DEDHAM, Mass. — Colin Albert, a key witness who Karen Read’s defense team has said had a motive to attack John O’Keefe, took the stand Wednesday afternoon.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is facing charges including second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, who was her boyfriend at the time. She has pleaded not guilty.
[ Karen Read murder trial: A guide to the key players you need to know ]
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Julie Nagel said she had been at the Canton house that night to celebrate the birthday of the homeowner’s son, Brian Albert Jr. She was dismissed from the stand after some brief additional questioning.
Terri Kun, a forensic scientist at the University of California, Davis, was called to the stand after Nagel. She testified that no dog DNA was found on evidence collected at the scene of O’Keefe’s death.
Ryan Nagel, Julie’s brother, his girlfriend, Heather Maxon, and his best friend Ricky D’Antuono, all testified after Kun.
Allison McCabe, the daughter of Matthew and Jennifer McCabe also took the stand.
PLAY-BY-PLAY FROM DAY 12 OF TESTIMONY:
3:40 p.m.
- Defense says they will wait until tomorrow to cross Colin Albert. Court adjourns for the day.
- Colin Albert says he didn’t see anyone from another group or older coming into the house before he left.
- Lally shows the jury a picture of Colin Albert he says is from a couple of weeks after John O’Keefe’s death.
- Colin Albert says he knew John O’Keefe. He was a neighbor and would “wave at him” when he drove by
3:25 p.m.
- Colin Albert describes being at his cousin Brian Albert Jr.’s birthday party at 34 Fairview. He says he “no” when asked if he was overly intoxicated or drunk.
3:15 p.m.
- Alli McCabe is excused. ADA Lally calls Colin Albert to stand.
- Alli McCabe says “Colin Albert wasn’t in the house” when JO was there and breaks down when she describes the harassment she says she and her family have received.
3 p.m.
- Yannetti: When you provided the screenshot (texts with Colin about pickup) did the state police ever ask to look at your phone? Alli McCabe: I don’t remember.
- Confirms the phone wasn’t imaged.
2:45 p.m.
- Jury sees a photo of Colin Albert for the first time shown by the prosecution.
2:30 p.m.
- Alli McCabe confirms MSP never requested her actual phone. She says she didn’t do anything to change the timestamps on her texts with Colin Albert in the screenshots the prosecution wants to show.
2:15 p.m.
- Alli McCabe says she provided State Police text exchanges with Colin Albert about picking him up at 34 Fairview. Yannetti calls objection when ADA Lally asks to enter them.
- A separate voir dire of Alli McCabe is taking place now without the jury re: the text messages she says she exchanged with Colin Albert.
2 p.m.
- Court is back in session. Alli McCabe returns to the stand. ADA Lally is questioning her.
12:50 p.m.
- Judge calls for lunch break. Court will resume at 2 p.m.
12:45 p.m.
- Alli McCabe tells ADA Lally she arrived at 34 Fairview to pick up Colin Albert. She says he had been drinking and needed a ride.
12:40 p.m.
- ADA Lally calls Allison McCabe, She is the daughter of Jen and Matt McCabe and Brian Albert’s niece.
- Alli McCabe says earlier in the night, she and her friends found a dog that had gotten loose and they brought it to the police station.
12:30 p.m.
- ADA Lally: “If a six-foot man had walked to the house….
- DY: Objection
- Judge: Sustained
12:20 p.m
- Without directly referencing it, Yannetti is able to confirm that Ricky D’Antuono spoke to the feds in May 2023, and then state police a month later in September 2023.
12:10 p.m.
- D’Antuono says he did not see anyone get out of the vehicle that all 3 previous witnesses have described.
12:00 p.m.
- Richard “Ricky” D’Antuono is called to the stand. He is Ryan Nagel’s best friend and was driving the truck Ryan and Heather Maxon were in the night of January 28.
11:55 a.m.
- ADA Lally: It’s fair to say you would have seen a 6-foot man walking to the house?
- Maxon: Yes.
11:50 a.m.
- AJ: “Did you notice anything wrong with the back of the SUV?”
- Maxon: I did not
11:40 a.m.
- Maxon says she did not see damage to the vehicle or anyone exiting it and going to the house.
- Maxon says the vehicle was running because interior and exterior lights were on. She says she didn’t see it moving again before they departed.
11:35 a.m.
- Maxon also saw the SUV. She says she “noticed a male and female in the car” female driving male in passenger seat.”
11:30 a.m.
- Testimony resumes. ADA Lally calls Ryan Nagel’s ex-girlfriend Heather Maxon from Plainville to the stand.
11:00 a.m.
- Morning recess is called.
10:50 a.m
- AJ: At any point did you see the SUV reverse and hit a pedestrian?
- Ryan Nagel: No
10:45 a.m.
- Ryan Nagel just said he may have talked to the “feds” in May 2023. That is the first time the federal investigation has been directly referenced and it comes from a Commonwealth witness.
10:35 a.m.
- Nagel: “I observed there was a person inside the car, there was an interior light on and a woman in the driver’s seat,” when the car he was in pulled away from 34 Fairview. “I only saw one person at the time, I wasn’t really looking,” Nagel said.
10:30 a.m.
- Nagel says the black SUV was “a car length or a car length in half in front of me” He says he didn’t see anybody get out of it.
10:25 a.m.
- Ryan Nagel tells ADA Lally his sister texted to pick her up at the Albert’s. Pulling up, he says he noticed “a car coming up the hill towards him, a back SUV
10:20 a.m.
- ADA Lally calls Ryan Nagel to the stand. He’s Julie’s brother. He showed up to pick Julie up from 34 Fairview but she ended up going home later with McCabe’s.
10:10 a.m.
- AJ: “Dog saliva would obviously be a good, rich source of DNA?” referring to pig DNA that was discovered.
10:05 a.m.
- AJ: “You wouldn’t use a solo cup (for evidence collection)?”
- Lally: Objection
- Judge: Sustained
10:00 a.m.
- Defense attorney Alan Jackson (AJ): “You are left to assume that proper techniques were used to collect the source material?”
- Teri Kun: “Yes.”
9:55 a.m.
- Teri Kun says they found “pig” DNA but she says “there was absolutely no K9 DNA”. She says it’s possible the pig DNA could have come from food.
9:50 a.m.
- Terry Kun tells ADA Lally, “We did not see any K9 DNA” on the swabs they tested.
9:40 a.m.
- Kun says she received two swabs, Lally shows her 7 photos.
9:33 a.m.
- Lally calls Teri Kun, a veterinary scientist at UC Davis. Forensic evidence was sent to the lab to look for dog DNA.
9:30 a.m.
- Yanetti: “The first time you mentioned to anybody that the object was 5 to 6 feet long was to this jury 2.5 years after you saw it.”
- Julie Nagel: “Yes”
- Nagel is excused.
9:25 a.m.
- ADA Lally: “Had you realized it was a body what would you have done?”
- Julie Nagel: “I would have called 911 if I thought it was actually a body.”
9:20 a.m.
- After a sidebar, the jury is called in and Julie Nagel is back on the stand.
Nagel testified that she was in the backseat of the Mccabe’s car leaving 34 Fairview Road around 1:30 a.m. when she saw the object in an area where O’Keefe would be found hours later.
Nagel said she said something to the other three people in the car but they didn’t stop. She also said she waited eight months to share that with law enforcement until an interview with Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor in October 2022.
“I did notice something out of the ordinary, like a black blob in the ground by the flag pole,” Nagel.
Nagel was questioned by defense attorney David Yannetti, who asked, “You didn’t see a body on that lawn?” Nagel responded, “I mean I don’t know what I saw but I saw an object.”
Outside of court Tuesday, Yannetti commented, “If she actually saw something that could potentially have been a body then that would have been the most important evidence in this case.”
[ Get caught up with everything that has happened so far in the Karen Read murder trial ]
This appears to be the first time someone testified to seeing anything unusual outside of the home that wasn’t a car.
Also on the stand Tuesday, were the homeowner’s daughter, Caitlin Albert, and her boyfriend, Tristin Morris. Albert said she had her boyfriend come pick her up from Easton so she wouldn’t get snowed in at her parents home.
From walking out the front door, getting into his car, pulling out of the driveway, and driving past the front of the house and flag pole, neither said they saw anything.
Yannetti asked Albert, “You saw no baseball hat, no sneaker, no pieces of plastic, and no 6″2 man, correct?”
“Correct, but I also wasn’t looking at your window,” Albert said.
“You certainly didn’t see a 6′2 man on the lawn of your girlfriend’s parents’ home?” Yannetti questioned Morris. “No,” he said.
Nagel said earlier in the night she noticed an SUV outside that eventually ended up near the flagpole. She said she never saw that vehicle accelerate quickly or drive in reverse.
The defense’s theory is that O’Keefe was actually beaten up inside the Albert home and dragged outside in a snowstorm and that the Albert family is at the center of an effort to frame Read.
Prosecutors claim Read drunkenly struck O’Keefe with her luxury Lexus SUV while making a three-point after dropping him off at the home. They allege she fled the scene and left him to die.
Nagel is expected back on the stand Wednesday.
RELATED VIDEO: Witness testimony in Karen Read murder trial from Tuesday, May 14, 2024
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