Day 28 - June 20, 2024

After a sidebar, Judge Cannone addresses the Commonwealth's renewed motion for reciprocal discovery and motion to exclude defense expert Dr. Marie Russell. The judge finds the defense violated Rule 14 reciprocal discovery obligations but declines to exclude Russell's testimony, ruling that the voir dire hearing provided the Commonwealth sufficient information. Russell is limited to opining only on whether marks on John O'Keefe's arm resulted from an animal attack, and may not testify on police activity or what the injuries are inconsistent with. The judge also finds a Rule 14 violation regarding ARCCA experts Dr. Wolfe and Dr. Rentschler, allows Wolfe to testify to his involvement, but reserves ruling on Rentschler's testimony scope, noting Massachusetts biomechanical engineers cannot testify to medical causation.

Trooper Nicholas Guarino continued his direct examination by reading text messages Karen Read sent to Laura Sullivan on January 29th, in which Read stated they found O'Keefe outside in the snow at 5 a.m. and that she didn't go into the party. Guarino testified that Read made over 53 unanswered calls to O'Keefe between 12:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and eight voicemails were played for the jury, escalating from concern about the children being alone to angry messages calling O'Keefe a 'pervert' and a 'loser.' Guarino then presented GPS location data and health data from O'Keefe's phone, tracking his route from the Waterfall Bar through Canton streets to 34 Fairview Road, arriving at approximately 12:24 a.m. with no movement recorded until 6:15 a.m. He testified the phone's GPS coordinates consistently plotted between 32 and 34 Fairview — where O'Keefe's body was found — and that fluctuating accuracy circles only encompassed the interior of 34 Fairview for approximately three seconds, during which O'Keefe would have needed to travel at 32 mph to reach the front door and return. During a sidebar, the judge excluded a prosecution motion to introduce Read's 1:27 p.m. Google search for DUI attorneys, ruling its prejudicial effect outweighed its probative value.

Defense attorney David Yannetti cross-examined Trooper Nicholas Guarino on his forensic qualifications, noting his lack of computer science degrees, publications, or teaching experience, with training consisting largely of introductory online courses. Yannetti established that Guarino did not address John O'Keefe's health or location data in a formal report until April 2023, after defense expert Rick Green's affidavit; Guarino limited what he knew about other devices and broader investigative activity. The cross-examination focused on O'Keefe's phone not being placed in airplane mode or a Faraday bag after seizure, a three-minute difference among iPhone timestamps shown in Powerlog material, and the chain of custody described in Guarino's February 2022 report. Yannetti suggested the clock difference could affect Waze timing; Guarino rejected that proposition and testified that the Powerlog artifact did not concern GPS timing. Yannetti also questioned Google-search and call artifacts associated with Jennifer McCabe's phone and Read's available, redacted phone records. Guarino testified that he knew of no deleted calls on Read's phone, believed there were no searches from midnight to 5:00 a.m., and, subject to redaction and timing limits, saw a few afternoon search artifacts; on redirect he explained that some afternoon search items absent from the phone were represented by cookies.

ADA Adam Lally conducted a redirect examination of Trooper Nicholas Guarino addressing points raised during defense cross-examination. Guarino detailed his forensic certifications and explained that he was the sole creator of Cellebrite reports for all phones in the case. He rebutted the defense's three-clock discrepancy by explaining the timestamps came from a power log file unrelated to Waze navigation data. Guarino maintained that Jennifer McCabe's Google searches occurred at 6:23-6:24 a.m. as she reported, not at 2:27 a.m., because her phone records showed other activity at that time. He also testified that deleted items in WAL files are automatically purged by the operating system without user action, and disclosed that Karen Read's phone contained deleted search history and web browsing from the afternoon of January 29, 2022.

ADA Adam Lally calls Dr. Renee Stonebridge, director of cardiac and neuropathology at the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Boston, to testify about her neuropathological analysis of John O'Keefe's brain. After establishing her credentials — board certifications in four pathology subspecialties — Stonebridge describes finding subarachnoid hemorrhage on the frontal poles, left temporal pole, and left lateral fissure; multiple punctate contusions in the frontal and temporal cortices; herniation of the bilateral unci with resulting brain stem hemorrhage; and intraventricular hemorrhage in the occipital horns. She characterizes all injuries as acute, occurring minutes to hours before death, and rules out aneurysm or natural disease. She opines the injuries resulted from force trauma consistent with either a fall or being struck by a vehicle and going to the ground. Defense waives cross-examination.

ADA Adam Lally calls Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a forensic pathologist with the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, to testify about the autopsy she performed on John O'Keefe on January 31, 2022. After establishing her credentials and providing general education on autopsy procedures and manner-of-death classifications, Scordi-Bello details her findings: a laceration and abrasion on the back right of O'Keefe's head overlying extensive radiating skull fractures, bilateral periorbital ecchymoses (raccoon eyes) caused by blood seeping through anterior skull base fractures, subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhage, linear abrasions on the posterior right arm and forearm, and internal signs of hypothermia including Wischnewski spots in the stomach and pancreatic hemorrhage. She testifies that O'Keefe's cause of death was blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia, with manner of death listed as could not be determined because she lacked sufficient information to distinguish between accident and homicide. She opines that the head injury came first, likely incapacitating O'Keefe, after which hypothermia set in given his clothing (jeans and long-sleeve shirt), wet conditions, and blood alcohol level of 0.21 (with vitreous at 0.28, indicating a declining BAC). The proceeding is adjourned before autopsy photographs are shown to the jury.