Live Karen Read trial video: Forensics expert asked about ‘hos long to die in cold’ internet search

DEDHAM, Mass. — Judge Beverly Cannone is expected to rule on a key piece of video evidence when the Karen Read murder trial resumes Monday morning.

The video in question is from a surveillance camera in John O’Keefe’s driveway. It shows Read’s black Lexus SUV backing out of her Boston police officer boyfriend’s driveway on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read’s attorneys have suggested that Read reversed into the back of O’Keefe’s car, damaging her taillight. Trooper Joseph Paul, a Massachusetts State Police crash reconstructionist, said Friday that Read would have needed to be going faster to cause damage.

Paul, who was first on the stand when testimony resumed Monday, told the court that Read’s SUV was traveling as fast as 24 mph when it struck O’Keefe. Ian Whiffin, a forensics software expert, was the second witness called. He testified about Jennifer McCabe’s “hos long to die in the cold” Google search.

Massachusetts State Police Detective Nicholas Guarino, an analyst who specializes in electronic forensics, is now on the stand.

• WATCH LIVE: Streaming coverage of Monday’s witness testimony begins at 9 a.m.
• Also streaming on Facebook, X, and YouTube
• Live court updates from Boston 25′s Ted Daniel

LIVE-PLAY-BY-PLAY FROM COURT:

3:20 p.m.

• Trooper Guarino says he also analyzed JO’s phone and KR’s phone. He says Trooper Proctor provided both phones to him.

3:15 p.m.

• Trooper Guarino says he imaged a laptop and desktop from JO’s home.

3 p.m.

• Ian Whiffin is excused. ADA Lally calls Detective Nick Guarino, MSP forensic analyst who specializes in electronic forensics

2:50 p.m.

• Yannetti on cross: DY: The session history could not be recovered? IW: That’s correct.

2:30 p.m.

• Whiffin tells the jury first and second search (how long to die in cold) began at 6:23am. He says “we recognize this timestamp (2:27a) could be misleading”. ADA Lally is now having him to a demonstration for jury.

1:50 p.m.

• Ian Whiffin returns to the stand after the lunch break ends.

1 p.m.

• The court breaks for lunch.

12:55 p.m.

• Whiffin’s testimony is similar to previous prosecution cell phone data witness Jessica Hyde.
• He tells the jury the 2:27 am search time reflects when Jen McCabe opened the search tab and not when the search was conducted.

12:45 p.m.

• Yannetti objects when Lally asks Whiffin why he thinks the deletions on Jen McCabe’s phone were not done by her.

12:40 p.m.

• Whiffin is facing the jury and is difficult to hear in the back of the courtroom. Lally is talking about his analysis of Jen McCabe’s phone records. He says there are no “missing records” and 3 deleted records but he says deletions can be done by the “system.”

12:30 p.m.

• Whiffin says “There’s plenty of evidence that the search was at 6:23 (am)” not 2:27 am. Whiffin is the second prosecution expert to testify to this.

12:25 p.m.

• Whiffin says he was asked to look into “hos long to die in cold” Google search in part because he says “it didn’t make sense to the investigators.”

12:13 p.m.

• Ian Whiffin, a forensics software expert from Cellebrite, is the next prosecution witness.

11:50 a.m.

• Trooper Paul is excused.
• The Judge tells the jury they will take a short break to “set up some things” before testimony resumes. Next witness needs to set some stuff up we’re told.

11:40 a.m.

• ADA Lally on redirect: AL: The presence of DNA on the taillight, is that evidence of a pedestrian collision? AL: Are you aware glass on the bumper was consistent with glass on the road?

11:30 a.m.

• Trooper Paul says he did not determine that JO was thrown 30 feet in the air. Earlier, AJ told the jury that is how he interpreted Paul’s crash recon diagram.

11:05 a.m.

• The court enters morning recess.

10:45 a.m.

• Trooper Paul determined that JO’s arm took the brunt of the impact and the cracked taillight caused the cuts to JO’s arm before he was spun.
• AJ questions how the arm stayed in contact with the taillight for the abrasions/cuts to occur.
• AJ also asks, “How do you account that he doesn’t even have a bruise on his arm?” and ends by saying Trooper Paul is “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole” based on what Trooper Proctor told him.

10:30 a.m.

• Karen Read turns to watch Jackson during different portions of this cross-examination of Trooper Paul. AJ’s moved on to key cycles and triggering events recorded by KR’s Lexus. Jackson pointed out key cycles do not record location data.

9:55 a.m.

• AJ: The car (KR’s) was not taken to Foxboro, it was taken double the distance to Canton. JP: “I don’t know if it’s double the distance.”

9:50 a.m.

• AJ asked Trooper Paul how the cup ended up next to JO’s body and how his cell phone ended up underneath it if he was thrown an estimated 30 feet.

9:40 a.m.

• Alan Jackson shows Trooper Paul a piece of debris near the fire hydrant that was 30 feet from JO’s body and asks if the location of that piece changes what Paul determined to be the point of impact.
• Paul previously testified the area of impact was in part determined by the farthest piece of debris found from the body.

9:25 a.m.

• Trooper Paul tried to read from his report but the Judge told him not to. He then gave this explanation for John O’Keefe’s death: “The operator would have been Karen Read, the pedestrian John O’Keefe...The vehicle traveled up to 24 mph, and the right rear of the Lexus struck the pedestrian John O’Keefe.”

9 a.m.

• Massachusetts State Police Trooper Joseph Paul returns to the stand.

PREVIOUS STORY

Cannone told the court on Friday that she needed to review the footage over the weekend before deciding whether or not Trooper Paul could give that opinion to the jury.

The prosecution has alleged that Read’s SUV was damaged after she backed over O’Keefe and left him for dead in the snow outside the Canton Home of Brian Albert at 34 Fairview Road after a night of drinking.

The defense hopes to prove that O’Keefe was murdered by someone inside Albert’s home and then tossed into the snow.

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Tess Chart, a forensic DNA analyst at Bode Technology, and her colleague Nicholas Bradford, testified last week that O’Keefe’s DNA was found on taillight pieces found outside 34 Fairview Avenue in Canton that matched Read’s SUV.

Multiple law enforcement officials have also testified to finding pieces of broken taillight on the lawn of 34 Fairview Road after the snow melted away.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder in O’Keefe’s death.

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