Day 11 - May 7, 2025

Trooper Connor Keefe, a Massachusetts State Police digital forensic examiner assigned to the Norfolk DA's homicide unit, testifies about two aspects of his involvement in the case. First, he met Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts to obtain consent forms and their cellular devices, which he brought to the forensics lab for extraction using GrayKey — though he was not involved in analyzing either phone. Second, he describes arriving at 34 Fairview Road around 5:00-5:30 PM on January 29, 2022, where he assisted in processing evidence found by the MSP search team under Lieutenant Brian Tully's supervision. Keefe walked the jury through the physical evidence he collected and bagged that evening: a black Nike shoe (Exhibit 77), taillight pieces including two larger fragments and a smaller chip (Exhibits 78 and BB), and pieces of clear plastic (Exhibits 79 and 80). He explained evidence-handling procedures including bagging, sealing with red tape, and annotating bags with date, time, location, and collector information.

Attorney Yannetti cross-examines Trooper Keefe across three areas. First, he establishes details of the Jennifer McCabe phone consent form — dated February 2, 2022 at 12:08 PM — and enters it as Exhibit 81. Second, Yannetti emphasizes that lead investigator Michael Proctor controlled all analytical work: Proctor wrote the reports, analyzed the surveillance videos from C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall Bar & Grille (which Keefe and Bukhenik merely retrieved), and chose the language in interview reports — including a joint interview of Sarah Levinson that Keefe initially could not recall attending. Third, Yannetti questions Keefe about attending John O'Keefe's autopsy, establishing that the arm injuries were visible and uncovered, that the medical examiner was looking at the body, that no defense attorney or expert was present, and that Keefe provided information to Dr. Scordi-Bello during the examination. The cross ends abruptly after a sustained objection when Yannetti asks whether Keefe left without a homicide ruling.

Hank Brennan conducts redirect examination of Jessica Hyde to rehabilitate her testimony after cross. He establishes that Hyde was not asked to reach any particular conclusion and that her analysis was independent of the district attorney's office. Brennan addresses Cellebrite's removal of the disputed timestamp, eliciting that Cellebrite cited ambiguity and potential for misconstruing the data, and that AXIOM's own documentation also warns about misinterpretation. On the Faraday bag issue, Hyde explains situational reasons phones aren't immediately bagged — including using a deceased victim's biometrics — and confirms the lack of a Faraday bag did not affect her conclusions. Brennan then turns to O'Keefe's phone health data raised on cross, establishing that the last recorded movement was at 12:32:16 a.m. with no further movement until 6:04:01 a.m.

Robert Alessi reopens several threads from redirect on recross. He establishes that Cellebrite's release notes cited 'further research' as the reason for removing the 2:27:40 a.m. timestamp but provided no details about what that research entailed. He confirms that Magnet AXIOM still recovers and displays the 2:27:40 a.m. timestamp. Alessi then secures Hyde's concession that O'Keefe's phone was not placed in airplane mode, a Faraday bag, or Faraday box from 6:04 a.m. through at least noon on January 29, 2022, and that data can be overwritten on an unsecured phone — meaning evidence could have been lost. He briefly touches on McCabe's phone call log deletions before concluding with Hyde confirming that O'Keefe's phone was recording movement from 12:31:56 to 12:32:16 a.m., establishing the phone was in motion at that time.