Live updates: No verdict reached in Karen Read murder trial, jurors will deliberate for 3rd day

DEDHAM, Mass. — The verdict watch in the Karen Read murder trial will continue for a third day Thursday after jurors did not return a verdict Wednesday.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her car and leaving him for dead in the snow in Canton in January 2022, but the defense has made a case that she is being framed.

Jury deliberations began Tuesday afternoon following closing arguments.

• WATCH LIVE: Streaming updates from the court begin at 9 a.m.
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• Live court updates from Boston 25′s Ted Daniel

Live updates:

3:30 p.m.

• Jurors indicate they would like to head home for the day. Jury deliberations will continue for a third day Thursday.

1 p.m.

• No verdict will be delivered and the court won’t hear questions between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. due to a scheduled lunch break.

12:55 p.m.

• Court briefly resumes to approve updated verdict slip.

11: 45 a.m.

• Courtroom refills for a jury question.
• Judge now says she will add new language to the verdict slip based on Jackson’s protest earlier. That is a reversal from earlier. A “not guilty of the offense charged and any lesser included offense” will be added to the not guilty line on the felony manslaughter slip. As for the Jury question, they wanted to see the SERT team report. SERT team is the state police unit that searched outside 34 Fairview in the late afternoon on 1/29.
• All sides agreed to tell the jury “they have all the evidence they need.”

10:05 a.m.

• Defense attorney Alan Jackson raised questions over the jury verdict slip. Judge Beverly Cannone informed him that it’s a standard issued slip just as those used across the Commonwealth.

9:30 a.m.

• Judge just announced that jury wants to complete their deliberations by 4 p.m. today because one of the jurors has a commitment.
• Both sides say fine. They will work until 4 p.m. today and if no verdict by then return tomorrow.

9 a.m.

• The jury is expected to briefly enter the courtroom to start the day and then get back to decision making.
• Yesterday, Judge Cannone told the jury to not immediately conduct a straw vote before carefully reviewing what they heard/saw.
• The media chairs have been removed from the courtroom for space.
• The defense team and both prosecutors are in the courtroom and everyone else should be arriving soon.

Previous story:

During closing arguments, defense attorney Alan Jackson told the jury, “You have been lied to in this courtroom, and your job is to make sure you don’t ever, ever look the other way.”

Jackson added, “Late-night calls and Google searches. Falsified affidavits, inverted videos. Butt dials galore, just look the other way.”

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Officer Killed Girlfriend Trial Karen Read speaks with her lawyer as the jury deliberates in her murder trail, Wednesday June 26, 2024, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool) (Greg Derr/AP)

Prosecutor Adam Lally followed up in his closing, “I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. Those are the words of the defendant.”

“There is no conspiracy. There is no coverup. There is no evidence of any of that,” Lally continued. “Beyond speculation, rampant speculation and conjecture on behalf of the defense.”

Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a personal injury or death.

The jury of 12 comprises six men and six women, plus two alternates. One juror was dismissed before closing arguments on Tuesday morning.

Jurors met for almost three hours on Tuesday afternoon. Deliberations are slated to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Boston 25 News will stream live court coverage when any developments are announced.

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