DEDHAM, Mass. – Jury selection is complete in the second murder trial of Karen Read, paving the way for the prosecution and defense to make their opening statements next week.
Read, 45, is accused of killing her boyfriend, Braintree native and Boston police officer John O’Keefe, by backing into him with her SUV outside a Canton home in January 2022 and leaving him to die in a snowstorm following a night of drinking.
After her first trial ended with a hung jury last year, the state vowed to put Read on trial again. Jury selection in her retrial began on April 1.
Jury selection took 10 days, and hundreds of potential jurors were summonsed to Norfolk Superior Court. Nine women and nine men have been seated. Twelve of the jurors will ultimately deliberate and decide the case, while six will serve as alternates.
Opening arguments are set for April 22. With the full jury impaneled, Judge Beverly Cannone said the trial could take six to eight weeks.
The intrigue and scandal surrounding the case grabbed the attention of people across the country, and true crime YouTubers, TikTokers and internet sleuths begin following the Read case. It has been the subject of several true crime documentaries, including a recent Investigation Discovery docuseries “A Body in the Snow.”
A cop dead in the snow: Why Karen Read is a true-crime obsession
What happened in Read’s first trial?
Read was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
Prosecutors called more than 65 witnesses in testimony of the first trial that started April 29, 2024. The defense’s list of witnesses was much shorter. Read did not testify in her own defense.
Cannone declared a mistrial in the case in July after jurors returned multiple times stating they could not reach a verdict.
New faces for both the prosecution and defense in the Karen Read case
Both the prosecution and defense teams have added to their lineups since the first trial.
Hank Brennan, a private defense attorney who represented the late mobster Whitey Bulger, was hired as a special prosecutor by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office to try the case. He will serve as lead prosecutor, assisted by former lead prosecutor Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin.
The defense has also added two attorneys: Robert Alessi and Victoria George, who is a former alternate juror from Read’s first trial. David Yannetti, Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little also remain on Read’s team.
