in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road, and her attorneys contend she was framed in a coverup. The defense has floated an alternate theory that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, casting suspicion on afterparty guest Brian Higgins, who swapped flirty texts with Read while she was dating O’Keefe. 

During a charge conference Thursday, defense attorney David Yannetti renewed Read’s request for a required finding of not guilty and argued prosecutors produced no witnesses who could say O’Keefe’s injuries were consistent with a motor vehicle collision.

“And if he was not hit by a motor vehicle, none of these three indictments may stand,” Yannetti asserted. 

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally, meanwhile, argued defense witnesses offered conflicting testimony and demonstrated “bias and advocacy.” Judge Beverly Cannone ultimately denied the defense request.

She also told Read’s lawyers they hadn’t met their burden to argue either Higgins or 34 Fairview Road homeowner Brian Albert killed O’Keefe or had the motive to do so. However, Cannone said the defense can suggest police were aware of Higgins’s flirtation with Read and failed to look into it while investigating O’Keefe’s death. 

Closing arguments will begin around 9 a.m., with each side receiving an hour and 15 minutes. Cannone said Thursday she’d ask court officers to contact jurors and see if the jury can stay at the courthouse until 5 or 5:30 p.m., in hopes of giving them more time to deliberate.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.