Day 16 - May 15, 2025

Day 16 opens with Alessi completing cross-examination of MSP forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett. She testified that O'Keefe's hoodie and t-shirt were packaged together before lab analysis and that she combined their debris because she could not attribute it to either garment. Her chain-of-custody knowledge began at laboratory delivery, and she did not know the debris's source. After Hartnett asked to correct something from the prior day's record, counsel conferred off transcript and Judge Cannone excused her; the transcript does not establish its substance or disposition. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello then testified that the primary cause of O'Keefe's death was blunt impact injuries of head, with hypothermia contributing, and classified the manner as undetermined. On cross, Alessi questioned her documentation and hypothermia findings; she said she considered other explanations internally without physical notes and retained her opinion. She saw no lower-extremity impact site and said the right-eyelid laceration involved contact with a blunt object or surface, not falling backward and hitting one's head. On redirect, Scordi-Bello completed her grand-jury answer: in the context of a body found in snow, she believed the gastric and pancreatic hemorrhages were due to hypothermia; she also said no one later supplied new information and asked her to reconsider. On recross, she identified omeprazole on a medication list and agreed alcohol-related ulceration was possible, without testimony establishing why it was prescribed or comparing that possibility's likelihood with hypothermia. The day closes with argument on defense motions to exclude an amended Aperture report that moved an infotainment trigger from the 12:31:38-to-12:31:43 range to 12:32:16.