Day 26 - June 17, 2024

Trooper Paul resumed direct examination on vehicle damage, Techstream data, and his crash reconstruction. He testified that the data appeared to place a reverse maneuver on Fairview and concluded that the Lexus reversed near 34 Fairview Road, struck John O'Keefe, and left the area. The court required counsel to break the opinion into simpler questions and later sustained an objection and struck Paul's response about what an attentive and reasonable operator would do before reversing.

Trooper Paul reiterated that he considered the reverse triggering event consistent with a pedestrian strike and agreed that it was consistent with the defendant's reported three-point turn near 34 Fairview Road. He described his proposed impact path and post-impact movement of Mr. O'Keefe, explained why he relied on odometer mileage rather than key cycles to contextualize Techstream data, and gave his opinion about the taillight, glass, and vehicle damage. Paul also acknowledged that he had no calculation for this sideswipe-style crash and did not know exactly how Mr. O'Keefe or glass interacted with the vehicle.

Defense counsel questioned Trooper Joseph Paul about whether his reconstruction relied on key cycles, odometer mileage, or both. Paul said he used key cycles, mileage, and information within the triggering events; he also said he could not definitively identify every route traveled. After a sidebar, the court allowed one limited follow-up on the point and a short prosecution follow-up, then treated a final custody-related question as beyond recross scope.

Trooper Joseph Paul agreed that his proposed travel range fit the odometer-based sequence described by the prosecutor, including the vehicle's presence near 34 Fairview Road and a later reverse movement. His testimony then concluded.

Defense counsel questioned Cellebrite expert Ian Whiffin about testing on iOS 15.8.2 instead of the 15.2.1 version on Jennifer McCabe's phone. Whiffin confirmed recovery of the URL associated with a deleted browser-state record at 2:27:40 a.m., while explaining that the deleted session history could not be fully recovered. He said altered database files could be returned to an extraction but that hash verification would show changes, and he qualified that undetectable renumbering would require substantial knowledge and skill.

Ian Whiffin testified that his testing across iOS versions showed the relevant timestamp marked when a browser tab took focus. He said the absence of missing history-database records meant they could not have been selectively deleted, and he saw nothing in the extraction itself indicating tampering, while noting he lacked the original hash information. He concluded that the two Google searches were conducted at 6:23 and 6:24 on the morning of the 29th.

Ian Whiffin said he was not familiar with the term “spontaneous deletion” when defense counsel asked about it on recross. He was then excused from the witness stand.

Trooper Nicholas Guarino described his digital-forensics work, including unsuccessful efforts to obtain readable data from Read's Lexus infotainment system. He said the vehicle's trim level was not supported by Berla and that, according to AG Speake, no data was recovered through a later chip-off attempt. Guarino also described extracting and reviewing phones, disputed Richard Green's interpretation of Jennifer McCabe's Safari and call-log data, and explained his view that the cited WAL-file records were automatically handled by the operating system rather than user-deleted. The Commonwealth marked and published text-message and call-log records involving Read, John O'Keefe, Laura Sullivan, and Erin O'Keefe. Guarino read messages in which O'Keefe described weekly arguments over several months and asked Read to stop calling. He identified 18 calls from Read to O'Keefe that morning and afternoon: 11 rejected, four missed, and three answered. The overnight messages included Read saying she was going home at 12:55 a.m. and, at 1:04 a.m., that she was back in Mansfield and the children were home alone.