‘John I [expletive] hate you.’ Series of voicemails Karen Read left for John O’Keefe played at trial. - The Boston Globe (2024)

Here’s a rundown of some of the key witnesses who’ve testified so far in the high-profile trial.

Here’s how testimony unfolded on Thursday.

3:30 p.m. — Specialist from medical examiner’s office continues her testimony

Prosecutor Adam Lally continued to question Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a medical examiner for the state’s medical examiner’s office, about O’Keefe’s autopsy.

She said she observed some small hemmorages in O’Keefe’s stomach with “Wischnewsky spots” in his stomach lining, which are associated with cases of hypothermia.

Lally asked how that occurs. She said the pathology of these spots is mostly unknown. Some have suggested they can be a response to stress or acid in the stomach. She said she also observed more “diffused hemorrhages” in his pancreas.

Scordi-Bello said it was reported to them that O’Keefe had been found in the snow and may have been there for a period of time. She said the combination of the stomach and pancreatic hemorrhages “strongly suggested, given the circ*mstances” that hypothermia played a role in O’Keefe’s death.

Lally asked her to explain what hypothermia is. She said it is a term to describe low body temperature, 95 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

She said hypothermia is a difficult diagnosis and is often determined through a process of elimination. A body found in snow with a core temperature of 85 degrees and is unresponsive could be a hypothermic death or not, “and it’s up to us to determine through the autopsy what other elements could be at play.”

She gave an example of a person having a heart attack while shoveling snow and their body being found after being in the cold for a period of time. She said this would not be considered a hypothermic death. If someone is alive when they start losing heat from their body, that may lead to a hypothermic death determination.

Lally asked about the toxicology report Scordi-Bello received on O’Keefe. She said he had alcohol in his system; his alcohol level was .21 at the time of the test and was higher at the time of his death.

Lally asked what Scordi-Bello was told O’Keefe was wearing when he was found. She said he was wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. She said alcohol intoxication has been shown to inhibit body functions that provide heat.

She said O’Keefe was 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 216 pounds.

Lally asked her about O’Keefe’s right arm, and she said he had a “collection of linear abrasions” on the back that extended from the upper arm to the middle of the forearm.

She said his lower extremities did not have visible injuries, except a small abrasion on his side.

She said he determined his brain injuries were caused by blunt force trauma. She said it is a “well known fact” that injuries to the base of the skull can lead to orbital discoloration, or “racoon eyes,” because blood is seeping out. This signifies to emergency room doctors that there may be a larger injury inside the head.

“I can tell you the skull is a pretty thick bone,” she said. “It takes a considerable amount of force to fracture” it.

She said “these are not injuries that are immediately lethal. This is not something that would cause death in seconds. Therefore, Mr. O’Keefe may have been incapacitated by the injuries or knocked out, if you will, and was not able to get himself into a warmer environment, and therefore hypothermia set in.”

She noted O’Keefe was not wearing warm clothes or a jacket.

“In my opinion, I believe the injury to the head came first,” before hypothermia set in, she said.

Lally asked if she observed any signs of a fight or altercation during her examination of O’Keefe’s body.

”I didn’t see any major signs of what I would call a significant altercation,” she said. Lally asked what some of those signs would be. She said she examined O’Keefe’s hands and noted contusions on the tops of his left and right hands. His right hand contusion had a “centralized pinpoint mark” suggesting it was due to attempts to get IV access.

”I didn’t see any bruising on Mr. O’Keefe’s knuckles” or breaks to his fingernails or any bone fractures to his fingers or hands, she said.

Lally asked if she examined his ribs, and she said there were rib fractures near his sternum.

”Those are very consistent with resuscitation. We see those quite often,” she said.

Lally handed photographs of O’Keefe’s body to Scordi-Bello. As she began to look them over, Judge Beverly Cannone called Lally and the defense attorneys to a sidebar.

After a brief sidebar, Cannone announced they would end for the day.

Cannone said “we are definitely on track” to finish next week.

2:45 p.m. — Second specialist from medical examiner’s office testifies

Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a medical examiner for the state’s medical examiner’s office since December 2016, was called to the stand.

She said she is board-certified for anatomic pathology and forensic pathology.

She said she performed an autopsy on John O’Keefe Jan. 31, 2022. She said first noticed there was evidence of medical intervention. His body had been brought from the hospital to the medical examiner’s office and she noticed evidence of “attempted resuscitation” and also documented injuries she found on his body.

Prosecutor Adam Lally asked her to explain different types of manner of death. She said there are five broad categories — natural, accidental (motor vehicle accidents, drug overdoses, elderly falls), homicidal (injuries inflicted by another person with evidence of intent to cause fear, harm, or death), suicide, and undetermined. She said she is making a medical determination, not a legal one, when she identifies a manner of death.

Lally handed her a copy of O’Keefe’s death certificate. She confirmed she signed the certificate and that the cause of death was “blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia.” For manner of death, she listed “could not be determined.”

“The cause of death is something I can determine by the autopsy,” she said. The manner of death has to do with the circ*mstances of his death and she did not have the information to determine if his injuries were accidental or not.

Lally asked where Scordi-Bello found blunt force injuries on O’Keefe’s body. She said the majority were to his face and head and to his arm.

On his head, she observed “a number of injuries,” including his eyes, where he had hemmorages and swelling on both eyelids. She said he also had a small laceration on the right eyelid and abrasions on the left side of his nose. When she looked at the back of his head, she found a laceration that was surrounded with an abrasion.

On his right arm, he had a number of “somewhat linear” abrasions, and bruising on the “dorsal aspect of the right hand that I measured and documented,” she said. She said she noted a small abrasion on his upper inner right arm and abrasions on the outside of his right arm and forearm, and abrasions on both his hands and his right knee.

Scordi-Bello said she noted that the injuries were mostly on the posterior right arm and forearm.

Lally asked what she observed during her internal exam of O’Keefe. Scordi-Bello said when his skull was opened, she noted that there were skull fractures in the back and front and a recent “subdural hemorrhage,” when blood collects between the brain and the skull.

Scordi-Bello said the lacerations on his scalp appeared to originate from a fracture on the back of his head.

“I knew at that point Mr. O’Keefe’s head had come in contact with a blunt object,” she said.

She said there were “multiple” fractures in “multiple chambers and parts of the skull.”

“I’d say they were extensive,” she said.

2:10 p.m. — Specialist at medical examiner’s office takes the stand

Before court resumed after lunch, Judge Beverly Cannone told the jury that her “main goal is to get this case to you by next week” and said Friday will be a full day of testimony.

Guarino returned to the stand briefly and testified that it wasn’t search items that were deleted from Jennifer McCabe’s phone but cookies related to searches and websites visited.

Prosecutor Adam Lally then called Dr. Renee Stonebridge to the stand. She is the director of cardiac and neuropathology at the state’s Chief Medical Examiner’s office.

Stonebridge said she typically reviews cases of blunt head trauma that may be suspicious. She said she looked for obvious issues and one of the first she noticed was subarachnoid hemorrhage injuries. She said she did not see evidence of an aneurysm or “natural disease” state that would lead to a rupture in brain vessels.

She said the subarachnoid hemorrhage was in the front of the brain. O’Keefe had many contusions in the front of his brain.

“It’s not something you could count,” she said. Of if you did, “it would take a very long time.”

She said the contusions indicate there was enough pressure on the brain to cause “a lot of blood vessels” to rupture.

She said she determined the injuries were “acute traumatic injuries.” She said that based on her observations and the autopsy findings, these injuries were “due to some type of trauma.”

Lally asked if she could opine on what caused O’Keefe’s brain injuries.

”It was definitely something that caused some kind of force,” she said. Lally asked if they could be consistent with a fall or being struck by a vehicle and falling to the ground, and Stonebridge said “they could be.”

Defense declined to cross-examine Stonebridge.

12:20 p.m. — Cross-examination of State Police investigator continues

Read lawyer David Yannetti asked State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino if Karen Read’s voicemails to John O’Keefe early on Jan. 29 were all left after she left Fairview Road. Guarino said that was accurate.

”No one at 34 Fairview, including Jennifer McCabe, could have witnessed Karen Read” outside the home at 12:45 a.m., since data showed Read was back at O’Keefe’s home just after 12:35 a.m., Yannetti said. Guarino said that would be accurate.

Jennifer McCabe, who went back to the Fairview Road home for the afterparty, has testified to seeing Read’s SUV outside the house around that time.

Yannetti said data shows O’Keefe took 170 steps around the time he left the Waterfall bar at 12:11 a.m. until 12:21 a.m.

”You don’t know where those 170 steps took place,” Yannetti said.

”To a degree, yes,” Guarino said. “The phone says it’s steps, doesn’t mean” physical steps were taken.

Guarino told Yannetti that O’Keefe’s phone had him taking another 80 steps between 12:21 a.m. and 12:24 a.m. Guarino said health data put O’Keefe’s phone “specifically on stairs” at 12:22 a.m. But at that same time, additional location data placed the phone a half-mile away from Fairview.

Yannetti asked if the data showed that O’Keefe went up three flights of stairs sometime between 12:22 a.m. and 12:24 a.m.

”Yes, that is correct,” Guarino said. He told Yannetti the Waze app data had O’Keefe a half mile away at 12:22 a.m. when his health data had him on stairs.

”I attributed it to movement” of the phone, he said of the reading.

Yannetti asked Guarino if he knew iPhone apps can pull data from “three different clocks” when they timestamp location information. Guarino said that was correct. Yannetti asked if the three clocks can be “seconds apart” or off by “three minutes.”

”I would have to see the data,” Guarino said.

Yannetti showed Guarino a printout of O’Keefe’s phone location data with the three clocks included. Guarino said “yes” when Yannetti asked if the timestamps at one point were apart by three minutes.

If there’s a three-minute difference between the clocks, Yannetti said, and it’s not clear which clock Waze used to put O’Keefe a half mile away from 34 Fairview at 12:22 a.m., that could explain the discrepancy with the health data that has him ascending and descending stairs.

Guarino said that wasn’t accurate.

Yannetti said that before April 2023, Guarino hadn’t reported to the defense about the existence of “three Google searches by Jennifer McCabe,” a reference to the hypothermia searches. Guarino said he “never looked at” McCabe’s phone.

In his April 2023 report, Guarino noted McCabe’s dying in cold searches, he confirmed to Yannetti.

Yannetti also said McCabe called Brian Albert, her brother-in-law who lived at the Fairview Road home, at 6:23 a.m. on Jan. 29, but the call “and the deletion of that call” does not appear in his April 2023 report.

Guarino said he noted in that report that McCabe also deleted two calls to her sister, identified in her phone as “coco,” that morning. Both calls lasted less than 10 seconds, Guarino said.

12:45 p.m. — State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino testifies on redirect

Guarino told prosecutor Adam Lally that investigator Michael Proctor never told him he obtained John O’Keefe’s cell directly from Fairview Road.

”I just know it was found underneath his body and then taken to Canton PD,” Guarino said of O’Keefe’s phone.

He told Lally the phone later pinged “a handful” of locations as it moved from the Canton police department to his evidence lab.

Eventually the phone was placed into airplane mode, he said.

After receiving the defense expert’s report on Jennifer McCabe’s Google searches, he looked over the data, Guarino said. He said authorities determined that searches were stored in the phone’s “wall file,” which set off “red flags” about the defense expert’s conclusions.

As for the GPS data on O’Keefe’s phone, Guarino said it showed he arrived at Fairview Road at 12:25 a.m. He told Lally that Cellebrite periodically updates its software.

The defense expert used an outdated version, he said.

”There’s just an issue with the software at the time,” Guarino said.

He said McCabe was “searching [about] her daughter’s basketball” at 2:27 a.m., the phone records show. Witnesses have testified that she opened the tab at 2:27 a.m. to make that search and used the same tab hours later for the hypothermia searches.

Guarino said he doesn’t believe McCabe’s deletions of calls to the sister were “user generated,” but rather “phone generated” based on the data.

Judge Beverly Cannone called a lunch break at 1 p.m.

Noon — State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino continues his testimony under cross-examination

Read attorney David Yannetti noted that Guarino voiced disagreement with a defense expert’s findings on the “hos [sic] long to die in cold” search. Guarino told Yannetti he studied criminal justice and mass communication in college but did not study computer science.

Yannetti asked if his training on electronics has mainly consisted of online courses and webinars, and Guarino said that wasn’t accurate. Guarino said he took an introductory course on computer networks and cell phone investigations.

He told Yannetti he holds certifications in computer science and forensics but no degrees.

Asked if he’s published any articles on computer forensics, Guarino said, “not yet.”

He told Yannetti he’s written many police reports over his career and it’s “not necessarily the case” that a report needs to be written immediately after an incident, particularly if he has to wait to obtain access to a phone.

Yannetti asked if it’s important to include all pertinent details in reports, and Guarino said it depends on the data he’s looking at.

“If I did a handwritten report for everything, there’d be thousands of pages” owing to the volume of data in phones, Guarino said.

Yannetti said Guarino wrote up reports in early February 2022 on the Read case, and Guarino said that was accurate.

Yannetti said Guarino wrote in one report that State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik responded to O’Keefe’s death.

“Did Michael Proctor tell you he had received or retrieved” O’Keefe’s phone from 34 Fairview, Yannetti asked.

“No,” Guarino said. “At some point during the day they did [get the phone]. I don’t know where from.”

Guarino read a portion of his Feb. 4 report that said Proctor secured O’Keefe’s phone “while on scene.”

Yannetti asked if Proctor brought Guarino the phone and he said “yes he did.”

“The chain of custody ... is an important detail,” Yannetti said.

“Yes,” Guarino said.

Yannetti asked if Guarino noted “any location data” in the Feb. 4, 2022 report, and Guarino said he didn’t have the data at that point.

He told Yannetti he did not report on O’Keefe’s location data until spring 2023. That report was written after a defense expert submitted an affidavit indicating health data on O’Keefe’s phone had him going up and down stairs early on Jan. 29, he said.

Yannetti asked Guarino to specify where the reports state that the GPS data on the phone was accurate within three feet of where his body was found, as he testified on the stand. Guarino said he indicated as much in a May 2023 report.

Yannetti noted that O’Keefe’s cell phone began “registering movement” around 6:15 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

”As you were examining that data sir, you certainly knew ... John O’Keefe had already been found mortally wounded and incapacitated, correct?” Yannetti asked. “You knew that by 6:15 ... John O’Keefe had already been” mortally wounded.

“Yes,” Guarino said.

To preserve the integrity of the data, there’s a way to stop the phone from recording location data, Yannetti said.

”Yes, if you can place it into airplane mode,” Guarino said.

”When that phone was seized no investigator put the [phone] into airplane mode that early morning because you know location data was” found on the device, Yannetti said.

He told Yannetti that O’Keefe’s phone had “GPS data points throughout the day” on the 29th after he had died. Meaning for several hours, Yannetti said, the phone was not put into airplane mode nor put into a special bag that blocks devices from recording location data.

”That’s correct,” Guarino said.

Guarino said one call at 6:07 a.m. from Jennifer McCabe’s phone to “Coco” was answered and listed as deleted. Jennifer McCabe was with Read when Read found O’Keefe’s body in the snow near the road.

”It is [listed as deleted] but there’s a reason why,” Guarino said. A second call to “Coco” at 6:08 a.m. was also listed as answered and deleted, Guarino told Yannetti, adding there was also an explanation for that.

He also told Yannetti that a PDF file of the call logs Yannetti gave him on the stand was “incomplete.” Guarino said he didn’t know who created the PDF after the extraction data was provided to the defense.

Guarino told Yannetti that Proctor seized Read’s phone on Jan. 29, and that he initially accessed the contents on Jan. 31. Guarino told Yannetti “none” of Read’s calls were deleted on Jan. 29, 2022. He also said Read conducted no Google searches between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Guarino said Read deleted “a few” searches from the afternoon of the 29th.

”You saw no deleted calls,” Yannetti said.

”No, not that I know of,” Guarino said.

11:30 a.m. — Read searched on Google for “DUI attorneys” at 1:27 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, according to prosecutors

Prosecutors want to introduce that search to jurors, who remained out of the courtroom during arguments before Judge Beverly Cannone shortly before 11:30 a.m. Read lawyer David Yannetti said the search shouldn’t come in since lead investigator Michael Proctor had called Read a few minutes earlier and she was looking into attorneys, which is her right as a citizen. Cannone said she would not allow the search into the prosecution’s “case in chief” but instructed the lawyers to come to a sidebar if the door is opened to its inclusion.

10:30 a.m. — State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino continues his testimony

Guarino identified a map on the monitor of the GPS locations on O’Keefe’s phone. At 12:25:30 a.m., his phone pings near 34 Fairview Road, Guarino said. One second later, the phone has a possible location range spanning “the whole neighborhood” due to a weak satellite signal. The range narrows as the signal strengthens, Guarino said.

The entire time, the GPS points remain between 32 and 34 Fairview, he said.

”This is where it stays” for the remainder of the night, Guarino said, using a laser pointer to highlight an area between the two homes on an aerial map.

Guarino said he used two different programs to determine the location data.

”Were they corroborative of each other?” prosecutor Adam Lally asked. “Yes,” Guarino said.

He said data showing O’Keefe ascending and descending stairs coincides with Read’s SUV traveling on the hilly area surrounding Fairview.

The lawyers then went to a sidebar. After the sidebar, Judge Beverly Cannone called a recess she said would last for 30 to 45 minutes to allow her and the lawyers on both sides to work through some issues.

10:05 a.m. — Testimony about Read’s phone calls continues

State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino said Read also called her parents around 1:10 a.m. on Jan. 29 and again at 4:40 a.m. and 4:42 a.m. The third call was answered, he said.

He said authorities could not obtain GPS coordinates on Read’s phone, suggesting location services could have been turned off at the time.

Guarino said O’Keefe’s phone showed he was at the Waterfall shortly after midnight, and data on his phone charted his journey from the bar to Fairview Road. From 12:11 a.m. to 12:32 a.m., O’Keefe’s “health data” showed he was “traveling and taking steps,” when he was in fact in Read’s vehicle.

The discrepancy is important because Read’s defense has said health data showed O’Keefe moving up and down the stairs inside the Fairview home.

”It’s not the case,” Guarino said, when asked by prosecutor Adam Lally if the health data can chart exactly how many steps a person is taking at any given time. He said users don’t have to be “physically” moving for steps to register on the health data.

Around the same time his health data has him taking steps, his phone also shows him looking for Waze location data for Fairview Road. At that point, Read’s car was on nearby Dedham Street and arrived on Fairview a couple minutes later, Guarino said.

Between 12:25 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. on Jan. 29, records show that O’Keefe’s phone had “no real speed registered” until it was found the next morning, Guarino said.

Witnesses have testified that his phone was found under his body.

Guarino said 34 Fairview Road is at the bottom of a hill in a hilly area, so a phone’s GPS signal can weaken.

Guarino said he went to the crime scene with Trooper Michael Proctor on May 8, 2023.

”We wanted to take measurements of where Officer O’Keefe’s body was found” and measure the distance to the front door, Guarino said. He said O’Keefe left the Waterfall bar at 12:12 a.m. and arrived at Fairview around 12:24 a.m., according to the location data.

Guarino said he cross-referenced the location data with health data on O’Keefe’s phone. At 12:12 a.m., the phone was at the Waterfall bar, at 12:19 a.m. the phone was on Dedham Street, and at 12:20 a.m., 34 Fairview Road was entered into Waze.

Around 12:22 a.m. a health data point had him going up and down stairs when he was in Read’s vehicle, a half mile from Fairview, Guarino said.

The phone later passes by Fairview and reverses to come back, he said.

”None ‘til it was found at 6:15,” Guarino said when prosecutor Adam Lally asked what movement was detected on O’Keefe’s phone between 12:25 a.m. and that time. ”We believe we were within three feet of exactly” where O’Keefe’s body was found, some 72 feet from the front door, Guarino said.

He said the location data fluctuates for about 30 seconds around 12:25 a.m. For about three seconds, the phone shows it’s inside 34 Fairview.

”It would take him a second and a half to get to the house” and another second and a half to get back to “where his body was found,” Guarino said. O’Keefe was “over a half mile away” from Fairview when his phone’s health data had him moving up and down stairs, Guarino said.

9:55 a.m. — Series of angry voicemails Read left for John O’Keefe played at trial

State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino identified records of Karen Read’s calls to John O’Keefe on Jan. 29. She called twice at 12:36 a.m., Guarino said, and her phone records indicate the calls were answered, each one lasting just a couple seconds. The records on O’Keefe’s phone showed the calls from that time were missed, Guarino said.

He said Read left O’Keefe a voicemail at 12:37 a.m. Guarino said Read called O’Keefe more than 50 times between about 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 29.

There was never any indication that O’Keefe answered any of those calls, Guarino said, but there were eight voicemails recovered from his phone.

”All from Ms. Read,” he said. “No one else.”

Witnesses have testified that Read, who had consumed nine alcoholic drinks, did not remember driving O’Keefe to Fairview Road early on Jan. 29. But witnesses have also testified that Read pointed to O’Keefe’s snow-covered body before the two women she was with saw anything, suggesting she already knew he was there.

At 12:36 a.m., Guarino said, Read’s phone “auto connected” to the password protected wifi network in O’Keefe’s home.

In a voice mail left at 12:37 a.m., she said ”John I [expletive] hate you.”

At 12:59 a.m., she said “Nobody knows where the [expletive] you are, you [expletive] pervert.”

At 1:18 a.m., her voicemail said “It’s 1 a.m. I’m with your niece and nephew. You’re a [expletive] pervert. ... You [expletive] loser. [Expletive] yourself,” Read said.

At 6:08 a.m., another voicemail was left on O’Keefe’s phone when his body was discovered along Fairview Road. That message was played but the audio was garbled and people were heard screaming and talking in the background. A voice that appears to be Read’s is heard screaming “John” repeatedly and “please John,” as someone else appears to be trying to calm her down.

9:25 a.m. — Judge rules defense expert can testify about John O’Keefe’s injuries

Judge Beverly Cannone said Thursday that she’ll allow the defense to call Dr. Marie Russell, a retired emergency room physician in California, to testify that the cuts on O’Keefe’s arm appear to have been caused by an “animal attack.”

”She does have specialized knowledge in that field,” Cannone said.

She said Russell will not be permitted to testify on police activity or what she feels O’Keefe’s injuries are “inconsistent with.”

Lawyers for Read have asserted that O’Keefe’s injuries were not caused by a vehicle strike and that he was beaten inside the Fairview Road home and attacked by the family’s dog.

State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino returned to the stand. He identified Read’s call logs from Jan. 28 to Jan. 29, 2022. The lawyers were then called to a sidebar. Guarino earlier this week read out text messages that Read and O’Keefe exchanged on Jan. 28 in which they alluded to frequent fighting and strains in their relationship.

After the sidebar, Guarino identified a call log between Read and Kerry Roberts, one of the women who was with Read when she discovered O’Keefe’s body. Guarino also identified chats between O’Keefe and Chris Albert, whose brother Brian owned the Fairview Road home at the time.

Guarino read chats between Read and Laura Sullivan, the mother of O’Keefe’s godson, on the afternoon of the 29th.

Sullivan asked Read to “call me” and Read later said “John passed away.” Sullivan said, “I’m so sorry.”

Read said “we found him in the snow” and Sullivan said “I can’t stop crying.”

Read said “he left the party we were at.” Sullivan said “my heart breaks for everyone.”

Guarino read texts Read had sent O’Keefe early on Jan. 29. At 12:55 a.m., she wrote “I’m going home” and then “see you later.” Shortly after 1 a.m., she texted “your kids are .... alone” and that she was back at her home in Mansfield.

Read spent the night at O’Keefe’s home and did not go back to Mansfield, prosecutors have said.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.