Closing Argument - Commonwealth

MR. BRENNAN: John O'Keefe was 46 years old. 46 years old. He spent his life helping people. He's described as a good man, kind, generous, thoughtful. He was a Boston police officer. He worked to help the community. Everything you've heard about this man, he was a good man. He helped people. When his niece and nephew had nobody, he took them in. He took them in. John O'Keefe seemed to be the type of person who would help anybody at any time. And on January 29th, 2022, John O'Keefe needed some help. He needed help from somebody else. You see, John O'Keefe had just been hit by Karen Read in front of 34 Fairview Road, and he lay on the ground dying. And he needed help, someone to reach out a hand, someone to knock on a door, someone to make a phone call to 911, even anonymously.

MR. BRENNAN: Not take responsibility, just to help. And there was only one person in this entire planet who could help him that morning to give him a chance. Maybe it was a 33% chance if he met the Isaac Wolfes of the world, but to give him a chance. And that one person who could help him that morning was this defendant right here, Karen Read. And she made a decision in her Lexus with the shattered tail light. Debris field all over the front yard and John O'Keefe lying helpless like a child on the front yard. She made a choice. She didn't call 911. She didn't run to his aid. She didn't knock on a door. She made a decision about herself in her Lexus. She drove away. She was drunk. She hit him and she left him to die. She was drunk. She hit him and she left him to die.

MR. BRENNAN: Before I go through and detail the evidence, let's talk a little bit about the evidence as a whole. She was drunk. She was drinking that night. She was drinking at McCarthy's with John. She was drinking at the Waterfall. Her blood was taken with samples with a retrograde analysis almost two to three times the legal limit. She was drunk. She hit him. The timeline in this case is beyond dispute. You can accuse, assault, characterize, malign, twist. The timeline doesn't change. It is data. Data is data. The black box, the forensics from the SD card. We know exactly step by step where they were. We know in that window she hits him because he never moves again.

MR. BRENNAN: His health care data, the temperature on the battery of the cell phone, the physical evidence, the debris field, the DNA, the hair, and then she left him to die. He had a basilar skull fracture, a contrecoup. You heard all about it. When the back of your head hits the ground and the brain comes forward. Dr. Wolfe told us the reason why they have level one trauma centers around the country is because people can survive this injury if they get help. That's why they have this care, that's why they have these hospitals. But you got to get help. You got to get help. And if you don't, you develop symptoms. Ecchymosis, raccoon eyes, your brain swells, and you die. She was drunk. And that night was a recipe for disaster.

MR. BRENNAN: But before we get to the drinking, in some ways the fate of this night was sealed well before that night because John O'Keefe and Karen Read were in a toxic relationship. This relationship was crumbling. We hear lovey-dovey and it was crumbling and we know it. And we know it because a month before his niece Kaye talks about when they went to Aruba, it should have been a wonderful event. It was discord. It was fighting. It was aggravation. And when they got back, the discontent was palpable. Miss Read reaches out to Brian Higgins text messaging. John O'Keefe. The relationship is crumbling. And you heard a little bit about what that relationship was like. Kaye, his niece, told you when there was an argument, John would do what John does. He would walk away.

MR. BRENNAN: She described for you one time to get away from the scene. He walked into his bedroom, but the defendant wouldn't let it go. Pounding on his door, having to get the last word, never letting go of the fight. Kind of mirrors what happens on January 29th, 2022. And maybe outwardly they got along. Maybe sometimes quietly they got along, but behind closed doors, relationships have ups and downs. We have a bird's eye view into the relationship on January 28, 2022 because we have the text messages. Not so lovey-dovey. The relationship is almost over. The tensions are simmering beneath the surface. They are not getting along. She believes Mr. O'Keefe is already halfway out of the relationship and he's not into it anymore. You will read them. You saw them.

MR. BRENNAN: This relationship was unstable and at its end. And so fast forward that night. That night after this discord, after the arguing, they go out and what do they do? They drink. And they drink a lot. He drinks a lot. And Karen Read drinks a lot. You've seen the McCarthy's videos. You can call it six, seven, eight, whatever you want to call it. You can see the shots into the mixed drinks. More shots into mixed drinks. Count them yourself. Over a half dozen mixed drinks in just a few hours. And then at the Waterfall, a shot, a mixed drink. Now, it was brought up at the Waterfall that there was some type of discord between Brian Higgins and John O'Keefe. They knew each other. They were friends. Brian Higgins's conduct of speaking to Karen Read is not honorable. It's not. But they were friendly.

MR. BRENNAN: There was no adversarial relationship. There was no anger between them. What we heard is they barely greeted each other. Could I have slide one, please? At the Waterfall Bar, when you see John O'Keefe's comment — here's him barely greeting him. That's him and Mr. Higgins barely greeting each other. Reality sometimes is different than argument. This is a celebratory mood. Take that down, please. Celebratory mood. A bunch of friends, they're playing around. They're hugging. They're grappling. This is a fighting technique for a murder two hours later. Is that the story? They're practicing their moves to murder John O'Keefe. In this celebratory mood, you don't see any aggravation or animosity between Brian Higgins and John O'Keefe.

MR. BRENNAN: Inevitably, the next morning, Karen Read is brought to the hospital and they take her blood. Now, the government doesn't have to prove that she was drunk. It is either that she's over the legal limit, .08, or she had enough alcohol to affect her ability to operate a motor vehicle safely. But you will know that she was far beyond the legal limit after the retrograde analysis. Almost two to three times the legal limit. Almost two to three times the legal limit. Now, it's been intimated — not come out and said — that maybe she went home and started drinking after she got home. No evidence, mind you. No evidence. And that somehow that is why she had a high blood alcohol level. It's not appropriate for me to comment on the credibility of another attorney's argument. So I won't do that.

MR. BRENNAN: But Karen Read will do that for her. So if we listen to slide two, she'll tell you exactly what she thinks about that claim.

MR. BRENNAN: : My alcohol intake was probably about five or six, or four drinks that they were pouring me at McCarthy's, which is where I consumed most of the alcohol.

MR. BRENNAN: : It was the weakest spot in the tonic. It tasted just like soda water with lime. Slide three, please.

MR. BRENNAN: : Very close to the Alberts. In fact, when Jen was navigating John to the Alberts — when I was driving, she said it's near Ashley's house. Ashley and John had hooked up prior to John and I dating. And so as they travel to 34 Fairview under the duress of this crumbling relationship fueled by intoxication, we have triggers.

MR. BRENNAN: : I wouldn't have gotten on the expressway. I wouldn't have gotten on the expressway at 12:15 on January 29th. I mean, it was quiet. The roads were very quiet. You can see my videos. Um, and I was going, you know, when I had a few drinks in it, like I know my alerts aren't as sharp as they should be. Um, but I shouldn't have been driving.

MR. BRENNAN: Thank you. Do you think she drank when she got home? When they leave the Waterfall Bar at 12:12, you see a video, you have it in evidence. There's a still photo of John O'Keefe holding a glass, not from the Albert home. He didn't sneak into the house, into the cupboards, and grab a glass from the Waterfall. You see him with a glass and in it is a straw. Take a look at that picture. And now from 12:12 on, we virtually have a historian in the data that tells us exactly where he went, exactly step by step where he went. And how do we have that? Well, we know the defendant's car had a black box, and Judson Welcher took the data from the black box and downloaded it so you can see the movements and the triggering events.

MR. BRENNAN: And then Shanon Burgess — well, you don't like what he says, don't attack the data, attack the man. He can be mocked for his LinkedIn profile or his unupdated CV. But what he did is he found a key critical piece of this case that did not exist before. He found it recently and it was that SD card. The SD card that everybody missed, including the defense expert. Everybody missed it. So as much as you want to make fun of him, Shanon Burgess found the key so that we could have the time and date and location coordinated for an impenetrable timeline that can't be broken. That's what Shanon Burgess did. And so we know on the way from the Waterfall to 34 Fairview, Miss Read is driving drunk. Mr.

MR. BRENNAN: O'Keefe is in the passenger side of the car and they're heading their way to 34 Fairview and they get lost. And now we have more data because John O'Keefe has a cell phone and I said it in the beginning — it is a historian. Doesn't suffer from bias. It doesn't suffer from prejudice. It doesn't suffer from memory loss. It has data on it and he puts on Waze — high location data, as Ian Whiffin would say — and it tells you second by second the speed, the location, the movement. That's what it does, and he has health care data on that phone. The health care data separately shows his movement and that is critical. It is critical because it not only shows his movement, it shows when he does not move. That health care data is critical and it's not subject to bias. It's not in dispute.

MR. BRENNAN: There's no other contrary evidence. It is data. On the way to 34 Fairview, alcohol fuels tension. We know that. And we know from those text messages the tension in that relationship. And then there's a trigger. There is a trigger on the way because they're lost. And when John O'Keefe calls Jen McCabe for directions, Jen McCabe says something that triggers what's going to happen next. Could I have slide four, please?

MR. BRENNAN: Now we know on their way there, we know from the data — the data where they went, how they moved. If we look at slide five, Ian Whiffin showed you a guide. You could enlarge that a little, please. And it shows you with the health care data, it registers a slight climb, but it doesn't mean someone's climbing upstairs. What it means is there's an elevation. And he breaks down the data — the red, the green — and if you can move down, please. Go. And then the bottom left, that's 34 Fairview. You can see second by second the circles of their route. Even the three-point turn on Cedarcrest — that's what you see at that point. They've left the bar. Remember the battery temperature was 82 degrees. They're now in a car, it's now 77°.

MR. BRENNAN: Think about how accurate the battery temperature is, that it reflects the difference between being in a bar and being in a car. They take a three-point turn at Cedarcrest and because of Shanon Burgess and because of Judson Welcher, we have the data and it's a triggering event. Remember, if there's an acceleration past 30%, it registers data on the car. And that's exactly what happens. There's a three-point turn, and it all lines up with the cell phone after you synchronize the times. It's that simple. There's nothing complicated. There's nothing tricky. There's nothing devious about it. It's data. They do the three-point turn and you can match the cell phone clock with the Lexus clock. And when you do, you can reconcile the difference.

MR. BRENNAN: There's been a lot of talk, a lot of argument, a lot of fights. Shanon Burgess says 21 to 29 seconds. Mr. DiSogra comes in. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to actually do anything. He wasn't given the invitation to test the data. He just looked at the report and made criticisms like a Monday morning quarterback. But even he, looking at the data, says, "Well, it's 3 seconds off" or "2 seconds" — same window, same time — we can have all the arguments we want. They're there. They're together. The data matches up perfectly. Perfectly. And so they make their way down to 34 Fairview Road. They don't stop. They don't stop at the driveway. They don't stop. And John O'Keefe gets out of the car. They go to the flag pole. And we know two reasons. One, the data. And secondly, Mr.

MR. BRENNAN: Nagel and Miss Maxon at Cedarcrest, at that intersection before it goes down to the right — they meet. They let Karen Read go first. They fall behind in the truck. Now, at this point, Mr. O'Keefe has about eight more minutes before the beginning of the end of his life. And he's in that car. He's in that car for most of it because Miss Maxon and Mr. Nagel don't see anybody get out of the truck. Nobody crosses the lawn. Nobody goes to a garage. Not just because they didn't see it. They didn't. Not because they didn't see it. Because the health care data on the phone shows that John O'Keefe is not moving. The car is stopped at the flag pole. The health care data stops. The battery stays at 77°. The data is the data. You can't change it, as much as you want to. It's data.

MR. BRENNAN: And they sit at that flag pole — it's 12:24:33 when they get there. They're there past 12:30. Remember Miss Maxon and Mr. Nagel said they're there about 5 minutes and then they go. It's not exact, but about 5 minutes they said. So there's about 2 minutes left for John O'Keefe. And what are they doing in those two minutes? What are the last two minutes of his life that he can remember that would be open to him? They're arguing. They're arguing. They're arguing. And we know they're arguing because Miss Read tells us through first responder Becker. She was sad. Remember, he sees her in the back of the ambulance and he's trying to calm her down. She was sad because her last moments were arguing. They're in an argument. That's why they're not going in the house.

MR. BRENNAN: But John O'Keefe decides to get out of the car. And we know because the dome light goes on. That's what happens when you open a door. Whether he's bent down, he's standing outside or on the other side, the dome light is on. And then you see the data. John O'Keefe begins to move 12:31:56. It's the first time he has moved since they got to the flag pole and it will be the last time he moves in his life. and he moves for 20 seconds. Ian Whiffin said that the satellites — they move, they reconnect, they pull information. He's no longer on high-frequency data because the waves are shut off. Now it's more random. It's low frequency. We would never suggest and Mr. Whiffin did not claim based on location data alone at that point. You can tell exactly where John O'Keefe is.

MR. BRENNAN: What he said is it was readings all night. The bullet is always near the flag pole. That doesn't mean he was always near the flag pole. He could have moved. He could have moved in circles and come back. Location data is consistent with him never leaving the flag pole. But that in itself is not enough. But there's more. There is more. There is the healthcare data. There is the temperature of the cell phone battery. And so he moves for 20 seconds. It turns west. It does not say he walks to the house. That's not what the data says. It doesn't say that he goes in a straight line and he walks over to the door. In fact, could he even get to the door in 75 ft? Could he get there? Because when the defense investigator testified, he measures from the driveway. He never stopped at the driveway.

MR. BRENNAN: He never measures from the flag pole. He never measures from the flag pole to the garage door. So this fantasy that somehow he walked in the garage — even though there's no evidence, there's no witness, there's no data — 20 seconds of his life, and he moves. And healthcare data registers his steps. It could be pacing. It could be a straight line. It could be shaking the phone. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know everything. We don't know every little detail in every little second. We don't have to. That's not doubt. That's not reasonable doubt. We know for those 20 seconds he's moving. And in that 20-second window, when he moves, he has his phone and he looks down. 12:30:09.

MR. BRENNAN: He sees a text message from his friend Jade and he looks at the text message and he closes it and then it happens. We know from the uncontroverted data from that black box, we know that Karen Read, after he gets out of the car, drives away. She drives for at least 33 ft away from him. He's back near the flag pole. She's gone. It's over. Whatever argument is over, whatever anger and flame has been — dispelled — she's moved on. He's separate from her. He's safe. And then she makes a decision. That's what this case is about. Then she makes a decision. She could have driven home. She could have broken up with him. They could have talked about it the next day. Or like knocking on the door like Kaylee said, getting the last word. She doesn't drive away.

MR. BRENNAN: She takes that 6,000 lb Lexus and she makes a decision. And the decision is that she steps on the gas after banging it into reverse. Before we talk about what happens next, I want to talk to you a little bit about the charges in this case. And I hate to digress, but it's important so we really understand what we're talking about here. I have no authority to talk about the law in this case. The Honorable Judge Cannone will do that. But I want to talk to you a little bit about the charges. Don't rely on my interpretation of the law. It's the judge who has that special power. But I want to explain to you a couple things so when you think about what happens next, you can really assess the facts of this case with the charges against Miss Read. She is charged with second-degree murder.

MR. BRENNAN: It sounds ominous. It is. It's a serious charge. Second-degree murder. When most people think murder, they think shooting or stabbing somebody. It's natural to think that. Second-degree murder is different. It's not first-degree murder. I told you at the beginning of this case, I told you that we were not going to suggest or try to prove that Miss Read intended to kill John O'Keefe. That was never part of this case. We're not claiming that. I told you that we were not ever going to try to prove that she even intended to hit him. We never suggested we would try to prove that. And we're not trying to prove that she intended to hit him. We're not.

MR. BRENNAN: What we are obligated to prove and what we have proven from the evidence in this case of second-degree murder is that she intended an act — and that is putting the car into reverse and heading back towards John O'Keefe. She intended that act. The question then becomes did her conduct create a clear, plain, strong likelihood of death. Late at night, dark, beginning to snow, under the influence of alcohol, knowing where she stopped and left him after an argument, heading back in reverse to the exact spot right near where she left him at over 24 miles an hour, accelerating at over 75%. You need to ask yourself, are you convinced if somebody does that, does that create a plain and strong likelihood of death?

MR. BRENNAN: And if there's no doubt in your mind that she intended to hit that accelerator in reverse and that that conduct will create a clear and plain likelihood of death, then she is guilty of that crime. Whatever the label is, she would be guilty of that crime. Now, think about this. Let me give you an analogy. If somebody, maybe a teenager, someone young, impulsive, is on a bridge and they see cars going by and they have a boulder and they want to throw the boulder off. They're not looking to hurt anybody. They're not meaning to kill anybody, but they throw the boulder off the bridge because they want to see the thrill.

MR. BRENNAN: And when they throw that boulder off the bridge and it comes down and lands on the car and there's a passenger — a child, anybody in that car — and it goes through the roof and kills the person in the car, did they intend to kill that person? No. They were trying to have a thrill throwing it off. Did they have the malice to want that person dead? No, they didn't. But that would be an example of second-degree murder. When you take a boulder and throw it off a bridge, there's a plain and strong likelihood of death.

MR. BRENNAN: When Karen Read, in the midst of that tension and fight, after she drove away and was gone, disengaged — when she came back for the last word in the darkness, the beginning of the snow, under the influence of alcohol — and decided to stop her Lexus, decided to put it in reverse, decided to accelerate 75% in the exact same direction of where she left him, and then hit him and he died. I suggest to you that is second-degree murder. The other charge — operating under the influence of alcohol, manslaughter — it's different. It's a totally different and separate charge. Was she under the influence of alcohol? And then secondly, did she operate her Lexus wantonly and recklessly in a way that would very likely result in serious injury?

MR. BRENNAN: When you're under the influence of alcohol and you drive a 6,000 lb Lexus in the heat of the moment at the direction of where somebody is, whether you intend to hit them or not, I submit to you that is wanton, it is reckless. And any reasonable person, any reasonable person, would think it's very likely that serious injury would result. It's not a matter of intending to kill. It's not a matter of intending to hit. It is the conduct of the operation and the risk that is created. And so those two charges are two of the three. The third is leaving the scene knowingly causing death. And we'll get to that. So now sadly we need to get back to 34 Fairview Road where we left. We know from the track stream data that she drove 33 feet — at least — because it only picks up a 10-second window.

MR. BRENNAN: And when it starts to pick up the data, we know she's driving at a speed. So it's more than 33 ft. We just don't know. And then when she comes back, she covers the 33 ft and 50 more. 80 feet. 80 feet. Over 80 feet. Now, nobody has ever suggested, even Dr. Welcher, when she collided with him. This data doesn't tell you collision. It's a 6,000 lb Lexus. It's a 216 lb man. It's not going to show a blip. It could have been in that 10-second window. It could have been 2 seconds after. It could have been 4 seconds after, but it's in that pocket of time. And we know it. We know it because when you reconcile the data with the phone, that 20 seconds is in the same window of that 10-second window coming back. So even if it's a couple seconds later, 4 seconds later, whatever Mr.

MR. BRENNAN: DiSogra wants, he stops moving. John O'Keefe stops moving forever. Forever. Next slide. Six, please. You'll get to see this more closely, and you can't probably see it where you're sitting, but there's important data. Data doesn't lie. And you will see acceleration 75%. You will see speed 24 miles per hour backwards. You will see distance over 80 ft. That's what you're going to see in this data on that night. Anger — although not necessary in any of these charges — anger can be inferred for somebody to come back that hard, that fast, that reckless. That obviously likely to create a plain and strong likelihood of death. That data tells a story that can't be changed. Can't be attacked. ARCCA — they did some crash tests. You know what else they do? Track stream data.

MR. BRENNAN: There's nothing about that data that is uncertain. Nothing. You take that down, please. When Miss Read hits John O'Keefe, hits John O'Keefe, collides with John O'Keefe, we don't know if he went in the air a foot. We don't know how much of a clip it was. We don't know if he stumbled back, but we know there's a collision. There's no doubt there's a collision because her tail light's all over the yard. It's all over the yard. And when he falls back and he hits the back of his head, his basilar fracture, he's then lying there helpless. When Miss Read leaves, she leaves behind tons of her tail light all over the yard. All over the yard. It's called the debris field. And you've seen videos. You can't replicate the exact contact.

MR. BRENNAN: You can't because you need where the person was hit, how fast the person was going, but you know what happened because when you look at the debris field, when a light is broken, it's no different than what was on the front yard. It's no different. She leaves him behind. She leaves her tail light behind. She goes home. And on her way home, you know, she's still angry. You know, she's still angry because she starts leaving him voicemails. Slide seven, please. Health data starts at 12:31:56. 12:32:04 to 12:32:12 is the data which is adjusted when you reconcile the phone and the Lexus. 12:32:09 is when he closes the phone after looking at Jen McCabe's text. 12:32:16 is his last steps. Mr. DiSogra says that red range should move a little bit, 2 or 3 seconds.

MR. BRENNAN: They can move it 4 seconds, 5 seconds, it doesn't matter. It's all in the same window. It doesn't change. If we could have slide 10, please. That, please. Thank you. Each one of those pegs represents 10 feet. You can't place that car where it was in front of Fairview. You just can't. The data doesn't tell you that. But that tells you the movements of that car. Now, as John O'Keefe sadly lays on the ground abandoned, you're going to have to ask yourself a question for charge number three, leaving the scene knowing somebody was injured and then died. You're going to have to ask yourself, is there evidence that Miss Read knew that she had hit him? Don't need to prove it for murder two. Don't need to prove it for OUI manslaughter.

MR. BRENNAN: But for the third charge, the Commonwealth has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she knew she hit him. We weren't there, but there was an eyewitness. There was a guide. And that eyewitness tells us that she knew. And that eyewitness is Karen Read herself. She tells you that she knew. Could we have slide eight, please? Could I have hit him? Did I hit him? How could that have been? I don't know what that could have been. It was howling wind. I had you two blasting on the stereo and I thought, did he somehow try to flag me down, which was the reaction I was hoping to garner as I slowly pulled away from the house? Did he come up and maybe trip or or or bend over to pick up his cell phone and and I bent over his foot and and then he passed out drunk?

MR. BRENNAN: I mean, I I didn't think I hit him, but could I have clipped him? When she left Fairview and left John behind, she didn't think he was mortally wounded. But she knew she hit him. She knew she'd hit him. And so when she made her way back home, not only did she leave debris field all over the front lawn, but she took evidence with her, too. Hair, DNA on the tail light. And she drove back to John's house and she started calling on the way back — 12:33, just a minute and a half later. And then her messages show her anger. You see, this was John's fault. This was John's fault. And her phone calls tell you about the tone and the destruction of that relationship. 53 phone calls that night. 53 phone calls. Not one to 911. Not one to Jen McCabe. Please go outside and try to help.

MR. BRENNAN: Not one to a hospital, not one to anybody but him. 53 calls. Slide 12, please. Can you play voicemail, please? I hate you. The calls keep coming. Cell phone temperature 72°. He's been outside now, not moving on that cold, hard ground with his cell phone under him. The warmth of his body, the cold ground, 72°. It tells you the story. As this temperature plummets and that cell phone battery is compromised, so is John O'Keefe. And him and his cell phone alone on that yard — 66° to 12:45, it is plummeting. Ian Whiffin's taking a phone and putting it in a freezer — not the same analogy. The idea that that means John O'Keefe was in the house? Absurd. 66 turns to 61. It is 12:53. 48 unanswered calls from the defendant. He's not in the party. He's not wrestling with Brian Higgins.

MR. BRENNAN: He's not in a fight. If he's in a fight, his cell phone would be moving. There would be health data. There'd be steps. If he got into the house in 20 seconds and his cell phone is found under his body the next day, then how would he get back outside? There would be more steps because his phone is working. The data is the data. There's nothing wrong with it. It's registering everything. The temperature, the movement. He doesn't go in any house. He can't go in any house. His phone never moves again. Voicemail number. Please listen to this. John, I'm dealing with a kid and nobody knows where you are. Did you hear that? Nobody knows where you are. It is 12:59. John O'Keefe has been on that lawn for about 27 minutes. She hasn't called anybody else, hasn't spoken, has no information.

MR. BRENNAN: Nobody's called her. You'll see her phone records. And she says, "Nobody knows where you are." She knows. She knows. Nobody does know where he is. Except her. Except her. Why is she asking? Nobody knows where you are. She is starting to get panicked because she knows she hit him. Not suggesting she meant to kill him or for him to die, but she knows she hit him. And now he's not responding. And she's getting nervous and she's getting anxious. And she's leaving call after call after call. He's not answering. He's not calling back. He's not even picking up the phone. And we know what's happening at this point. Panic, drunken denial. It's setting in. And so then we see the health data from Miss Read's phone. She doesn't move after a little after 1:00. She could be sitting.

MR. BRENNAN: She could have fallen asleep, but she doesn't move for a while. But she wakes up. She wakes up early the next morning. Take that down, please. And when she wakes up, she doesn't call Jen McCabe and say, "Where's John?" She doesn't call Brian Higgins — she has his number, has been texting with him. Hey, was John at the party with you? Did you see John tonight? She knows exactly where he is and she's frantic. So, she wakes up Kaylee, that young girl at the time, and she says she's panicked. She can't understand — she's saying, "Call Jen McCabe. Call Jen McCabe." Why is she calling Jen McCabe? She calls Jen McCabe. You know what she doesn't say when she calls Jen McCabe? When did he leave the house? What happened last night? No, no, no. She calls and says, "I left him at the Waterfall.

MR. BRENNAN: I left him at the Waterfall." See, now it's gone from panicked to self-preservation. I left him at the Waterfall. And Jen says, "Left him at the Waterfall? He saw you in front of the house." Click. Hangs up. Hangs up. So then she calls someone that she doesn't know very well. She calls Kerry Roberts. But now she has to pivot because someone has seen her in the exact spot that John will be found soon. Whether she's the first one there or somebody else, John will be found. Maybe Lucky missed him. It's a snowstorm. You can't see, but someone's going to find him at some point. So, she calls Kerry Roberts. It's no longer she left him at the Waterfall. She pivots and she calls Kerry. Kerry, Kerry, John's dead. I think he got hit by a plow. Why do you think she chose those words?

MR. BRENNAN: Why did she choose those words? Because she knew that there was a collision with a large motor vehicle and she had to substitute her 6,000 lb Lexus for another big vehicle. I think he got hit by a plow. And so now we have the introduction of Jen McCabe and Kerry Roberts. Phone calls that they probably never ever wanted. A worse nightmare to get a call like that — for what's going to happen, what they're going to see, what they'll never be able to forget. But because the defendant is John O'Keefe's girlfriend, they wake up in the middle of the night in a blizzard out of their kindness, their loyalty, their devotion to John O'Keefe. And when she calls them and tells them that she wants them to come out, this soccer mom with a perfectly normal life gets drawn into this whole farce.

MR. BRENNAN: And she answers that call. She gets out of bed. The spirit and kindness she displays to put herself in that position because someone asked for help — because that's what good people do. Kerry Roberts didn't know Jen McCabe. They both knew John. They met each other once or twice, a year or two before. Kerry Roberts, separately at that time, answers the call, gets out of bed, drives to go help — because they have a common denominator, a common bond: John O'Keefe. And so you hear and see at 5:07 the defendant leaves Meadows. She leaves and Kaylee is behind waiting, and you see her back up. And Judson Welcher just showed you all of those demonstrations where you could see the unsettled snow in the back, and after the bump you can see the pieces missing. No tail light.

MR. BRENNAN: There's no tail light on the ground. All the white snow. There's no crack. There's no break. It's a nudge. It's a nudge. But the tail light has already been broken because when you look at the video, not one little piece. It's still framed, little angle with the light. The break's wrong. You take a look, you'll be able to slow it down. You'll see the exact same piece is missing because it's back at Fairview. That's why it's missing. It's not there. It's back at Fairview. And then she leaves at 5:07. She gets to Jen McCabe's about, oh, 5:35. 28 minutes. It's about a 10-minute ride. Where does she go in 28 minutes? Where did she go? We don't know. We don't have data for that.

MR. BRENNAN: But we know when she gets to Jen McCabe's house, she is panicked, frantic, out of her mind, screaming, waking everybody up. Jen McCabe comes down. Can't understand her. Going out to the car to try to console her. Why is she so frantic? Why can't she speak? Why can't she say a word? Because John went out and had a drink and fell asleep on a couch. Because John would maybe be cheating on her. What is causing this extraordinary duress? Did she stop somewhere on the way? Did she just see death? Kerry Roberts comes, take-charge kind of person. She pulls her behind. She sees the broken tail light in Jen McCabe's driveway and she decides she's going to accommodate this. We're going back to Meadows. You're going to follow me, leave the car, I'll drive.

MR. BRENNAN: At this point, Jen and Kerry don't know each other. They only met once. And they go back to Meadows. They obviously don't find John because he's back at 34 Fairview. And then they start their way towards 34 Fairview. They start driving towards 34 Fairview. And they're looking and you heard from Kerry Roberts, Jen McCabe. They're looking out the window. They can't see a thing. The snow, the blizzard, the weather, the darkness, they can't see anything. And they're driving and driving and they decide they're going back to 34 Fairview. And this is remarkable. This is remarkable. When they start their way past towards 34 Fairview, they get close. And when they get close, they can see nothing, but the defendant screams, "Stop. Let me out." And they look around and they say, "What? Let me out.

MR. BRENNAN: Let me out." She does not see John O'Keefe. She knows where he is. She knows exactly where he is. She knows where to find him. She knows where to expect to find him because she knows where she left him. She tells us — slide 13, please. Draws in the passenger seat. And I described this to everyone, so you probably know this before, but John looked like a buffalo on the prairie. It was just a lump in a heap — it wasn't a bush or a hydrant or a dog. It was a weird shaped lump at that time in those elements. And I was looking to find him on the side of the road. I was expecting I'd find him. Thank you. A weird shaped lump in a blizzard and you equate that to John O'Keefe. A weird shaped lump, not like a bush. And that is John O'Keefe. She tells us she knows where she left John O'Keefe.

MR. BRENNAN: And so they go over to Mr. O'Keefe — Kerry, and Karen. And she's upset. There's no doubt — I am not for a second trying to deprive her of the unrest and the trauma that is happening at this scene. Doesn't change what happened before, but I appreciate the trauma and they're trying to help him. And guess what happens when they first move him around? 603, 604. Ian Whiffin data. The cell phone battery gets the cool air, presses on the battery. The cell phone battery drops. Health data. He has not moved since that 22nd. Hasn't moved. They start shaking him. You're going to see when you look at the records that health data starts to move. He's been there all night. All night. Nobody else. Her. And so when they try to help him, she says something that is remarkable.

MR. BRENNAN: She says there's a piece of glass stuck in his nose. And she plucks it out. And she says when she plucks it out, blood spurts out. We'll talk about that in a couple minutes, but remember that piece of glass — pulls it out, blood spurts out. That's what she says. As they try to help John, Jen is calling 911. They would like you to believe there's a conspiracy that the glass that's found in Mr. O'Keefe's body is somehow from inside the Albert house. The glass. Well, you will hear in the clips — if we don't play it, you'll have all the clips with you. She talks about the fact that he took her — he took the glass. She says it. So the Albert house, they don't need to give glass. He already has the glass with straw that's later found on the street, by the way. That's what happens on an impact.

MR. BRENNAN: Things move. The glass comes with him, lands near his body. Debris field moves past him — shoe, hat, straw. Jen McCabe makes a call to her sister and they say because it registers 29 seconds. A Cellebrite record is not the same as a call detail record. There is no evidence there was a conversation. No lights go on. There's no conspiracy. You can call somebody. It can ring. It can go to voicemail. They have no evidence — none — that there's a conversation between Jen McCabe, the person who was ripped out of her sleep to come help, and her sister for some grand conspiracy. And so what happens next is traumatic.

MR. BRENNAN: Kerry Roberts and Jen McCabe see their best friend, prone, lifeless, frozen on the ground, and they're living this torment because somebody brought them into this when they're trying to help John. There is not one suggestion from anybody that John ever went into that house. There's no reason to go into that house because John was never in the house. Not one time does anybody say, "What time did he leave? I thought he went in there." Not even a whisper of it because it never ever happened. When they find their friend John, he's not 20 ft off the side of the road like Mr. Rentschler or Mr. Wolfe thinks. He's right there by the side of the road, close by the curb. Could we have slide 14, please? You can see there's Kerry Roberts' vehicle.

MR. BRENNAN: And then on the left, you can see where they're working. Right off the road, that's not 20 ft. That is a clip, a stumble, and a fall. Remember, when he fell, there wasn't snow. It was just the beginning of the dusting, with the cold hard ground. Remember what Dr. Isaac Wolfe told us about cold hard ground causes this type of injury all the time. All the time. If we could go to slide 16, please — remember the glass in the nose. The glass in the nose. See on the bottom left? That's where the Canton Police Department found the glass that he took from the car from the Waterfall. And then exhibit 195, matching glass. On February 3rd, the matching piece of glass was found on the street. The matching piece of glass — the glass that was found with Mr. O'Keefe was found on the street.

MR. BRENNAN: He didn't fall back 8, 10 ft from the road. It broke and then it shattered and went to the street. I would suggest to you it broke at the time of the collision and he carried the glass with him, leaving the evidence behind — a trail to memorialize what happened to him that night. Remember the straw? I asked you to take a look at that picture leaving the Waterfall at 12:12. The black straw and the drink on the street. Collision, glass, nose, straw, back hits his head. Can you play the clip on the left, please?

MR. BRENNAN: 169, please.

MR. BRENNAN: Thank you. 911's called by Jen McCabe. She's not hiding from anybody. She's trying to help. She's bringing attention to the situation. And when 911 comes, we have first responders. These people are heroes. Some of them, you heard from some of them. They were born to help people. That's what their life is about. The detail on all their mechanics and getting to work 2 hours early to know the blizzard so that you're there on time so you can help people. These are the core of our community. Mr. Nuttall, this is what he does. He rushes to go help. He's the first person on his knees. He doesn't know this person from anybody, but to him it's another human being. This is his passion. Katie McLaughlin, first responder. This is not just a profession — it is her life. Yes, she knows Caitlin Albert.

MR. BRENNAN: Do you think she went there that night at a party and set up a murder and came back? And so they tell you, they tell you what happens at the scene. Some things hard to remember. Some things people will never forget. When you're in a traumatic incident, sometimes it's something you'll never ever forget. And Timothy Nuttall remembers speaking to the defendant. "I hit him." Remember, he's on his knees. "What happened?" "I hit him. I hit him." She is now coming to terms with the moment. Her fear is realized. She hit him. She clipped him. She didn't think he was mortally wounded. She panicked. She can't come to terms with this. So she has to bring people with her to face it. And now she's facing the reality of what she had done. And her emotion is overwhelming. "I hit him. I hit him."

MR. BRENNAN: She speaks to Miss McLaughlin. "I hit him." Not "did I hit him," not "could I hit him," not "perhaps I hit him" — that was earlier. Now she's recognizing what she did. "I hit him." And these people are making it up. Anybody that says anything adverse or inconsistent or inconvenient is a liar or a perjurer or in on a conspiracy? Or is it that these good people who went there for a total stranger to do their duty to help happen to remember that she admitted what she had done? I know that doesn't reconcile with the boogeyman Proctor and the bad government. And I know it doesn't reconcile with no DNA on this piece or that piece. I know it doesn't reconcile with everybody setting up the girl. I know that doesn't reconcile.

MR. BRENNAN: But the reality is you have independent core people who hear her say, "I hit him. I hit him." And the attempt is to betray everybody. That's a liar. But you don't have to rely just on these good people. Although you should. You should. You don't have to because we have a guy and it's Karen Read. Slide 17. Did I hit — I've always said I hit him, but did I really say this many times as law enforcement claiming I said it? Thank you. I know it doesn't fit the theme, the theory, the story, but she tells you herself. She endorses those good people exactly what they had heard. She tells you herself. She hit him. It's undeniable. It's unmistakable. It's inconvenient. But the truth has a way of seeping up to the daylight. It can be suppressed and pushed down and covered and twisted, but it rises.

MR. BRENNAN: It rises. And it is not a coincidence. There's no coincidence that Mr. Nuttall and Miss McLaughlin hear exactly that. She tells you and Jen McCabe when she's sitting next to — standing next to Miss McLaughlin, she tells you that she saw or heard the same thing. Remember what happened to her on the stand when she had the audacity to say, "I heard her say it." What happened to her? This woman who never even wanted to leave her home that day, pulled out into a storm to see her best friend dead. What happened when she had the audacity to say that? And now we know that the defendant herself said the same thing. And the funny thing, the ironic thing is you will see in a photo when Miss McLaughlin, firefighter, was speaking to the defendant, Jen McCabe was next to her.

MR. BRENNAN: Miss McCabe was trying to protect her, trying to shut her up. Don't talk. You're upset. Stop saying crazy things. The villain of the story was trying to help the defendant from incriminating herself. The irony. We have slide nine, please. This is the battery temperature. You got to have a chance to look at it. If it wasn't so tragic, it is interesting. It is interesting that — you like data — the 29th, 12:13, they're leaving the Waterfall, 82 degrees. 12:22, in the car, 77°. 12:37, about 3 and a half minutes after the defendant collides with John O'Keefe, it's starting to go down — 72. 12:45, 66. 12:53, 61. And you see it drop at steady — off at 1:36. Remember, cell phone battery under him. John O'Keefe, either struggling for life or he's passed and the blood's still warm.

MR. BRENNAN: Either way, under him, doesn't move again until 6:06. It drops down 7° because the women are pulling on him. The cold air is hitting the battery. What happens at 6:15? You're going to see the video. You've seen the still photos. Kerry Roberts goes over, takes up the phone. Not only does she pick up the phone, she puts it in her pocket. And then 20 minutes later — the next moment — the temperature rises. That's not convenient. That's not a coincidence. That's fact. That's data. And then the phone is passed, put in a warm environment, and it raises up at 6:15. How can someone conspire to pick up a phone on the side of the yard that was under Mr. O'Keefe's body at 6:15 and know the battery temperature was then going to rise?

MR. BRENNAN: So, not only did the battery temperature rise — when you look at the health data at 6:15 when she picks up the phone, you know what happens to the health data, right? It starts to move. It's data. It's data. So, while they're going through this duress, the defendant asked Jen McCabe for yet another favor. Look up hypothermia. Find out how long it takes for someone to die in the cold. And there's Miss McCabe in her winter jacket. Soccer mom trying to help. She has MS. Her hands aren't working. She's trying to type in what's happening during that time. It's a frantic scene. She tells you that the defendant then wants to run back to the ambulance. So, she goes with her, never finishes or completes the input. And then she tries it again at 6:23, at 6:24.

MR. BRENNAN: That's what this woman did that night, that morning. Not only for her friend, for her. For her. That's what she did. And what happens to her after? Because the timestamp — when you open the timestamp, it's at the time it's opened. And she's in bed at 2:27 looking up youth sports because she is so interested in the kids' sports. And that timestamp stays open. And she goes to that tab the next morning when she puts in how long to die in cold — and that is being portrayed as evidence that she's in a conspiracy. She gets vilified as a murderer, a soccer mom who came to help. It took Ian Whiffin 5 minutes to show you a live demonstration on how simple that works — that she's not deleting anything. Jessica Hyde told you it's automatic deletions all the time.

MR. BRENNAN: You usually can't delete that information. That's not a click and swipe like the good Dr. Wolfe from ARCCA knows how to do. This can't be erased. But they still hold on to this as they argue to you and all the injustices that have been done. They tell you — they want you to believe, or take a flyer on the fact, that she looked up how long to die in the cold at 2:27. It is absolute contrary to the science. There's no basis to support it. But they stand here in front of you. Why? Because every time they say something like that, you look the other way. Don't look at her. Look the other way. 2:27. Look the other way. Don't look at what she did. Former trooper Proctor. Look the other way. Don't look at her.

MR. BRENNAN: Every time they make those — oh, she got the glass from inside the Albert house, maybe in the basement — look the other way. Don't look the other way. Look at the facts. Look at the data. And it all leads to one person. There's no grand conspiracy. It leads to one person, the defendant. And it's not just the data and facts. It's her herself. Let's talk about Mr. Proctor. You were invoked with this emotion early in the opening that this is a cancer. That's a tough word — trying to evoke that primal reaction, disgust. Not saying you shouldn't be disgusted by the text messages. You should. I should. They're not defensible. I don't stand here and defend impropriety. I don't. But that doesn't change the physical evidence, the scientific evidence, and the data. He was terminated.

MR. BRENNAN: He paid a penalty. He was held responsible for what he did. He should have been. He should have been. But that doesn't get a free pass. That doesn't change the facts. It doesn't change the physical evidence. It doesn't change the science. It's unfortunate. It's distasteful. It's dishonorable. Remember, Trooper was asked, "Was the investigation conducted with honor and integrity?" And he said it was. Was Trooper Proctor's effort honor and integrity? And he said it was integrity. But he never said honor. That's a man of honor — military service, dedicated to his country, highest level of clearances to the president of the United States, now a state trooper. He would not say that Trooper Proctor was honorable, because he wasn't. He wasn't. But that does not change it.

MR. BRENNAN: It doesn't create a conspiracy. Doesn't invent a dog. It doesn't make somebody in a house something they're not. It just doesn't. When you read those text messages, they're hard to look at. It's unfair. It's unfair. And if there's a penalty more than being fired, well, maybe that penalty would be deserved. But it has nothing to do with the justice in this case. It just doesn't. There's not one piece of evidence, not one, that we can look at and say this was tampered with. This was planted. This was distorted. Remember when we introduced the tail lights at the beginning? I didn't introduce three of the tail lights, but then the defense did, so I put them in. Those were tail lights that were only found by Trooper Proctor. I did not put that evidence in.

MR. BRENNAN: Understanding those text messages and appreciating the disdain one might have for his comments — not that there's any evidence of tampering, not that there's any evidence that it was not true — but I didn't put that evidence before you because we didn't need Trooper Proctor in this case. We don't need Proctor to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. That's why I didn't introduce that evidence to you. Now, there's been a lot of talk about planting of tail light. We know the tail light wasn't planted because Trooper [unintelligible] and Mr. Proctor did not go down to Dighton to see Miss Read until later in the afternoon. We know from the 5:07 video. We've seen that.

MR. BRENNAN: We know the tail light was already missing when she's leaving the driveway — when the Canton police detectives went to do a wellness check, to care for those young children, and they went to the house inadvertently. They didn't even know it. The dash cam captured the back of the car. The tail light packed with snow is missing. It's already gone. It can't be planted. At this point, Trooper Proctor's still in his pajamas. He's not even on the case. He's not even on the scene. He's never been near the car. And in the Dighton videos themselves — when you close it, you can take it at an angle and it moved, but if you get the right angle, you can see it's missing. It's gone. Can we have slide 18, please? 5:07. You can play any angle you want, but if you look at this angle, it's gone. No plant.

MR. BRENNAN: It's already gone. You know where it is? 34 Fairview Road, on the lawn/ground, January 29, 2022, at 8:23. Look at the right-hand side. Look at the left-hand side. It's packed with snow. It's gone. It's gone. And the same thing when you do the videos — it's a different angle, a little smaller, but if you play that and watch it go up and down and slow it down, you'll see it expands. It's gone. So when you have Officer Barros come in here and try to tell you what he saw in the [unintelligible] couldn't have been it, you got to ask yourself what interest does he have coming in here in this case? A lot of attention on this case. A lot of people watching. Comes in after, of course, driving all the way out to the defense attorney's hotel to meet in a conference room so he can get a subpoena.

MR. BRENNAN: He spends two hours driving up and back so that he can conveniently get a subpoena that tells him to appear, which he could have got by fax or in the mail. And so when he comes in, what he says is that it's absolutely not what I saw. Absolutely not. And then he claims at the last time he testified, he had made the same statement. I showed him his transcript. And did you see the redness creep over his face? He never said this before. In fact, he testified to the opposite. And so he sits on the stand with a new story after a meeting. We don't know why, but then I show him that black and white photo with the snow with it missing. And I say, "Is this the way it looked?" That's of course before the snow melts out in the [unintelligible] so that you can see it unexposed. And he says, "Yes."

MR. BRENNAN: He had to agree. This tail light was gone. There's no boogeyman. There's no plant. There's no Higgins at the [unintelligible]. There's no one tearing out pieces. In fact, remember I played you a clip and you'll have it where the defendant says I was picking out pieces, it was crashed in, the bulb was showing, when I was showing [unintelligible] and Jen when they went back to Meadows. If you don't remember, listen to that clip. You'll hear it. Unfortunately, there's no ring video when they go back to Meadows. There's a ring video when she leaves. There's no ring video when she gets back. And so now when we're trying to look the other way, we want to find a dog bite. So enter Dr. Russell. Dr. Russell, according to her, nice woman, nice doctor, very accomplished. I respect that.

MR. BRENNAN: She's the only dog expert in the world. Thing is, we have no idea what that expertise means. She volunteers for the job. She wants to be here — profile — but she can't explain the methodology. What are you looking for in a dog bite? She can't tell us. It starts a year ago that it's claws, it's teeth, and then it's claws, then it's teeth, then it's I don't know. And then when you look at each of the different parts of the abrasions, she says, "Well, I can't tell if I look at each one of them, but altogether, it's a dog bite. It's a dog attack." That is the masterful expertise that the defense has bragged about bringing in — Dr. Russell telling you, because she says this is a dog bite.

MR. BRENNAN: She has never been in a forensic situation where she's looked at a wound and identified it as a dog bite before. This is the first time, the only time she's ever done it. And what she says is these are not punctures. Punctures means it goes into the skin, a wound. There's no punctures. And she's sure because she's an expert. So you should rely on her because she's coming in saying she's an expert and she's being presented. Yet after saying there's no punctures, Dr. Laposata comes in and she sees punctures everywhere. It's an animal attack. It's a dog. How is it? No method, no methodology, no history of this, no prior testimony that we know of other than arbitrarily what she says. And she says the exact opposite of Dr. Russell. Why is that? How does that happen?

MR. BRENNAN: So obviously there is no science to looking at an abrasion and saying where it came from. They give us no detail. They give us nothing that we should rely on. They contradict each other. It just takes you to look the other way. And so we have now the issue — the defense has said over and over again there's no collision. There's no collision. There's no collision. And they had a number of witnesses come in to try to say that. And they point to Dr. Scordi-Bello who works at the medical examiner's office. She tells you that she doesn't see injuries consistent with a collision. She's looking at this case for 90 days. 90 days. The evidence in this case did not stop. It continued for 2 years.

MR. BRENNAN: She knows nothing about the data, nothing about the black box, nothing about the interviews of Miss Read. She doesn't know about the DNA. She doesn't know about the shards — strike that, in the clothes. She knows nothing about that. So, in 90 days, she didn't see any lower body injuries. She didn't see any lower extremity injuries, which are very common in car collisions. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen because she in 90 days saw a fraction of the information. A fraction. And we know now argument back and forth for days about lower body injuries. The suggestion is a car accident can affect everybody differently depending on the angle, the scope, the speed. Some people can get plowed over by a car, have no injuries. Some people can get touched lightly and have more injuries.

MR. BRENNAN: And there was the debate about no lower body injuries. Well, ARCCA dispelled that in their dummy test — that you can have a collision with no lower body injuries. They did that for us. Thank you. And so the idea that at the time in 90 days that she doesn't have enough information to say consistent with a car accident doesn't mean there was no car accident. Let me talk a little bit about ARCCA. I don't want to waste too much time with them. What expert who's supposed to come to you says they're not the arbiter of truth? Their opinions weigh no more than yours. Your common sense has more value than an expert's opinion. Their job is to assist you, to explain what their expertise is so that it's a tool for you so that you can make a decision. That's objectivity.

MR. BRENNAN: We've heard words like confirmation bias, objectivity. Mr. Wolfe got on the stand and before we even started, you have to ask yourself, what expert has a court order for text messages and then deletes the text messages? What expert? What objective expert uses Signal? Signal, an encrypted app to communicate about the case. Never used it before, hasn't used it since. And so when he did his tests, he used a lower weight arm. Wasn't trying to bash him. Wasn't trying to insult him. Tried to get him just to recognize that a 9.38 lb arm is less weight than John O'Keefe's measurement, which would be 11.8. That's all. And because it's a lighter arm, it takes more speed to create the same damage. I don't know science. I don't know math very well, but that's basic. It's basic.

MR. BRENNAN: And he fought me over and over again. Did he seem objective, that he was trying to help you? Because Dr. Rentschler came in the next day and said, "Well, you have to adjust to that." That's all I asked him for an hour about adjusting, just like Jud Welcher adjusted. Do you adjust it? And he tried to talk to me like I was making something up. His own colleague had to admit it. Now, it's funny. He admitted it before he got through his credentials. No sequestration order violations. Nobody was coaching him, but he knew enough to come in at the beginning and get right on that point. And speaking of sequestration, remember Dr. Russell on her limo ride over? If Brennan asks you a question, make sure you ask for a transcript, impede the progress, slow down the questioning, interfere.

MR. BRENNAN: So order is — this fundamental fairness for all witnesses, not just some. And so what happens with Dr. Rentschler? We don't know. But we do know he comes in here and he tells you that he was not getting information that was helping him the last time he testified. He insisted. I asked him five times, "Was he getting information that would help him in his testimony?" Not from the defense, from his former employer. And he said, "No, no, no." And at the end of the examination, he reads his transcript, and it's yes, yes, yes. And he tells us that he's independent, objective. I ask him about a lunch, not a big deal. Just ask him about it. And he says, "I had a sandwich."

MR. BRENNAN: I stand in a corner until I remind him that we got video footage from a documentarian and he's in one of the scenes, and then things change. So when you talk about objectivity and who to trust, they can come in and say Jud Welcher said this and that. It doesn't make it so. Jud Welcher, Dr. Welcher, never in any report, in any presentation, in any testimony to you ever suggested this is how it happened. This is how his arm was. This is how his feet were. He was trying to show whether or not the orientation — could this happen with the angle, with the height — that's all that test was. It was no more. But what they do is they reposture it, repackage it, and say it means this when it doesn't. And we're going to show you why it's not that, therefore we win. That's all that is. It's semantics.

MR. BRENNAN: Jud Welcher, Dr. Welcher, never suggested that. And his work on [unintelligible] data, unassailable. And so what we have inevitably is we have a timeline that never moves. Data that never changes, physical evidence that can't be put in that spot without a collision. We have inevitably proof without any doubt, without any doubt, that on January 29th, 2022, Miss Read was with Mr. O'Keefe and she got drunk. She drank. She was two to three times over the legal limit. And they went to a party, an afterparty. And they were fighting. They were fighting. It was a relationship in decline. And he got out of the car. And he had a brief window of life left. And when he got out and she drove away, she couldn't let it go. She got drunk. She hit him. She left him to die. It's that simple.

MR. BRENNAN: We don't know exactly how this collision happened, but we have a good idea from the physical evidence and we know that it happened. Can someone have a collision without lower body injuries? Can I have slide 19, please? You bet they can. We don't know if this is the body position. We don't know if this is the exact speed, but what it tells us is viable. Look at the debris field. Look at his turn. Remember his sneaker on that curb. They got lodged against the sneaker. Mr. O'Keefe then falls back, hits his head. Contrecoup, left to die. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt what happened that night. There is no doubt who did it. You have a very difficult task ahead of you when you consider the evidence and you consider the law. Very difficult. There are three charges.

MR. BRENNAN: There is second-degree murder. Miss Read, when she chose to drive back at Mr. O'Keefe that night with a 6,000-pound Lexus in that anger — 75 miles an hour. Whether she meant to hit him or not, didn't mean to kill him, she hit him. There is a plain and strong likelihood of death. You would never back down your driveway if your kids were at the end of the driveway. You would say, "What are you going to kill somebody?" You would never do it because you would expect if you drove at them at that speed that someone would die. That's second-degree murder. OUI manslaughter. She's drunk. She was reckless. She doesn't even have to know she hit him. She doesn't even have to know she hit him. But she did. She did. And she left a man who was kind and generous and thoughtful. She left him alone.

MR. BRENNAN: She left him alone to die. Could I have slide 22, please? He is not an it. John O'Keefe is not a body. John O'Keefe is not a buffalo on a prairie. John O'Keefe was a person and he was murdered by Karen Read. Thank you.