Jurors began deliberations late last week, more than a month after the trial started. The third full day of deliberations began Wednesday morning.
Read, 45, was accused of striking John O'Keefe with her car outside a suburban Boston house party and leaving him to die in the snow in January 2022. She had been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene.
Read’s lawyers say O’Keefe, 46, was beaten, bitten by a dog, then left outside a home in Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by the police that included planting evidence against Read.
Read's second trial followed similar contours to the first, which ended in a mistrial last year.
Read has never been jailed for O’Keefe’s killing. She did not testify at her first murder trial or this one.
Defense argued Read was framed
Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his closing argument Friday by repeating three times: “There was no collision.” He told the jury that Read is an innocent woman victimized by a police cover-up in which law enforcement officers sought to protect their own and obscure the real killer.
He repeatedly attacked the lead investigator in the case, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired after sharing offensive and sexist texts about Read with friends, family and co-workers. He said Proctor’s “blatant bias” tainted every aspect of the corrupt and flawed investigation and noted how prosecutors refused to put him on the stand, as they did during the first trial.
Prosecutors argued Read chose to leave O’Keefe to die
Prosecutor Hank Brennan opened his closing argument Friday by saying Read callously decided to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow, fully aware that he was gravely injured. He argued that she made the “choice to let” O’Keefe die, going further than prosecutors in the first trial in spelling out a motive.
Brennan said Read’s blood-alcohol level was two to three times the legal limit, after the couple downed multiple drinks at two Canton bars. The couple, whose “toxic” relationship was “crumbling,” had an argument on the way to the house party that increased tensions and ultimately led to O’Keefe’s death, the prosecutor said.
“She was drunk, she hit him, and she left him to die,” Brennan said.
Read’s pink-clad supporters
Dozens of Read supporters, dressed mostly in pink, had been camped out waiting for the verdict. They gather behind barricades and across the courthouse each morning to catch a glimpse of Read.
The crowd, some of whom come waving American flags or posters supporting Read or denigrating the prosecution, say they are here because Read could have been one of them. The tight-knit group of mostly women argues the Read case woke them up to a corrupt justice system, and they hope their movement can reform it. Some of them have been out here long before the first trial started.
What are the charges Read faces?
Read faced several charges, the most serious being second-degree murder. She faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. She also faced manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
She was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; motor vehicle homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; as well as operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. They carry maximum sentences of 2 1/2 years and 15 years, respectively.
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Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.
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