Karen Read trial live: Witness who heard Read say ‘I hit him’ grilled during cross examination

Surveillance footage has captured Karen Read and her police officer boyfriend in a Boston bar just hours before she is accused of running him over with her car and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.

In the footage, shown in court at Ms Read’s murder trial on Thursday, the professor is seen embracing and kissing John O’Keefe at CF McCarthy’s in Boston on the night of 28 January 2022.

O’Keefe had been out celebrating the acceptance of his niece, who he had custody of, into private school, jurors at Norfolk Superior Court heard.

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A highly anticipated trial began in Massachusetts this week involving a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank.

John O’Keefe died in a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Boston on Jan. 29, 2022.

The case has garnered national attention because the defense alleges state and local law enforcement officials have framed her and allowed the real killer to go free.

Here are the facts and legal arguments in the case:

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Jennifer McCabe, the women who Google searched “hos (sic) long to die in cold” the morning that John O’Keefe’s body was found in the snow, sat for cross examination on Tuesday morning.

During her first appearance last week, Ms McCabe said “Ms Read stated she had hit [O’Keefe].”

On Tuesday, Ms Read’s defence attorney, Alan Jackson, reminded Ms McCabe that she did not make the comments during grand jury testimony she gave in 2022, and asked where Ms McCabe testified that Ms Read said she hit O’Keefe.

Ms McCabe insisted that regardless of where she said it, she still heard it.

“I don’t know if I said it in the grand jury but I can say today, with 100% certainty, that she said ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” she said.

Alan Jackson, the defense attorney for Karen Read, questioned Jen McCabe about the exact phrasing of her words to a grand jury that convened to bring charges agaisnt the defendant.

He pointed out that Ms McCabe told the jury earlier in the trial that she heard Ms Read say “I hit him” three times, but that in her grand jury testimony she says she recalled hearing Ms Read say “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?”

Ms McCabe said she was “answering the question” she was asked by Mr Jackson, and not reciting what she said to the grand jury.

“The truth of this matter is that you manufactured this story for the jury because it helps you out,” Mr Jackson said.

Ms McCabe said that was “absolutely not” her intention.

Karen Read’s attorney has tried to paint Colin Albert as a violent individual, by showing videos from his phone and social media that included him saying he would “f**k you up” to unknown individuals he was potentially upset with.

Mr Albert claimed these were from sometime during high school, meaning they were made a few years before the night John O’Keefe died.

Ms Read’s defence team believes Mr Albert did have the means and the motive to attack the victim and will be hoping these videos show that he has violent tendencies.

Last week, Ms Read snapped at her defense attorneys during a break and the entire exchange was captured by cameras in the courtroom.

The incident happened after testimony and Read rolled her eyes and then looked sharply at her lawyers.

The defence presented a photo of Colin Albert with grazed knuckles from February 2022, which he claimed happened when he fell over while with friends.

Defence attorney Alan Jackson said this wasn’t true, instead saying the injury showed the witness had been in a fight around the time the photo was taken, not long after Mr O’Keefe died.

Mr Jackson said police did not do enough to investigate those inside the Alberts’ home on 29 January 2022 and that Colin Albert’s injury backed his assertion that the witness has violent tendencies.

Prosecutors asked Colin Albert if he had ever had any issues with the victim, including whether they had argued about women.

The witness replied to each question with “never”.

He was then asked about people writing about him online, which he said began around a year ago.

“People on Twitter, Instagram, social media were just coming at my family, calling us murderers, harassing us, turning up to our doorsteps, our sports games,” he said. “We couldn’t leave the house without people taking pictures of us.”

Matthew McCabe told the prosecution how he and a group of friends were at the bar until around midnight the night of the alleged murder.

He explained that the group at The Waterfall included his wife Jennifer, along with members of the Albert family: Nicole, Chris and Julie Albert, as well as a few other friends.

At some point later on in the evening, he said Mr O’Keefe and Karen Read showed up, along with other members of the Albert family.