Kerry Roberts back on the stand

Livestream via NBC10 Boston.

On the stand:

• Kerry Roberts, Canton, MA

Testimony in Karen Read’s murder retrial kicked off this week, with key witness Kerry Roberts expected back on the stand Wednesday. 

Roberts was one of two women with Read when she found her boyfriend — Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe — cold and lifeless on a snowy lawn in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors allege Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty hours earlier, then left him to die in a blizzard. 

However, Read’s lawyers contend she was framed in a vast conspiracy among law enforcement and afterparty guests. They’ve floated an alternate theory that O’Keefe entered 34 Fairview Road and was beaten, attacked by the homeowner’s dog, and ultimately dumped outside in the snow. 

Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial last July after jurors returned deadlocked.

The prosecution and defense laid the foundation for their respective cases in opening statements Tuesday, with special prosecutor Hank Brennan painting a vivid picture of the crime scene and giving jurors a taste of some of the science and data he claims points to Read’s guilt. Meanwhile, defense attorney Alan Jackson called the lead Massachusetts State Police investigator on the case a “cancer” and accused him of lying and fabricating evidence to protect fellow law enforcement officials present at 34 Fairview Road.

Read is “the victim of a botched and biased and corrupted investigation that was never about the truth, folks,” Jackson asserted. “It was about preserving loyalty.”

Roberts, a childhood friend of O’Keefe’s, testified she awoke to a frantic call from Read the morning of Jan. 29.

“The first thing she said was, ‘Kerry, Kerry, Kerry, John’s dead.’ And then she hung up,” Roberts recalled. She testified about the frantic search that ensued.

Jurors on Tuesday also heard from Canton firefighter and paramedic Timothy Nuttall, who tended to O’Keefe at the scene the morning of Jan. 29. Nuttall testified that he asked Read what had happened and she replied, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”

After dismissing jurors for the day, Judge Beverly Cannone heard arguments over whether Read’s lawyers had fulfilled their reciprocal discovery obligations regarding two crash reconstructionists first hired by federal authorities to look into O’Keefe’s death. 

Cannone ordered a voir dire hearing Friday to vet the ARCCA Inc. witnesses, Daniel Wolfe and Andrew Rentschler, before they take the stand. She also ordered the experts to produce all ARCCA records “that reflect or in any way relate to work performed or contemplated and related in any way to billing, payment, compensation and or reimbursement of any kind” in connection with Read’s case.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.