Day 13 - May 16, 2024

Judge Beverly J. Cannone · Trial 1 · 6 proceedings · 1,984 utterances

Day 13 of 35

Appearing:

Colin Albert faces a bruising cross-examination exposing family ties to the lead investigator, threatening videos, and two conflicting explanations for injured knuckles; Matthew McCabe begins testifying about the night of January 28.

Full day summary

Day 13 opens with Judge Cannone emphatically denying a defense motion to strike harassment testimony from the day prior, ruling that Alan Jackson's questioning had opened the door. Jackson then delivers an extended cross-examination of Colin Albert, catching him in an initial denial about meeting with prosecutors before trial, presenting a wedding photograph linking Albert to lead investigator Michael Proctor as a childhood ring bearer, and introducing a month-long gap in text messages between Albert and Allie McCabe after O'Keefe's death. Jackson plays two videos of Albert making explicit physical threats, then uses Albert's own prior sworn testimony to place those videos in his junior or senior year — closer to the events of January 2022 — contradicting the redirect account that they were from sophomore year. A second inconsistency emerges when Jackson confronts Albert with a July 2023 hearing where he attributed injured knuckles to a heavy bag, not the ice-fall story he offered at trial. After the prosecution's re-redirect attempts to rehabilitate Albert on each point, ADA Lally begins the direct examination of Matthew McCabe, who describes observing Karen Read's dark SUV parked outside 34 Fairview Road three times over roughly 10–14 minutes, with no one exiting and no footprints in the accumulating snow, before testimony is cut short by adjournment.

Key Moments

Judge Cannone denies the defense motion to strike harassment testimony, stating she disagrees with Jackson's characterization 'in the strongest way possible.'
Jackson establishes that Colin Albert initially denied meeting with prosecutors to prepare, then admitted to a meeting with ADA Lally and Sergeant Tully.
A wedding photograph places Albert as ring bearer alongside lead investigator Michael Proctor, documenting a deep family friendship that Jackson argues tainted the investigation.
Jackson plays two videos of Albert making explicit physical threats and uses Albert's prior sworn testimony to place them in 2021–2022 rather than sophomore year, while also exposing a second inconsistent explanation for Albert's injured knuckles.
Matthew McCabe testifies he observed a dark SUV believed to be Karen Read's reposition three times outside 34 Fairview Road without anyone exiting, with no footprints visible in the snow.

Notable Quotes

Beverly J. Cannone

“I remember clearly the lines of inquiry that you initiated, so I disagree with you in the strongest way possible. You've made your record. Your motion is denied.”

The judge's ruling sets the adversarial tone for the day and forecloses the defense's effort to limit what the jury heard about harassment connected to the Albert and McCabe families.

Alan Jackson

“Right. But you do remember, two and a half years ago, you left 34 Fairview at 12:10 a.m., correct, down to the minute?”

Jackson's contrast between Albert's selective memory — precise on the night in question, blank on a recent prosecutor meeting — anchors the day's central credibility attack.

Alan Jackson

“John O'Keefe looks like he had been beaten to death. He's got two black eyes, a laceration over his right eye, laceration over his nose, a giant wound on the back of his head. And he doesn't look like he was hit by a car — he looks like he was in a physical altercation.”

Jackson's sidebar statement explicitly frames the defense's third-party culprit theory, arguing O'Keefe's injuries are consistent with a beating and that Albert was never properly investigated.

Procedural

Procedural - Motions

15 utt.

Attorney Alan Jackson renews the defense objection to harassment testimony elicited during Allie McCabe's examination the previous day, moving to strike the testimony and requesting a jury instruction to disregard it. Jackson argues the defense never opened the door to harassment evidence, stating his questions focused solely on when McCabe first spoke to state police and the federal grand jury. ADA Lally responds that Jackson's questioning implied McCabe only produced text messages after being questioned in another proceeding, directly opening the door to the harassment context explaining the delay. Judge Cannone denies the motion, stating she disagrees with Jackson's characterization 'in the strongest way possible.' The jury is then brought in and the court prepares to resume with Colin Albert's testimony.

Cross

Colin Albert Alan Jackson

1009 utt.

Alan Jackson conducts an extended cross-examination of Colin Albert, beginning by catching Albert in an inconsistency about whether he spoke with anyone to prepare for testimony — Albert initially denied it, then admitted meeting with ADA Lally and Sergeant Tully. Jackson repeatedly highlights Albert's frequent 'I don't remember' responses while noting Albert can recall precise details from the night in question. Jackson establishes the close relationship between the Albert and Proctor families through a wedding photo showing Colin as ring bearer alongside lead investigator Michael Proctor. He probes the adequacy of Proctor's investigation — a 10-minute interview with no phone extraction, no seizure of the device, and only a screenshot of texts rather than the underlying data. Jackson introduces a month-long gap in text messages between Albert and Allie McCabe immediately after the incident, suggesting a switch to Snapchat's auto-delete platform. He then presents a February 26, 2022 photograph from Fenway Johnny's showing Albert with visibly injured right knuckles, which Albert attributes to falling on ice. Jackson challenges this explanation and introduces two videos of Albert making violent threats against 'Advantage' kids, and establishes that Albert appeared at a prior hearing in July 2023 with similarly injured knuckles.

Redirect

Colin Albert Adam Lally

40 utt.

ADA Adam Lally conducts a brief redirect examination of Colin Albert focused on rehabilitating the witness after cross-examination highlighted videos of Albert making violent threats. Lally establishes that the videos were made when Albert was a 16-year-old sophomore in high school, at least two years before the events of January 2022. Albert explains the videos were part of a back-and-forth with members of a club hockey team called Advantage, a group he had no relationship with, never met in person, and never had any physical interaction with. Lally then pivots to directly ask whether Albert ever threatened John O'Keefe or had any similar exchange with him, which Albert denies.

Recross

Colin Albert Alan Jackson

146 utt.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson conducts a recross focused on two issues: the timing of Colin Albert's threatening videos and Albert's inconsistent explanations for his injured knuckles. Jackson establishes that Albert previously testified under oath at a July 2023 hearing that the videos were from his junior or senior year — placing them in 2021-2022, the same year as O'Keefe's death — contradicting the redirect testimony that they were from sophomore year. The proceeding includes a lengthy sidebar argument where Jackson advocates for admitting the videos as relevant to both the adequacy of the police investigation and the third-party culprit defense, arguing Albert was never properly investigated despite his violent tendencies and proximity to the Albert home. After the recess, Jackson plays both videos for the jury, extracts admissions that the threats were of physical violence, and closes by confronting Albert with a second inconsistent explanation for his injured knuckles — at the July 2023 hearing, Albert attributed them to hitting a heavy bag rather than the ice-fall story given at trial.

Redirect

Colin Albert Adam Lally

140 utt.

ADA Lally systematically addresses each point raised during recross. He establishes that Colin Albert's contact with Trooper Michael Proctor was minimal — roughly five or six encounters, mostly as a young child at the grandmother's house — and that the wedding photo was from when Albert was eight or nine with no memory of the event. Lally reframes the month-long text gap with Allie McCabe as normal given their use of multiple communication platforms, and separates the two hand injury incidents as distinct events — ice in February and an ungloved heavy bag strike in July. He walks Albert through the threatening videos again, placing them at age 16 during a back-and-forth with a club hockey team over girls, with no physical meeting ever occurring. Albert concludes by describing over a year of online harassment, social media accusations of murder against his family, and people showing up at their homes and sporting events. Lally closes by having Albert reaffirm he never saw John O'Keefe at 34 Fairview Road that night.

Direct

Matthew McCabe Adam Lally

634 utt.

ADA Lally walks Matthew McCabe through his relationship with John O'Keefe and Karen Read, then reconstructs the evening of January 28-29, 2022. McCabe describes going from the Canton Junction Pub to a high school basketball game, then to the Waterfall bar where the group gathered, and finally to 34 Fairview Road (Brian Albert's house) after midnight. At Fairview, McCabe testifies he looked outside three times and observed a dark SUV — which he believed was Karen Read's vehicle — parked in front of the house, each time positioned progressively further up the road. He saw no one exit the vehicle, no footprints in the accumulating snow, and no interior lights. The SUV was present for roughly 10-14 minutes before it was gone. McCabe left around 1:45 a.m., drove home by approximately 2:10-2:25 a.m., and was woken by screams in his bedroom — at which point testimony was cut short by adjournment.

◀ Day 12 Trial 1 Day 14 ▶

Day 13 - May 16, 2024

Procedural - Motions

Colin Albert - Cross

Colin Albert - Redirect/Recross

Matthew McCabe - Direct (Part 1)