Karen Read’s defense team opened up new evidence for a fight with her boyfriend John O’Keefe, who allegedly killed him in a drunken crash attack, which prosecutors said was “the crime of domestic violence homicide”, a killing she did not accept the victim’s attempt to break up with her.
One of her attorneys, Alan Jackson, had Massachusetts Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik read a series of text messages between a skeptical killer and potential romantic interest, with ATF Agent Brian Higgins attending the bar and party reading and Boston policeman O'Keefe, a Boston policeman, who visited O'Keefe and met O'Keefe for the last time.
“Where the defendants open the door, it is especially important for the jury to understand that the defendant repeatedly refuses to accept the victim’s desire to end their relationship (termination), the defendants repeatedly hostile allegations that the victim has an extramarital affair and have been hostile hostile before the murder weeks and days before the murder,” in particular the murder case. ”
Karen reads the defensive float theory, that is, "jealous" John O'Keefe before Brian Higgins' death
Karen Read showed at the trial at Norfolk Chore Court in Dedham, Massachusetts on May 6, 2025. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP, swimming pool)
Because of Read's text on claims made directly by O'Keefe of Aruba, Brennan argues that prosecutors now have the right to contradict her story with evidence and witness testimony.
In the text, read Higgins behind her boyfriend, known as single, complained about O'Keefe's adoption and claimed he was "linked" to another woman in the hotel lobby.
Without mentioning the Aruba incident, the plan would not have a chance to be brought up in the trial.
read sports:
"Four weeks before the murder, the defendants angered the victims for talking with a female friend on a group vacation in Aruba and accused the victim of an extramarital affair," Brennan wrote in court documents on Monday. "The incident was observed by many people who will testify about the personal observations of the incident and statements to the defendants."
Brennan wrote that he hoped the testimony proved that Read had intentions, opportunities or preparations before O'Keefe's death.
Karen Read's Google Timeline derails again as Second Expert disputes defense claims
John O'Keefe (Boston Police Department)
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Read faced a second-degree murder case, drunk driving homicide charge and fled the scene of a fatal accident allegedly crashed into her then-boyfriend and left the back end of his Lexus SUV in a snowstorm on January 29, 2022.
"The defendant opened the door to the Commonwealth through a series of text messages between the defendant and Brian Higgins, thus opening the door to the Commonwealth to refute the misleading and inaccurate claims of what happened in Aruba in the first few weeks of Aruba," Brennan wrote.
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Karen Read and John O'Keefe (Karen Read)
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"This incident in Aruba also seems to be a turning point in the relationship, as the defendant told Brian Higgins that her relationship with the victim was a "very f----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brennan said he plans to call four witnesses to testify in the Aruba incident.
Karen Read left, joins the lawyer to work on the sidebar with Judge Beverly J. Cannone during the May 12, 2025 murder retrial. (PAT Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP, swimming pool)
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"In domestic violence homicides, evidence such as previous disputes have been linked to showing the 'turbulent nature of the relationship'," Brennan wrote.
He added that he hopes their testimony will show Red's "intention and mentality for the victim."
"Brennan is smart," said Linda Kenney Baden, a high-profile defense attorney who qualified with Jackson in 2007 when he was the chief prosecutor in the murder of music producer Phil Spector. “If you don’t do that, you won’t represent eight years of white boulger.”
She said that despite this, Jackson was ready for it.
"I think Jackson is ready even if the judge allows him to bring it in," she said. "That's why he read Aruba's words throughout the Higgins outline."
Read pleaded not guilty, and her lawyer denied that she had ever hit O'Keefe with a vehicle.
Four weeks after the trial, prosecutors have not yet shown O'Keeffe's autopsy results to the jury, or specifically accusing her of how she intends to kill him.
"It makes people desperate to get intent," said Massachusetts defense attorney Grace Edwards. "I don't think the jury will hear more evidence that there is a problem. No relationship is perfect."