Transcript of Jury of 12 now deciding Karen Read’s fate in captivating murder trial

I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. With the words of the defendant. Karen Reid was frame.

Her car never struck John O'Keefe.

She did not cause his death. That means that somebody else did.

After 31 explosive days of trial, scores of witnesses and experts, and intense back and forth arguments, today closing arguments in the murder trial of Karen Reid. It is the jury's job. Her fate now rests in the hands of a Boston area jury. The jury must decide questions of credibility and reliability.

Karen Reid is facing charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter, which also includes involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included charge and leaving the scene of an accident that involved death.

The Massachusetts woman charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer, John O'Keefe. If convicted, she faces life in prison. The case has divided a community, captivated true crime fans, and sent many on social media into a frenzy. Is she being framed in an elaborate cover-up involving corrupt cops, or did she back up into her boyfriend and leave him for dead? At times, Karen Reid supporters supporters swarming the courthouse. Sometimes there have been hundreds of supporters as there were today.

They all wear pink shirts because that's Karen Reid's favorite color.

At trial, prosecutors arguing that Reid struck O'Keefe with her black Lexus SUV before leaving him to die in the middle of a winter blizzard.

Defending Karen Reid as guilty murder in the second degree, striking the victim, Mr. O'keefe, with her car, knocking him back onto the ground, striking his head on the ground, causing him bleeding in his brain, swelling, and then leaving him there. The prosecution says that this relationship was in trouble, that they had been fighting over several weeks, and that they fought that day.

In court, her defense attorney is arguing that Karen was being framed.

Look the other way. Look the other way. Four words that sum up the Commonwealth's entire case. Four words that sum up the hopes of those who have tried to deceive you.

Reid, all the while, has strongly denied the allegations. She sat down with my colleague, Matt Gutman, last year before the trial.

I did not kill John O'Keefe. I've never harmed a hair on John O'Keefe's head.

Is it possible that you might hit him unwittingly in your admittedly very large SUV?

No, not possible.

The couple's story starts off like many, rekindling old flames, first dating in their 20s and reconnecting more than a decade later. O'keefe was an officer at the Boston Police Department for 16 years. Those closest to him say he was a consummate family man, raising his niece and nephew as his own children after their parents tragically both died. Reid worked at finance and taught at a local college.

How did you meet up again?

He had reached out to me on Facebook, said, Hey, blast from the past. How's things? When I saw his picture, his profile picture was with several young children, and then it triggered my memory that his sister and his sister's husband had passed away. He told me, Yeah, I have the kids now. I admired that. I thought that was amazing.

The two began dating and were together at least a few years. One night, they were invited to meet up with some friends at the Waterfall Bar in Canten, where they ran into Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer who Reid says O'Keefe looked up to. At the bar, Reid says there was an invitation to continue hanging out at Albert's home. What happens next is disputed.

So I pull at the foot of the driveway. It's snowing. John has no coat on. It's windy. So I drop him off. He goes up the driveway and approaches the side door. And as I see him approach the door, I look down at my phone.

Reid says after about 10 minutes of waiting in her car, she became irritated that O'Keefe was still inside, so she left. She says she continued calling him before she fell asleep around 1:30 in the morning. But Brian Albert's testimony in court contradicts her account.

At no point in time over the course of that evening or the early morning there, did John O'Keefe or Karen Reid physically come into your house?

John O'Keefe and Karen Reid never entered my house.

The next morning, Reid says she woke before 5 AM. O'keefe still wasn't home. She says she called John's friend, Kerry Roberts, and Brian Albert's sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, who was also at his house the night before. She then says she started canvassing the neighborhood COVID.

It's going to drive around in the two square miles that we spent the preceding night.

She meets up with Jennifer and Kerry, and they eventually make their way to Albert's home.

How soon was it when you pulled in there that you saw John's Immediately.

What struck me when I saw him was his mouth was open a little bit and his eyes were shut and he had spots of blood in different areas on his face.

O'keefe was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead. He died from blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia, according to the chief medical examiner. The prosecution bringing in witnesses to support their argument that O'Keefe was hit by the rear bumper of Reid's SUV that night.

As far as Mr. O'keefe, What, if anything, did you learn about his injuries? What types of injuries he had? Yeah.

Yeah, there were blunt force injuries. I believe it was abrasions or lacerations. In addition, police say Karen's rear tail light was already damaged the day they towed her vehicle.

I saw that there was some damage to the right rear tail light. To my best ability and recollection, that tail light was not completely damaged. It was cracked and a piece was missing, but not completely damaged.

Pieces of Reid's tail light were found days later at the same scene O'Keefe's body was found.

Now, Sergeant, with reference to the box of other items, if you could remove what if any items you were covered and seized from 34 Fairview Road on February fourth. What's contained within that bag from February fourth? Contained within the bag is a piece of red hard plastic tail light cover.

The defense, meanwhile, arguing that blunt force trauma could be as a result of a fight and arguing that someone else was responsible for O'Keefe's death and that the attempt to pin it on her was a cover up.

The defense makes the argument that the injuries sustained by John O'Keefe are not consistent with that of being struck by a vehicle, especially a rear-end collision. They make the point that the injury is concentrated on his arm and that there are no bruising or any damage to that arm or even his body.

In court, the medical examiner saying the manner of death is undetermined. Your internal examination notes also cite a tongue laceration on the right front of the victim's tongue. Do you recall that? Yes. And you'd agree that a tongue laceration can be also caused by blunt force trauma?

Correct.

And that could also include something like a punch to the victim's face or jaw.

That's a possibility. Jen McCabe testified for the prosecution that she woke up at 4:53 AM to a frantic call from O'Keefe's niece, with Karen Reid screaming in the background before she jumped on the phone.

Then she was saying, Did I hit him? Could I have hit him? Then she proceeded to say that she had a cracked tail light.

This is while you're still in your home and you're in your bed, correct?

Correct.

What was your response to that?

I thought she was honestly just talking crazy. Then she said, Oh, my God, I left him there. She was extremely irrational.

In court, Reid's defense team calling five expert witnesses, including an accident reconstructionist.

Is the injury to the head that you saw, consistent with having been struck by a vehicle at 24 miles per hour?

It is not, no, sir. Retired medical examiner Dr. Frank Sheridan testified that O'Keefe's injuries didn't match the prosecution's claim that Reid hit him with her Lexus SUV.

If you're hit by a vehicle, whichever part of your body is hit, if it's a significant impact at all, you're going to get bruising, and we don't have any bruising here.

For the family and friends of John O'Keefe, it's been a grueling couple of years as they wait this decision. Karen Reid, her future, now rests on the decision of the jury.

I think that this story captivated such a large audience because it has every element you can think of. It is a love story potentially gone wrong, the murder of a police officer, but also an investigation that was so sloppy, it borders on incompetence, or was it intentional? I think that and so many other elements to this make it something that you just have to watch.