The fourth week of the Karen Read murder trial was one rooted in the examination of phone communications: a Google search for “hos long to die in cold” and nine days — and 56 pages worth — of flirtatious texts between Read and a federal agent.
The density of witnesses has declined as the case moves from O’Keefe’s last night out at two Canton bars and then the snowy scene of first responders to his body in the yard of 34 Fairview Road in Canton at around 6 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, toward fewer witnesses but a deeper look at possible motive and alleged conspiracy.
The week began with the continuing cross-examination of Jennifer McCabe, who as a key witness sat for testimony on three consecutive trial days. She’s the sister of Nicole Albert, who along with husband Brian Albert owned the Fairview Road home where O’Keefe’s life would end.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer and her boyfriend of about two years when he died at age 46. Prosecutors say that after a night out drinking the pair argued and she killed him by backing her Lexus SUV into him, leaving him there in a snowstorm.
The search
The defense has its own theory of the case: that someone or multiple people inside that home beat O’Keefe to death and then framed Read for the murder. A search McCabe made on her phone is central to that theory.
The query at question is “Hos long to die in cold,” which McCabe said was misspelled because it was hard to type as her hands were freezing and because she has multiple sclerosis.
McCabe testified on Wednesday that she made the search at 6:24 a.m. at the behest of Read as the two women, along with Kerry Roberts — who also took the stand last week — surrounded O’Keefe’s body as paramedics did their work.
But defense attorney Alan Jackson presented a phone analysis that shows the search was made at 2:27 a.m., hours before O’Keefe’s body would be found. He alleges that McCabe already knew O’Keefe was dead outside when she made the search and that she’s part of the cover-up and had tried to delete that initial search from her home.
“I did not delete that search,” McCabe said. “I did not make that search at 2:27 a.m. I would not have left John O’Keefe outside to die in the cold because he is my friend, who I love.”
She explained that as she lay in bed after the party at 34 Fairview Road, she opened her phone to look at the sports coverage of the game her daughter had played in the prior evening. She said that she must have used the same browser window to perform the search hours later and that’s why the analysis shows the 2:27 a.m. time.
As legal analysts told the Herald for an examination of forensic evidence, getting to the truth of the search time will depend on expert testimony on phone analysis that is yet to come. Both sides include forensic experts on their witness lists.
The Aruba incident
O’Keefe and Read were part of a roughly week-long New Year’s trip to Aruba in which dozens were invited by Laura Sullivan, who testified Wednesday she was a long-time close friend to O’Keefe. She plans the trip every year, she said, though this was the first for O’Keefe and Read.
It was also the first time Laura’s sister Marietta Sullivan came along, she testified. And it’s what she did or didn’t do that caused quite a bit of strife on the island.
Read, both sisters testified, accused O’Keefe of “making out” with Marietta Sullivan and caused a big scene.
Marietta Sullivan said she told her sister, “Absolutely not,” when asked if she had made out with O’Keefe. She said she considers him “an older brother.”
The flirty texts and dissatisfaction
While Laura Sullivan testified that Read seemed contrite over her freak-out, texts Read sent to ATF Agent Brian Higgins show she was still sore.
Higgins’ testimony advanced the prosecution’s theory that Read and O’Keefe were on the outs, culminating in Read’s anger overflowing enough to kill O’Keefe that night.
“I just thought you were happy with your situation?” Higgins texted her one day.
“I was,” Read responded, “but things have deteriorated.”
Her primary complaints were taking care of the niece and nephew that O’Keefe had taken custody of when their parents died and her allegations that he cheated on her in Aruba.
Higgins is one of the three people defense attorney David Yannetti named in a pretrial hearing as alternative O’Keefe killers. The other two are Brian Albert, whose sister-in-law is Jennifer McCabe; and Albert’s nephew Colin Albert. The defense has argued that any combination of or all three beat O’Keefe to death, possibly with Brian Albert’s dog Chloe playing a role, and then framed Read.
The defense has said that Jennifer McCabe, her husband Matthew McCabe, and an assortment of other members of the Albert family colluded with local and state police in a cover-up.
Read and Higgins participated in a lengthy and flirtatious bout of texting on nine non-consecutive days leading up to O’Keefe’s death, with Read early on getting to the point: “You’re hot” she texted him on Jan. 13, 2022.
Higgins read his response, along with significant portions from the entire exchange, in court: “Feeling is mutual. Is that bad?”
Read kissed Higgins in front of O’Keefe’s house while walking him out following a Patriots game viewing party, he testified, and the kiss was “not like a friend.”
At the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton, the second and last bar O’Keefe had gone to the night before his death, Higgins texted Read what he described as a “flirty” text about 25 minutes before everyone left for 34 Fairview Road: “Ummmmmm Well.”
He received a response from Read, the last between them, at 11:54 the next morning: “John died.”
Court will resume for only one day next week, Tuesday. The day is expected to begin with the conclusion of Higgins’ testimony.
