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Jurors in the high-profile case of glamorous murder suspect accused of killing her cop boyfriend sent a note to the judge on Friday that they are ‘unable to reach a unanimous verdict.’
Less than four full days of deliberations, Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone ordered the jurors – made up of six man and six woman- to try and reach a verdict, saying they hadn’t been deliberating for a sufficient amount of time.
Cannone told the jurors to have lunch and take a respite before they get back to work. ‘We all know how hard you’ve been working. Lunch will be arriving shortly. When it comes I’d ask you to clear heads, have lunch and being your deliberations again,’ the judge said, CNN reported.
Karen Read, 44, has long denied having any involvement in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe – instead claiming she is being framed by police in a vast conspiracy.
Read said earlier this week that she is willing to testify and would love to prove her case herself.
The jurors have to decide if Read is guilty or not guilty of second-degree murder, which in Massachusetts is punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole, Yahoo News reported.
Karen Read, 44, was scolded by a judge at the conclusion of her trial as she appeared to smirk at court attendees, leading the judge to question: ‘This is funny, Ms. Read?’
Read is facing murder charges over the January 2022 death of her police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe, who prosecutors say was hit by Read in her car after a drunken night out
Read also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years, as per the news outlet.
Since Tuesday afternoon, the jury has been deliberating on the case including, a police cover-up, claims of improper conduct and sexist text messages from a lead investigator, as per the news outlet.
After the note was sent to Judge Cannone just after noon on Friday, the prosecution and defense asked her to consider different outcomes in her decision on what to tell the jury.
‘It is far, far, far too early in their deliberative process to even consider giving them any kind of Tuey-Rodriguez instruction or anything close to that,’ Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said, referring to a special set of Massachusetts instructions that are read to a jury when jurors are unable to agree on a verdict.
‘The note doesn’t really indicate affirmatively that they can’t come to a conclusion, it just says they haven’t come to a conclusion through their deliberative process at this time.’
Alternately, defense attorney David Yanetti argued the jury should be read the Tuey-Rodriguez criminal model instructions, indicating that they would like the court to proceed toward having a hung jury.
Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone slammed Read’s courtroom antics on Wednesday, during a discussion with her attorney over the verdict slip handed to jurors
Read faces up to life in prison over the alleged murder of her boyfriend, and has raised eyebrows with some of her behavior during the trial
Prosecutors allege that Read hit O’Keefe with her car after an argument, while she contends that she was framed by party attendees and members of the Boston Police Department
Read could be seen shaking her head after being confronted by the judge, who responded bluntly: ‘All right, we’re done.’
It came as Jackson was disputing the wording used in a verdict sheet to be handed to the jury, which he argued was guiding jurors towards finding Read guilty, reports the New York Post.
After Read’s apparent antics in court, Cannone did not approve of Jackson’s objection, saying it was the same verdict sheet handed out in all Massachusetts courts for a murder case.
Following the hearing, Cannone reportedly decided to slightly edit the verdict sheet to add an additional instruction to the jury.
The jury deliberated the verdict for around three hours on Tuesday and continued Wednesday as the trial concluded.
Read faces up to life in prison for the murder of her boyfriend John O’Keefe, who was found dead outside a friend’s home in January 2022.
Prosecutors allege that Read hit O’Keefe with her car following a drunken argument as she dropped him off at the home for an after party, and claim to have found pieces of her car’s tail light around his body.
Read’s defense have countered that she is the victim of an extensive conspiracy to frame her, and claimed the police officer may have actually been attacked by other officers and attendees at the party where he was found dead.
Throughout her trial, Read’s claims that she was framed have attracted a number of fans, who are often seen staked outside the courthouse insisting on her innocence.
Many have taken to wearing light pink to show their support, leading Judge Cannone to file a ruling at the start of the trial banning such clothing and keeping supporters from coming within 200 feet of the courthouse.
Read’s courthouse behavior has sparked backlash from some, also including her snacking in court and winking at cameras as she approached her supporters.
Read has come under scrutiny for a perceived flippant attitude in court, including winking at cameras and snacking during proceedings
As her trial began, Read received a slew of support from true crime fans and locals who have been camped outside the courthouse with signs reading ‘Free Karen Read’
The 44-year-old, a financial analyst and college professor, is facing charges of second-degree murder, as prosecutors say she drunkenly drove over O’Keefe following a drunken argument.
She had spent the evening drinking with O’Keefe and a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton, around 14 miles south of Boston, and the group were invited to his friend Brian Albert’s home for an afterparty.
Read, who prosecutors say drank several alcoholic drinks beforehand, decided to drop O’Keefe at the afterparty before she went to his home – that he shared with his orphaned niece and nephew – to sleep at around 1am.
Court documents revealed that the couple had been bitterly arguing for weeks beforehand, and on the night O’Keefe died, Read left him a voicemail calling him a ‘f****** loser’, and ‘John, I f****** hate you.’
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O’Keefe’s death. He had been serving on the Boston Police Department for 16 years.
Read and O’Keefe had been out drinking on the night of his death, before she drove him to an afterparty while she went home to sleep. He was found dead on the lawn of the afterparty’s home hours later
As the party went on inside Albert’s home, who was a retired Boston police officer, Read said she woke up around 4am to find that he was not at home, and told O’Keefe’s niece that she was ‘distraught.’
Attendees at the party, including some law enforcement, claimed O’Keefe never arrived at the party or entered the home.
Read then searched for O’Keefe with a friend, and prosecutors allege that during the search she speculated: ‘What if he’s dead? What if a plow hit him?… I don’t remember anything from last night, we drank so much I don’t remember anything.’
At 6am, Read found O’Keefe laying in the snow outside Albert’s home, and a first responder on the scene reportedly claimed Read repeatedly cried out, ‘I hit him, I hit him’, reports CBS News.
O’Keefe was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found that the cause of death was blunt impact injuries and hypothermia.
