Day 13 of the trial of a woman accused of murdering her police officer boyfriend in Massachusetts ended on a cliffhanger on Thursday, when a key witness testified to waking up to the sound of screaming on the morning the victim’s body was found.
Karen Read, a financial analyst and former Bentley University professor, is on trial charged with the second-degree murder and manslaughter of Boston police officer John O’Keefe.
Prosecutors allege that Ms Read ran over O’Keefe in her car while drunk, leaving him for dead in the snow outside a fellow police officer’s home in the early hours of 29 January 2022.
Ms Read’s defense claims that she is being framed by police as part of a sprawling cover-up involving prominent law enforcement family, the Alberts.
On Thursday, Matthew McCabe testified that he spent the night before O’Keefe died at a bar with Ms Read, O’Keefe and some other officers, before going back to the Albert home. The next morning, he woke to the sound of screaming.
The testimony came after Ms Read lost her cool with her defense team on Wednesday, rolling her eyes and giving a strong reaction during a break in the trial.