Commonwealth v. Read — Trial ArchiveMatthew McCabe
Testimony Impact
Matthew McCabe, husband of Nicole Albert's sister Jennifer McCabe, was among the group invited from the Waterfall Bar & Grille to 34 Fairview Road on the night of January 28-29, 2022. His testimony spans two days and covers the group's movements that evening, his observations of a dark SUV — which he identified as Read's vehicle — repositioning multiple times outside the house without anyone entering, and his account of being woken by Karen Read's screaming phone call the following morning before arriving at the scene where O'Keefe's body was found. He also testified about post-incident communications with members of the Albert family.
Challenges & Responses
What attorneys challenged during examination and how the witness responded.
Yannetti challenged McCabe on three fronts: inconsistencies between his trial testimony and his initial statement to Trooper Proctor about the SUV's position; a hedge at trial about the intoxication of Read and O'Keefe that differed from his grand jury statement; and the February 1 group text chain, which the defense argued showed McCabe monitoring police activity near the Albert home and coordinating a unified account of O'Keefe never entering the house. McCabe maintained on redirect that the group text was directed at media inquiries, not law enforcement.
Notable Quotes From The Record
“I did not see any injuries.”
Confirms O'Keefe had no visible injuries earlier that evening at the Waterfall bar.
“No, I did not.”
McCabe answered that he did not observe fighting or arguing between Read and O'Keefe at the Waterfall.
“I looked out again, because it'd been a few minutes — again, two, three, four minutes, I'm not sure how long — but it had been a few minutes, and we thought it was weird they hadn't come into the house.”
Reflects McCabe's reported expectation that they would enter the house and his intermittent observation that they had not yet done so.
“The SUV had moved up the road from the front of the house. It went from, you know, spot A to spot B. It was now further up, more in line with where the flag pole, the utility box — more in line with that. It had moved up the road.”
McCabe describes that, during his intermittent looks, the SUV appeared farther up the road.
“I woke up to screams in my bedroom.”
Sets up the discovery of O'Keefe's body the next morning — testimony cut short by adjournment.
“I awoke to the screaming of "Jen, Jen, Jen." So when I woke up, I thought there was somebody in my bedroom.”
Establishes the urgency of Karen Read's early morning contact and the manner in which the search for O'Keefe began.
“She didn't know where John was, and the last time she saw him was at the Waterfall.”
Read's statement that she last saw O'Keefe at the Waterfall is central to the prosecution's case — McCabe testified he saw her SUV at 34 Fairview after the Waterfall.
“Because I saw her vehicle. I saw the black SUV arrive to 34 Fairview that morning.”
McCabe said he found Read's reported account implausible because he saw a black SUV he identified as her vehicle arrive at 34 Fairview that morning; this testimony does not establish that he saw Read or O'Keefe inside it.
“She alerted that she broke her tail light — cracked her tail light, something to that effect — while Jen and I were still in the bedroom and she was on the phone.”
Early disclosure of taillight damage, a key piece of physical evidence in the case.
“That is not right. The SUV — the first time — was in front of the house, in front of — coming out the front door. The second time, it was to the right of the house.”
McCabe rejects Yannetti's interpretation that Proctor's report described the SUV's initial position, testifying that it was in front of the house the first time and to the right of the house the second time.
“No, I did not see John in the vehicle.”
McCabe testified that he did not see O'Keefe inside the SUV; the testimony is limited to McCabe's own observation.
“No, I wish I did, but I didn't.”
McCabe testified that he did not see a person on the lawn, while explaining that he was focused on the road rather than the lawn.
“Troopers back out front but in front of Asian house. Looks like more has been dug up there — or at least looks like it.”
Group text showing McCabe actively monitoring investigator activity three days after O'Keefe's death and reporting to Brian Albert in real time.
“John never went in the house. It's not a story — it's a fact.”
McCabe's pushback frames the text as truthful rather than coordinated, but the defensive response underscores the sensitivity of the point.
“Immediately after — no one knew what happened. John never showed — never came in the house. So we had no idea what happened to John.”
McCabe reinforces the prosecution's central claim that O'Keefe never entered 34 Fairview, explaining why the family discussed events afterward.
“No.”
McCabe's flat denial when asked if he ever told anyone what to say to investigators — directly countering Yannetti's coordination theory from cross.
“I did not hear those statements.”
Lally draws a careful distinction: McCabe didn't hear Julie Nagel's statements on the drive home, rather than denying she made them — preserving Nagel's potential testimony.
“They dug out the snow. It looked like the snow banks — it looked like there was more snow dug out around the — the area around the scene.”
Provides an innocent explanation for the February 1st text about 'more has been dug up' — law enforcement processing the scene, not something suspicious.
“The "them" was Channel 4 — who went into D&E.”
Identifies Channel 4 as the audience McCabe meant by 'them' in the group text.
“Channel 4 was who I was referencing, yes.”
Confirms that Channel 4 was the referenced audience, following McCabe's explanation of what he meant by the statement.
Key Moments
- McCabe described watching a dark SUV parked outside 34 Fairview Road move progressively further up the street on three separate occasions without anyone exiting the vehicle, establishing a timeline of Read's presence outside the house after O'Keefe disappeared.
- On the morning O'Keefe was found, McCabe testified he was awakened by the sound of Karen Read screaming 'Jen, Jen, Jen' — and that when Read later told him she didn't know where John was and had last seen him at the Waterfall, he disbelieved her because he had personally observed her SUV arrive at 34 Fairview that morning.
- Read disclosed to McCabe and Jennifer that she had cracked her taillight — a central piece of physical evidence in the case — while they were still in the bedroom before heading to the scene.
- On cross-examination, Yannetti confronted McCabe with a February 1, 2022 group text in which McCabe instructed others to tell Chris Albert that O'Keefe 'never went in the house,' with Brian Albert responding 'exactly' — a message the defense used to suggest coordinated narrative management among the Albert circle.
- During recross, Yannetti extracted an admission from McCabe that his instruction in the group text was directed at Channel 4 news — narrowing the scope of his redirect testimony that he had never told anyone what to say.