Day 2 - April 23, 2025

ADA Brennan informed the court he consolidated Trooper Guarino's text message and phone call exhibits into a chronological PowerPoint for easier presentation, noting the content is unchanged from Trial 1. He also disclosed a second PowerPoint containing Jennifer McCabe's health watch heart rate data from midnight onward, offered as potential rebuttal if the defense raises the 2:27 a.m. phone call, arguing the data is inconsistent with a criminal conspiracy. Judge Cannone granted the defense time to review the materials and deferred Guarino's testimony. Separately, the parties discussed scheduling a Monday afternoon voir dire for ARCCA defense experts from Pennsylvania, with Judge Cannone ordering that any contemplated testing be completed by then. The judge raised concern that 105 or more text messages were deleted and said the pending-case issue needed clarification. A neighboring, unresolved-orator discussion also addressed a 30-day auto-delete policy.

Kerry Roberts continued her direct examination, describing the tail light damage on Karen Read's Lexus — a missing piece with protruding metal — and Read's repeated question, 'Do you think I hit him?' Roberts recounted finding O'Keefe's body fully covered in snow at 34 Fairview, digging snow from his face with bare hands, observing his swollen right eye and blood from his nose and mouth, and performing CPR until paramedics arrived. She testified that she felt no glass on his face and saw grass with no snow beneath where he lay. Roberts described Read's frantic behavior at the scene, her statements ('Did I hit him? Is he dead?'), and a later phone call where Read told the O'Keefes she 'left him at a party.' Roberts also testified about picking up O'Keefe's cell phone from where his body had lain and keeping it in her pocket until giving it to a first responder, and about her subsequent contacts with victim advocates and law enforcement.

Alan Jackson conducted an extensive cross-examination of Kerry Roberts focusing on three main areas: her approximately 50 communications with the DA's office (including victim advocate Steve Nelson, Trooper Bukhenik, and DA Morrissey), her repeated coordination with Jennifer McCabe before giving statements to law enforcement, and a firsthand-versus-secondhand contradiction in her grand jury testimony. Jackson used surveillance video from the O'Keefe driveway Ring camera to demonstrate Roberts's faulty memory about when Karen Read pointed out the damaged tail light. He then methodically walked through each of Roberts's five statements to law enforcement, establishing that McCabe was present or in contact before nearly every one. The cross culminated with Roberts confirming that she never heard Karen Read ask McCabe to 'Google hypothermia'; after Jackson said her grand jury answer was false, Roberts responded that she had misunderstood Lally's question.

Margaret O'Keefe introduces herself as John O'Keefe's mother and describes the family's history of loss — her daughter Kristen died of cancer in 2013, followed by Kristen's husband two months later, leaving two young children (ages 3 and 6) whom John became primary guardian for. She recounts the morning of January 29, 2022: Kerry Roberts called around 6:15 AM to say John had been found in a snowbank, then drove Margaret and her husband to Good Samaritan Hospital. During the car ride, Margaret spoke with Karen Read by phone, who said 'We went to a party. I left him there.' At the hospital, Margaret heard Read yelling from a hallway, 'Is he dead, Peg? Is he dead?' Later that day, Read arrived at John's Canton home with her father and brother. Her father asked to retrieve a couple of her things; Margaret did not see them go upstairs or know what they did or took, but testified that she could hear them upstairs for an estimated 10 to 15 minutes. Margaret now raises John's niece and nephew full-time in Canton.

ADA Brennan sought to introduce two video clips (labeled 4 and 5) of Karen Read's statements. Clip 4 showed Read describing feeling watched warily and uncomfortable at the O'Keefe home, and saying she wanted to leave because she believed John's mother thought she had done something to John. Brennan argued that removing the Lexus with the broken tail light from the scene was consciousness of guilt evidence. Jackson said he disagreed with that argument but withdrew his objection to clip 4, which was admitted. Clip 5 contained Read's statement that Peggy O'Keefe told her John looked like he was hit by a car — a claim Peggy O'Keefe denied on the stand. Jackson objected to clip 5 as improper impeachment of the prosecution's own witness and argued the video format was more prejudicial than probative. Brennan countered that the statement qualifies as a party admission, not impeachment. Judge Cannone admitted clip 4 but reserved ruling on clip 5 until the following morning.

Trooper Nicholas Guarino of the Massachusetts State Police digital forensics unit testified about his qualifications and the technical process of extracting cell phone data using GrayKey hardware/software, Cellebrite, and Magnet AXIOM. He explained hash values as digital fingerprints that verify data integrity, and walked through GrayKey progress reports for O'Keefe's phone (Exhibit 18) and two extractions of Read's phone — a partial download (Exhibit 19) and a full extraction after brute-force passcode recovery in July 2022 (Exhibit 20). Guarino described extracting O'Keefe's and Read's phones, which he received from Sgt. Bukhenik and Trooper Proctor on January 29, 2022, and noted that Trooper Connor Keefe handled the Roberts and McCabe phone extractions. The testimony was foundational, establishing chain of custody and forensic methodology, with Guarino subject to recall for later substantive testimony.