Transcript of Karen Read jury tells judge they cannot reach unanimous verdict

All right, so, counsel, you're aware of our note from the jury?

A fourth day of waiting and frustration. The jury in the Karen Reid trial ordered back to deliberations after telling the judge they could not reach a verdict on whether she murdered her boyfriend.

I'd ask you to clear your heads, have lunch, and begin your deliberations again, or continue your deliberations. All right? So I'm sending you back up.

Supporters of the free Karen Reid movement have turned the case into a national sensation.

I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. I hit him. Those are the words of the defendant. Karen Reid was framed.

Her car never struck John O'Keefe.

The trial took place over 31 explosive days with scores of witnesses and experts and intense back and forth arguments.

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.

Reid stands charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. If convicted on the most serious charge, she faces life in prison. The case has divided a community, captured 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?

Reid has strongly denied the allegations. She sat down with my colleague Matt Gutman last year before 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 have 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.

How did you meet up again?

He had reached He wrote to me on Facebook and he said, Hey, blast from the past. How's things?

Those closest to O'Keefe say he was a consummate family man, raising his young niece and nephew after his sister passed away. During the pandemic, he and Reid began dating and were together nearly two 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. Reid says there was an invitation to continue hanging out at Albert to its 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.

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 at 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 up before 05:00 AM, and O'Keefe still wasn't home. She began frantically calling friends, and then says she started canvassing the neighborhood. She met up with two friends, Kari Roberts and Jen McCabe, and the three eventually made it to Albert's home.

How soon was it when you pulled in there that you saw John's body?

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. The chief medical examiner said the cause, blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia. 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? Yes. Yeah, there were blunt force injuries. I believe it was abrasions or lacerations.

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.

For the family and friends of John O'Keefe, the wait for justice continues. For Karen Reid, her battle for vindication remains delayed. For now, both sides left wondering when the jury will decide.