Day 29 - June 21, 2024

ADA Adam Lally resumes direct examination of Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, beginning with her communications with Trooper Proctor about the case and whether she felt pressured to reach a particular conclusion. Lally then publishes autopsy photographs to the jury, with Scordi-Bello narrating injuries visible in each image: arm abrasions, hand contusions, bilateral periorbital ecchymosis, a nasal abrasion, and the occipital laceration overlying skull fractures. Lally questions whether the injuries are consistent with a pedestrian collision; Scordi-Bello testifies they are possible but not classic pedestrian injuries, noting the absence of lower-extremity injuries and that the defendant's vehicle had a higher bumper than a typical sedan. She reaffirms her cause-of-death opinion: blunt impact injuries of the head and hypothermia.

Elizabeth Little methodically establishes that John O'Keefe had no injuries from the neck down — no fractures, no broken bones, nothing to his shoulders, torso, hips, legs, or feet — aside from CPR-related rib damage and a minor knee abrasion. She elicits concessions that the facial injuries (eyelid laceration, nasal abrasions, tongue laceration) and hand contusions are consistent with being punched and with defensive wounds, and that the head laceration could result from falling backward onto concrete after being struck. Scordi-Bello acknowledges the arm abrasions are discrete linear patterns inconsistent with road rash, and declines to opine on vehicle-strike consistency, stating she is not a reconstruction or biomechanics expert. Little closes by clarifying that redness near the ribs shown in prosecution photos was lividity, not an injury.

ADA Adam Lally conducts a brief redirect examination of Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello to address points raised during Elizabeth Little's cross-examination. Lally elicits that the facial injuries Little characterized as consistent with punching could also result from contact with glass, plastic, or other blunt objects during a fall. He establishes that the isolated abrasion near the head laceration is not typical of dragging injuries and could instead result from blunt impact with the ground. Scordi-Bello testifies that the head injuries would be consistent with striking frozen ground, not just concrete as discussed on cross. Lally also draws out that typical defensive wounds include multiple forearm bruises, cuts, broken fingernails, hand fractures, and broken fingers — features not present on O'Keefe. Scordi-Bello reaffirms that a single impact from a fall could account for all observed skull fractures, brain hemorrhage, and periorbital ecchymosis.

Brian Loughran, a Canton DPW worker and snow plow driver, testified about his plowing route on January 29, 2022. He made multiple passes of the Albert residence on Fairview Road starting around 2:45 a.m., using a well-lit truck with elevated seating. On his first two passes (approximately 2:45 a.m.), he saw nothing on the front lawn near the flagpole. On his third pass (approximately 3:15–3:30 a.m.), he noticed a Ford Edge parked on the street near the flagpole — unusual because the Alberts never parked cars out front — but still saw nothing on the lawn. By approximately 5:30 a.m., first responders had arrived and the road was blocked. Yannetti also established that no law enforcement contacted Loughran until 2023, despite the incident occurring in January 2022.

ADA Lally cross-examined Brian Loughran on inconsistencies between his prior statements and trial testimony. Lally established that Loughran gave different times in a May 2023 interview — reporting he came in at 11:30 p.m. to midnight and saw the vehicle around 1:30–2:00 a.m. — which Loughran denied saying. Lally highlighted the absence of street lighting near 34 Fairview Road, that Loughran was plowing from the center of the road (not close to the lawn), and that Loughran's knowledge of where O'Keefe's body was found came from media reports rather than personal observation. Lally also noted Loughran hit a basketball hoop on nearby Tippy Cart Road that night but could not recall the time, questioning the precision of his timeline. The prosecution suggested the vehicle Loughran saw could have been a black Lexus SUV around 5:00 a.m. rather than a Ford Edge at 3:15–3:30 a.m.

Defense attorney Yannetti conducted a brief redirect to clarify an ambiguity from Lally's cross-examination. Lally had asked whether Loughran was sure he didn't see a black Lexus around 5:00 a.m., and Loughran's answer of "no" was potentially ambiguous. Yannetti asked Loughran to clarify whether "no" meant he was unsure or that he definitively did not see one. Loughran stated unequivocally that he did not see a Lexus at 5 a.m., and further confirmed he never saw a black Lexus in front of 34 Fairview Road at any point that night.

ADA Lally used timeline arithmetic to challenge whether Loughran could have been on or near Fairview Road at 5:00 a.m. Lally calculated that if Loughran's last pass was around 3:30 a.m. and his route took approximately 3 hours, his next return would have been around 6:30 a.m. — not 5:00 a.m. Loughran pushed back, explaining that his surrounding streets were only 5–10 minutes from Fairview and that he was constantly checking Fairview Road from adjacent streets like Cedar Crest because it was a priority main road requiring clear access for first responders. The exchange revealed a distinction between physically plowing Fairview and visually monitoring it from nearby streets, which Lally highlighted in his final question.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson presented Dr. Marie Russell's extensive credentials — MIT pre-med, seven years as a Malden police officer, UMass medical degree, dual residencies in emergency medicine and forensic pathology at LA County USC, 29 years as an ER physician, published research on law enforcement dog bites, and leadership roles including chief medical executive for California state prisons. Russell testified she reviewed hospital records, autopsy photos and report, grand jury testimony, Dr. Sheridan's affidavit, Canton dog bite reports, UC Davis documents, and toxicology and neuropathology reports. Examining a photograph of O'Keefe's right arm (Exhibit 19), she identified parallel scratch marks from teeth or claws, punctate puncture wounds from tooth points, and a pattern near the elbow consistent with upper and lower jaw contact. She concluded with reasonable medical certainty that the injuries were sustained from an animal attack, possibly a large dog. The prosecution objected repeatedly, and a lengthy sidebar interrupted the testimony.

ADA Adam Lally cross-examined defense expert Dr. Marie Russell, focusing on the narrow scope and late timing of her involvement. Lally established that Russell was not certified in forensic medicine, last worked at a coroner's office in 1995, and was first contacted just six weeks into trial on May 17, 2024. He highlighted that she had not reviewed the UC Davis report, Dr. Sheridan's affidavit, or the dog Chloe's bite history until two days before this testimony, yet still had not written a report. Lally pressed Russell on the limitations of her animal attack opinion — she could not identify the specific animal, breed, location, or timing beyond 'minutes to hours before death,' and the injuries appeared only on the posterior of O'Keefe's right arm with no marks anywhere else on his body. Lally also confronted her with the reported negative UC Davis K9 DNA results; Russell said clothing was between the wound and the tested material and that she could not tell whether the swabs came from the wound or clothing. Lally asked whether Chloe's documented bite photographs looked like O'Keefe's injuries; Russell answered 'No, but—,' the court directed that the answer was no, and Russell later explained that dogs can inflict a variety of wound patterns. Russell maintained her opinion but acknowledged she was unfamiliar with the NAS report questioning forensic odontology reliability.

On redirect, Alan Jackson addressed two key points raised during cross-examination. First, he clarified that the NAS report questioning forensic odontology reliability pertains to using bite marks to identify specific individuals, not to recognizing patterns consistent with animal attacks — a distinction Russell confirmed. Second, Jackson had Russell explain that injuries from trained police K9s differ significantly from domestic dog bites, and that animal attacks produce a wide variety of wound patterns depending on skin thickness, movement, and the animal's power. Jackson attempted multiple times to have Russell restate her ultimate conclusion about O'Keefe's injuries. ADA Lally's objections were sustained twice, and the judge ended the third attempt by asking whether Jackson had any more questions.

Richard Green, a digital forensics expert with 28 years of experience, testified for the defense about data from three phones: John O'Keefe's, Jennifer McCabe's, and Karen Read's. He established that O'Keefe's phone location data placed it at 34 Fairview Road at 12:24:28 a.m., with Apple Health Data showing 80 steps and three flights of elevation change in an overlapping time window. Green then explained his analysis of McCabe's phone, where he found a deleted Google search for 'hos long to die in cold' timestamped at 2:27:40 a.m. in the Safari suspended tabs database. Using multiple forensic tools and the phone's internal clock behavior, he opined the search occurred at or before that time. Green also identified that 100% of McCabe's call log entries in the displayed report interval from 5:33:47 a.m. through 8:50:05 a.m. were in a deleted state, while calls beginning at 8:59:34 a.m. were live.

ADA Adam Lally cross-examined defense digital forensics expert Richard Green, challenging his qualifications, methodology, and conclusions. Lally established that Green holds no Cellebrite certifications and that two other experts (Jessica Hyde and Ian Whiffin) disagree with his interpretation of the McCabe search timestamp. Green conceded that a statement in his sworn affidavit about the 'how long to digest food' search was wrong — he now believes it was an Apple predictive suggestion, not a user-initiated search. Lally pressed on whether the 2:27 a.m. timestamp could reflect a field artifact rather than an actual search time, and questioned Green's reliance on a 3-minute clock offset theory tied to Waze power usage data. The examination also touched on the absence of GPS location data on Karen Read's phone and Green's overnight preparation of a CellHawk analysis at Yannetti's request.