First day of Karen Read retrial’s concludes with testimony from two key witnesses. Here’s how it unfolded. - The Boston Globe (2025)

By Nick Stoico, Globe Staff

An Arlington man was charged with trespassing in the “buffer zone” outside Norfolk Superior Court as Karen Read’s retrial in the death of her boyfriend began Tuesday, according to State Police.

The judge in the case had prohibited demonstrations within 200 feet of the courthouse, ruling that the largely pro-Read rallies could influence jurors.

Around 8:30 a.m., State Police monitoring the buffer zone found “a man lingering and filming” within the restricted area, State Police said in a statement.

“Troopers requested that the man exit the buffer zone several times and explained the protocols and rationale of the Court,” police said. “When the man did not exit the zone after several requests, Troopers arrested him for violating the order.”

Bao Nguyen, 42, was expected to be arraigned in Dedham District Court on Tuesday.

State Police said Nguyen requested medical attention and troopers “facilitated an evaluation by Dedham EMS” before taking him to the State Police barracks in Framingham for booking.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Roberts said her husband met John O’Keefe on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, at McCarthy’s, a Canton bar.

She identified photos of O’Keefe’s home in Canton that were later placed on a monitor for jurors. One photo showed a ring security camera above the garage doors.

Roberts said her husband returned from McCarthy’s around 10 p.m. At 5 a.m., she received a call from Read.

Read told her “Kerry, Kerry, Kerry, John’s dead” and then hung up, she testified.

“She was yelling loud enough that she woke my husband,” Roberts said.

She called Read back and Read told her, “I think something happened to John. I think he got hit by a plow.”

Roberts said Read told her she was coming to her house. Roberts said she sat in her car waiting for her to arrive.

She said she called the police department’s non-emergency line to see if anyone had been hit by a car and a dispatcher said they had received no such calls.

Prosecutor Hank Brennan played audio of Roberts calling the police station to inquire about O’Keefe.

In a calm voice, Roberts explained to the dispatcher that she had called area hospitals. She told Brennan she made that call in her vehicle as she waited for Read to arrive.

“It was coming down really fast at that point,” Roberts said of the snowfall shortly after 5 a.m.

Read wound up driving to the home of Jennifer McCabe, the sister-in-law of the Canton homeowner, so Roberts decided to meet them there.

“It was not good driving,” she said of the conditions. “It was treacherous.”

At McCabe’s house, Read said “my taillight, my taillight,” Roberts said, and she noticed part of the taillight was missing.

Roberts identified a photo of Read’s vehicle with the damaged taillight when it was parked in O’Keefe’s driveway on Jan. 29, hours before police seized the SUV.

The women searched O’Keefe’s house and didn’t find him, so “Karen wanted to go back” to the Fairview Road home to search for him there.

Read told the women earlier she had left O’Keefe at the bar, but McCabe reminded her that she had brought him to her sister’s residence, Roberts testified.

“I was looking on both sides of the road in case [O’Keefe] was walking home,” as was McCabe, Roberts said.

She said she didn’t know if Read was looking out the windows for O’Keefe since she was in the back seat.

Roberts said Read was “worried, because we weren’t finding John” as they made their way to Fairview Road.

At some point, Read mentioned a woman who lived near Fairview Road whom O’Keefe had dated previously.

As they approached the Fairview home, Read shouted “there he is,” but the other two women couldn’t see anything in the stormy conditions, Roberts said.

Roberts said she told McCabe “she’s crazy” as Read “ran right over to the mound of snow,” which she later realized was covering a body.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone then called the lawyers to a sidebar before sending jurors home for the day around 3:45 p.m. Roberts will return to the stand Wednesday.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutors next called Kerry Roberts to the witness stand, after playing a video clip of a media interview Read gave in which she said she wondered, “Did I say that I hit him?”

Roberts, a friend of Read at the time, was one of two women who returned to the Canton home with her when she discovered O’Keefe’s snow-covered body on the front lawn.

Roberts said she went to high school with O’Keefe in Braintree.

O’Keefe later took in his nephew and niece when both their parents died.

“We hung out all the time,” she said of O’Keefe, adding that her children “hung out all the time” with his niece and nephew.

She said she also grew close with O’Keefe’s parents and his brother, Paul.

Before Jan. 29, 2022, Roberts said she had only met Jennifer McCabe, the other woman who went with Read to the Canton home, once before.

Roberts said she first met O’Keefe and Read in the summer of 2020 after they had been dating for a bit.

“She would take care of the kids a lot,” Roberts said. “She helped out a lot with the kids.”

As Kerry Roberts described her relationship with O’Keefe, some people in the courtroom became visibly emotional. One man sitting with the O’Keefe family started wiping away tears.

Erin O’Keefe, O’Keefe’s sister-in-law who testified at Read’s first trial, left the courtroom abruptly during Roberts’ testimony.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

After the sidebar, Canton firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall told special prosecutor Hank Brennan that Read later said “I hit him” several additional times to others after saying it to him repeatedly.

“Now you remember her saying ‘I hit him’ a bunch more times,” Read attorney Alan Jackson said in a skeptical tone on recross.

Nuttall said he heard the comments in “the background” while he and his colleagues were tending to O’Keefe.

“I heard ‘I hit him’” as Read spoke to others, Nuttall said. “But again, it was in the background and it was not my focus.”

Nuttall said he also heard a general commotion in the background.

“So what you actually heard was the chaos and commotion of a chaotic scene, correct, in the background as you focus on your patient care, correct?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, sir,” Nuttall said.Jackson said Nuttall described “a very detailed scene” in which his coworker knelt down and began CPR as Read walked over and said she hit O’Keefe.

“But when we actually see” the coworker giving CPR, “at no time is my client” having a conversation with the first responders, Jackson said.

“That was the segment that you showed me,” Nuttall said.

He told Jackson that O’Keefe had a “bruising of both eyes,” including a black eye on the left side of his face and a hematoma on the right.

“Did he have an injury on the left side of his face?” Jackson asked, referencing the earlier contention that O’Keefe only had wounds on the right side of his body.

“He did not,” Nuttall said.

“Would you consider a black eye an injury?” Jackson asked.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.

“Let me ask the question again, then,” Jackson said. “Did he have an injury to the left side of his face?”

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.

“Thank you,” Jackson said.

Nuttall also indicated that it’s a “common occurrence for both eyes to be swollen” for patients in the state O’Keefe was in at the time.

Nuttall stepped down soon afterward.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified that Read said she had run into her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, while a colleague was giving O’Keefe chest compressions.

Jackson paused security footage showing the front lawn of the Fairview Road home at the time Nuttall said Read confessed to striking O’Keefe.

“My client is nowhere near you, correct?” Jackson asked. “At least for this clip.”

”No sir," Nuttall said.

Jackson continued playing the footage as O’Keefe was put into the ambulance on a stretcher.

“You’re not diagnosing that John O’Keefe suffered from hypothermia that night?” Jackson asked Nuttall after establishing that he’s not a medical doctor.

“No sir,” Nuttall said.

On redirect, he told prosecutor Hank Brennan that Read was running toward the paramedics on a separate portion of video footage, which Brennan played.

“Is that the time the defendant said to you that she hit him?” Brennan asked.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.

“And you remember that?” Brennan asked.

“I do,” Nuttall said, adding that he didn’t recall if O’Keefe had bruising on his right knee.

“Did it stand out to you that all of his injuries, all of them that you saw, other than on the back of the head, that they were all on his right side?” Brennan asked.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.

“Did you notice any hematomas on his left side?” Brennan said.

“I did not,” Nuttall replied.

Brennan also asked if Nuttall noticed “any marks that would be consistent with an altercation on the left side of his body.”

”I did not," Nuttall said.

Brennan also asked if, during their three previous meetings, he had ever instructed Nuttall to “stick to a story” rather than tell the truth.

“No sir,” Nuttall said.

He said “the three times she said it to me,” referring to striking O’Keefe, “stuck out to me.”

Judge Beverly J. Cannone then called the lawyers to a sidebar.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall told Read attorney Alan Jackson that one of his colleagues began administering CPR to John O’Keefe.

“That’s when you indicate that Ms. Read walked over and made the statement?” Jackson said, referring to Nuttall’s testimony that she said “I hit him” several times.

“Correct,” Nuttall said.

Jackson asked Nuttall if he later told Michael Proctor, the lead State Police investigator who was later fired, that he overheard Read tell someone she had run into O’Keefe.

Nuttall said he had “no memory” of that interview.

He said he also didn’t recall telling Proctor that Read had prayed over O’Keefe at the scene, despite viewing Proctor’s report on the stand.

“I have no recollection of saying that ever,” Nuttall said. “I don’t remember ever saying the words ‘praying over him.’ I do distinctly remember [Read saying] ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’”

Jackson said Proctor didn’t mention the remark in the report of his interview with Nuttall on Feb. 8, 2022.

Nuttall said he previously indicated his memory was “faulty” in regard to what he had told Proctor.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jurors filed back into Norfolk Superior Court shortly before 2 p.m. to resume hearing testimony after the lunch recess.

Canton firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall returned to the stand and told Read attorney Alan Jackson that he hadn’t discussed his testimony with anyone during the break.

Nuttall said firefighter-paramedic Catie McLaughlin also responded to the scene. McLaughlin also testified at the first trial that she heard Read say she had struck O’Keefe.

McLaughlin ended up driving O’Keefe to an area hospital in the ambulance, Nuttall said.

Jackson asked if he and the other paramedics discussed what had happened during a debrief afterward, and Nuttall said “no, sir.””You have no memory of that whatsoever," Jackson said.

“No, sir,” Nuttall said, adding that O’Keefe’s injuries could have been sustained in “numerous ways,” including being punched as Jackson suggested.

By Sarah Mesdjian, Globe Staff

A group of about 10 Read supporters formed a small encampment at a parking lot near Norfolk Superior Court.

They sat in lawn chairs around a canopy tent, watching the trial on an IPad connected to a large speaker.

“I’m just gonna hang out and listen to the trial and then hold signs in the downtime,” said Allison Taggart, 40, of Dedham.

Dedham police told Read supporters they could use the parking lot as a gathering place, Taggart said.

The group put up signs on a fence between a parking lot and the highway to spread awareness about the retrial to people driving by.

“We’re standing up for our own rights,” she said. “We’re standing up for her rights. We’re standing up for everyone’s rights.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Canton firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall told Read attorney Alan Jackson on cross-examination that he previously testified that John O’Keefe was wearing a heavy coat and possibly two other layers of clothing at the crime scene.

“Matter of fact, he wasn’t wearing a coat at all,” Jackson said.“No sir,” Nuttall said.

Jackson asked if O’Keefe was wearing only a short-sleeve shirt covered by a thin hooded sweatshirt.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.

He told Jackson the scratches on O’Kefee’s right arm were deep, and that it appeared there had been some “material removed.”

”Material meaning skin and flesh," Jackson said.

“Yes sir,” Nuttall said.“And were they parallel, meaning they were going in the same direction?” Jackson asked.

“Yes,” Nuttall said.

Jackson asked if a small laceration was located “right next” to O’Keefe’s hematoma above his eye, and Nuttall said, “correct.”

Cannone called the lawyers to a sidebar after Jackson asked if such injuries were “consistent with a physical altercation.”

Cannone called a half hour lunch recess shortly before 1:10 p.m.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

On cross-examination, Canton firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall told Read attorney Alan Jackson that he had spoken three times with authorities in recent weeks, including Monday night, in preparation for his testimony.

The first meeting three weeks ago, Nuttall said, involved “going over previous testimony.”

Nuttall said “there was just a question of how many times the ‘I hit him, I hit him’ came up. It was three times.”

Jackson noted that Nuttall previously testified that Read had only said the phrase twice.

“Does your memory get better with time generally?” Jackson asked.

Nuttall said his memory “can fade over time, but it depends on the context.”

Jackson stressed that Nuttall testified at the first trial last year that Read said “I hit him” twice and asked him if that was “inconsistent” with his current testimony.

“Correct, yes sir,” Nuttall said.

“Did you tell [Hank Brennan] that’s what you were going to say?” Jackson said.

“No sir,” Nuttall said. “I told him I was going to tell him [on the stand] what I remembered from that morning.”

”Which was what?’ Jackson asked.

“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Nuttall said.

“Which is how many times?” Jackson said.“Three times, sir,” Nuttall said.

“And that’s inconsistent with what?” Jackson asked.

”I believe a year ago,” Nuttall said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified that he wasn’t able to ask Read any follow-up questions after she said she’d hit John O’Keefe.

She walked away, he said, and he was busy tending to O’Keefe.

Nuttall said paramedics put O’Keefe on a stretcher and carried him to the ambulance, where he was intubated. Paramedics also removed his wet clothing.

Nuttall said he noticed a hematoma above O’Keefe’s right eye.“He had a pretty good bump over his eye,” Nuttall said. “There were also several scratches on his right arm. ... They were notably deep.”

Nuttall said he didn’t know how O’Keefe had gotten the hematoma. He also noted “a little bit of dried blood” on the back of his head.

Asked if Read’s statement that she hit O’Keefe had any significance to Nuttall, he said, “no, sir.”

Brennan later played dashcam footage taken from the snowy crime scene.

Nuttall identified himself in the footage, first approaching O’Keefe’s body and later approaching a frantic Read and two other women.

Brennan paused the footage at one point, and Nuttall said that was the moment when Read admitted to hitting O’Keefe.

“It was right there, sir,” he said.

The footage also showed paramedics carrying O’Keefe’s body to the ambulance on a stretcher.

Nuttall also identified a photograph showing the scratches on O’Keefe’s arm and Brennan put the image on the monitor for jurors to see.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified that he suspected John O’Keefe was a victim of “hypothermic arrest” since he was cold to the touch and had been outside “for an unknown amount of time.”

He said O’Keefe’s fingers were “quite cold” at the scene, as was his neck.

As he knelt down to tend to O’Keefe, Nuttall said he looked up and saw Read standing over him with blood on her face.

He said Read said, “‘I hit him I hit him. I hit him.’ ... I remember it very distinctly.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified that he arrived at work earlier than normal on Jan. 29, 2022, due to the inclement weather.

He said he arrived just before 6 a.m., when the weather “wasn’t great.”

“The wind was starting to pick up. The snow was coming down a little heavier,” he said.

Soon after, paramedics were “dispatched to an unresponsive male in a snow bank with no real further information to follow up on,” he testified.

Nuttall said an unresponsive male in the snow could portend “several things,” so first responders weren’t sure what they were about to encounter.

On the way to the Fairview Road house, Nuttall said “we were going cautiously” because of the weather.

When he arrived, the wind had picked up and he could hear “distant screaming” in the wintery darkness.

Nuttall said he saw “a human figure laying supine in the snow” on the front lawn, some six to eight feet from the road.

He said O’Keefe was “very cold to the touch” and that he had no pulse.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutors called their first witness, Canton firefighter-paramedic Timothy Nuttall, following the morning recess.

He discussed his training and professional background during an initial round of questions with prosecutor Hank Brennan.

Nuttall said it generally takes about two years to complete training as a paramedic.

He was one of the first responders sent to the crime scene on the morning of O’Keefe’s death.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson said Michael Proctor, the lead State Police investigator, was so close with the Alberts that he at times entrusted members of the family to watch his children.

“He intentionally lied and fabricated evidence during the course of this investigation,” Jackson said. “He lied in reports, warrants, he lied under oath.”

Investigators found no taillight pieces at the crime scene before Proctor gained access to Read’s vehicle, Jackson said.

While O’Keefe’s DNA and that of two other men were found on the taillight, Jackson said, there was no DNA “on the actual shards that they claim came in contact with John’s arm. None.”

There were five separate male DNA profiles found on his shoes, Jackson said, and the state medical examiner’s office “refused to conclude that John’s death was a homicide.”

The medical examiner determined the manner of O’Keefe’s death was undetermined, records show. The cause was determined to be blunt force trauma and hypothermia.

“You’ll find that this case is the very definition of reasonable doubt,” Jackson said in conclusion, adding that his client should be found “not guilty, not guilty, not guilty” of the three charges filed against her.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone called a brief morning recess after Jackson concluded his opening statement. Prosecutors will call their first witness after the break.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson said Read felt “abject fear” when she awoke at O’Keefe’s house and he hadn’t come home.

As she backed her SUV out of the driveway to go look for him, she “struck another car” in the driveway with her taillight, Jackson said.

Video footage appears to show her SUV grazing the other vehicle as she moves in reverse.

She also asked people in the frantic first hours after O’Keefe’s death, “could I have hit him?” Jackson said.

But police body camera footage did not record her saying that she did strike him “because it never happened,” Jackson said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson said the plow driver also saw a Ford Edge, a preferred model of the Albert family, parked around 3:30 a.m. in front of “the very spot precisely where Karen would later find John’s body laying at 6 a.m.”

Jackson said Read went home after dropping O’Keefe off at the Fairview Road house.

Higgins, the ATF agent, left the Albert home and went to the Canton Police Department at 1:25 a.m., making a call about five minutes later, Jackson said.

He said Brian Albert’s phone records show he called Higgins at 2:22 a.m.

The two spoke moments later for “22 full seconds,” but they both denied talking and attributed the call to “a butt dial,” Jackson said.

He said Albert and Higgins later “got rid of their phones” within days of each other, and that Albert later sold his family home.McCabe, Albert’s sister-in-law, had Googled shortly before 2:30 a.m., “hos [sic] long to die in cold?” Jackson said, citing phone records.

Prosecutors have said the time stamp was inaccurate. But records also indicate McCabe deleted the search, Jackson said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson said Read and John O’Keefe were warm and affectionate with each other on the night of his death, and that Read days earlier had “ghosted” Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who had swapped flirtatious texts with her and who was also at the Fairview Road afterparty.

Jackson said “the facts unequivocally” show that O’Keefe “went into the Albert home that night,” based on eyewitness testimony and forensic data.

He said Read became upset when O’Keefe failed to reemerge from the house.

He said the defense will call a forensic pathologist who will testify that O’Keefe’s head injury rendered him “completely incapacitated.” Jackson said that O’Keefe’s body showed no signs of frostbite or “cold-induced injuries to his organs.”

Jackson said the evidence shows that O’Keefe did not suffer “a single injury on his body consistent with having been hit by a car.”

“No broken bones, no fractures, no contusions, no torn ligaments, no internal injuries, not even a bruise.”

Experts will also testify, Jackson said, that scratches found on O’Keefe’s arm came from a large dog, such as the German Shepherd who lived with the Alberts at the time and who was later moved to Vermont.

“The medical evidence will establish no hypothermia, no injuries from a car strike, no collision with a motor vehicle,” Jackson said.

“John O’Keefe was injured someplace warmer, and he was moved. That alone is reasonable doubt.”

Jackson said none of the people who left the Fairview Road home after O’Keefe was allegedly struck by Read’s SUV saw his body on the lawn, and a snowplow driver also reported not seeing a body in the yard around 2:30 a.m. when he passed by in his truck.

By Sarah Mesdjian, Globe Staff

Karen Read’s supporters huddled together Tuesday morning along High Street, a block from Norfolk Superior Court, as they watched the trial on a television perched atop a parked SUV.

Brandi Magnoli and her husband Russell brought a television so their friends and fellow Read supporters could watch from outside the courthouse.

“It’s scary because what Karen’s going through right now, she’s facing the rest of her life in prison for doing nothing but going out one night with her boyfriend,” Magnoli said. “She’s with a bunch of cops, little did she know those are the worst people to be around. … If we can’t trust them, then how are we going to trust each other?”

“Her constitutional rights are being violated,” she added. “It’s everybody’s problem, not just her. So that’s why we have to come together, power in numbers.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney Alan Jackson said first responders on the morning of O’Keefe’s death were “swarming” all over the lawn of the homeowner, fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert, who later retired.

On that morning, Albert “never went outside to see what the chaos was about,” and Michael Proctor, the now-fired trooper who led the investigation, failed to properly secure the scene or enter Albert’s residence when he arrived.

“The evidence will show in this case that Michael Proctor is the very definition of the Commonwealth’s case,” Jackson said. “Every single bit of it has his fingerprints on it.”

Proctor was fired for “bringing dishonor” to his agency in the Read case, Jackson said.

“Any idea how hard it is for a state trooper to get fired?” Jackson said.He’s also a longtime friend of the “all-powerful Albert family,” which is influential in Canton, Jackson said.

He said Proctor “didn’t care about finding the truth” but rather wanted to “protect his friends who were at the Alberts’ house that night.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan said “a very intoxicated defendant” was angry at O’Keefe at the time of his death.

Read attorney Alan Jackson then delivered his opening statement, telling jurors “John O’Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle, period.”

Prosecutors are asserting something “contrary to science,” he said.

“At the end of the day folks, there was no collision with John O’Keefe,” Jackson said.

He said Michael Proctor, the since-fired State Police trooper who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death, had texted a friend soon after O’Keefe’s death that the homeowner wouldn’t have any problems since “he’s a Boston cop, too.”

The investigation was “corrupted from the start,” he said.

By Camilo Fonseca, Globe Staff

The jury of nine men and nine women — composed of twelve regular jurors and six alternates, to be selected at the conclusion of the trial — were deeply attentive as special prosecutor Hank Brennan began his opening arguments by describing the paramedic response outside the Canton home where John O’Keefe’s body was found in January 2022.

One juror, a gray-haired man who appeared to be the oldest of the group, furrowed his brow and brought his hand to his mouth in contemplation.

Another juror, a young man, appeared uneasy as Brennan described the discovery of O’Keefe’s body. When Brennan said O’Keefe was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, the young man bowed his head and looked at his feet.

When Brennan repeated a paramedic’s account that Read had said “I hit him, I hit him,” several jurors looked at the defendant, who stared ahead stony-faced.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told jurors that Read called attention to her broken taillight when she was with two other women before they returned to the Fairview Road home.

“My tailight’s broken, my tailight’s broken,” Brennan quoted Read as saying.When they arrived at the home around 6 a.m., Read said “there he is” even though the other women could “barely see a thing” through the heavy snow, Brennan said.

He said pieces of broken taillight were later discovered “littered around” the spot where O’Kefee’s body lay.

Brennan said a neurosurgeon will tell jurors that the “rock hard ground” caused O’Keefe’s injuries to the back of his head when he fell backwards.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told jurors Read backed her SUV “at least 70 feet” toward O’Keefe, who fell backwards, hit his head, and broke his skull.

He said text messages the couple exchanged on the day of his death showed “the unraveling of the relationship.”

Read had seven drinks in “less than two hours” at C.F. McCarthy’s the first Canton bar where she met O’Keefe and their friends that night, Brennan said.

And when the couple was headed to the Fairvew house for the afterparty, Brennan said, witness Jennifer McCabe told her it was “near” the home of another woman O’Keefe had previously dated, Brennan said.

He said O’Keefe’s phone data showed him briefly moving at 12:31 a.m. after he exited Read’s vehicle, and that the phone later “lies dormant” the rest of the night in the spot on the lawn where O’Keefe was found.

As she drove from the scene, Brennan said, Read told O’Keefe in a voicemail that “I [expletive] hate you.”

At 12:59 a.m., Read said to O’Keefe in another voicemail, “nobody knows where you are,” and she called her mother at 1:14 a.m., but she didn’t answer, Brennan said.

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the bar where Read had seven drinks.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told jurors that responding paramedics had poor visibility owing to the blizzard-like conditions at the time.

The victim, John O’Keefe, had no pulse, and a paramedic asked Read, who had discovered his body near the road outside a Canton home, what happened.

“She said, ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” Brennan said.

He said she repeated the phrase again at the scene.

“We are here today because John O’Keefe was killed by the actions and conduct” of Read, Brennan said.

By the Associated Press

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone told jurors that lawyers’ questions to witnesses aren’t evidence.

“So if a witness is asked, ‘isn’t it true that after you learned that your uncle left you money in his will, you poisoned him?’ and the witness’s answer is ‘no,’ based soley on that question and answer, there is no evidence that the witness has an uncle, that the uncle had a will ... or that the witness poisoned him,” Cannone said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone told jurors that their verdict “must be unanimous,” a key point since Read’s first trial ended in July with a hung jury.

“You can believe all of what a witness says, some of it, or none of it,” Cannone told the jury. “It’s entirely up to you.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

The jury was sworn in around 9:45 a.m. in Norfolk Superior Court before the clerk recited the charges Read faces.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone then began delivering instructions to the jurors before opening statements.

“It is only the jury, in other words, you folks, who can decide whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Cannone said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone said before jurors filed into Norfolk Superior Court that Read’s lawyers cannot mention ARCCA, the crash reconstruction firm whose experts testified at the first trial that John O’Keefe’s injuries weren’t consistent with being struck by a vehicle, during opening statements.

Cannone said she made that decision after the defense failed to turn over their text messages with the ARCCA experts in a timely manner to prosecutors.

“I ordered those text messages and they weren’t delivered,” Cannone said.

She then called the attorneys to a sidebar.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read arrived Tuesday morning at the Dedham courthouse ahead of opening statements.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone has barred the defense from telling jurors at the retrial that Colin Albert, the nephew of then-Fairview homeowner Brian Albert, is culpable for O’Keefe’s death.

Cannone has also ruled that the defense at openings can’t name Brian Albert or his friend Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who swapped flirtatious texts with Read, as O’Keefe’s possible assailants, though Read’s lawyers can “develop the theory through relevant, competent evidence at trial.”

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Both sides have brought on additional lawyers for the highly anticipated retrial.

Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan, a prominent Boston defense lawyer whose clients have included the late crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, is leading the government team this time around, along with Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin, who both tried the case the first time.

For the defense, Read’s first trial team of attorneys Alan Jackson, Elizabeth Little, and David Yannetti is being augmented the second time around by attorneys Robert Alessi and Victoria George, who served as an alternate juror in the first trial.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Eighteen jurors have been selected for the retrial, 12 of whom will decide the case with the remainder serving as alternates.

Nine men and nine women have been selected for round two, and a deliberating juror during the first trial, paramedic Ronald Estanislao, told the Globe in a recent interview that in “my mind, the injuries sustained by John O’Keefe and the damage to the motor vehicle did not make sense to me and left reasonable doubt.”