Karen Learn retrial: Key witness testimony in retrial for loss of life of John O’Keefe
Karen Learn’s retrial for the loss of life of John O’Keefe is nearing its finale, doubtless closing a yearslong chapter within the lives of the defendant, the sufferer’s household and the various witnesses known as to testify — a few of them in two high-profile and divisive homicide trials.
Within the retrial — the primary ended with a deadlocked jury — Massachusetts prosecutors and Learn’s protection known as a mixed 49 witnesses. Some have been laypeople, others have been legislation enforcement and lots of have been specialists who analyzed mountains of digital and bodily forensic proof.
Collectively, their testimony sought to reply one important query: What occurred outdoors the house at 34 Fairview Street in Canton, Massachusetts, round 12:30 a.m. on January 29, 2022?
Prosecutors allege Learn drunkenly struck her boyfriend together with her Lexus SUV and left him to die within the snow. However Learn’s protection contends there was no collision. They’ve solid her because the sufferer of a cover-up, alluding to a conspiracy by those that they are saying killed O’Keefe and framed the defendant, whereas portray the police investigation as biased and flawed.
Learn has pleaded not responsible to expenses of second-degree homicide, vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision leading to loss of life.
Right here, CNN highlights a couple of dozen witnesses known as over the past eight weeks, whose testimony illuminated key items of the theories introduced by prosecutors and Learn’s protection:
On the night of January 28, 2022, Learn and O’Keefe went to a neighborhood bar to satisfy up with pals earlier than the group determined to maneuver the social gathering to a house at 34 Fairview Street.
Learn has mentioned she dropped off O’Keefe, however different witnesses mentioned he by no means arrived. Prosecutors allege that is the second Learn put her Lexus SUV in reverse and pressed on the fuel, placing O’Keefe and scattering items of her automobile’s taillight throughout the scene.
Learn didn’t take the stand to testify. However all through the trial, prosecutors performed quite a few clips from Learn’s media interviews, providing jurors an opportunity to listen to from the defendant herself.
Prosecutors tried to make use of these clips in opposition to Learn to bolster the testimony of their very own witnesses, refute the protection’s arguments or spotlight inconsistencies in Learn’s account. In a single clip from her October 2024 interview for NBC’s “Dateline,” she requested:
“May I’ve tagged him within the knee and incapacitated him?” Learn mentioned. “He didn’t look mortally wounded so far as I might see — however might I’ve executed one thing that knocked him out and, in his drunkenness, and within the chilly, (he) didn’t come to once more?”
In one other clip, taken from an Investigation Discovery sequence, Learn strongly denied her automobile made contact with O’Keefe. (Investigation Discovery and CNN share a guardian firm, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Jennifer McCabe, known as by the commonwealth, was current for every key second surrounding O’Keefe’s loss of life, together with the gathering on the bar; the after-party at her sister’s residence at 34 Fairview; and eventually, the invention of his physique.
McCabe anticipated Learn and O’Keefe at 34 Fairview, and she or he spoke to O’Keefe to assist him with instructions, she testified. On the home, McCabe noticed what she believed was Learn’s SUV out entrance, however the couple by no means got here inside.
McCabe testified she was awoken the subsequent morning by a telephone name from Learn, who she described as frantic and hysterical. McCabe detailed the seek for O’Keefe, first at his residence after which at 34 Fairview, the place they discovered him within the snow. Surprised, McCabe known as 911.
McCabe recalled Learn telling a primary responder, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him” — testimony echoed by different witnesses who have been on the scene.
On cross-examination, protection lawyer Alan Jackson highlighted McCabe’s household ties to legislation enforcement, together with her brother-in-law, Brian Albert, who owned 34 Fairview. He additionally questioned her about interviews she’d given investigators and interactions together with her household and different witnesses, accusing McCabe of coordinating her account and colluding with others.
McCabe denied these allegations.
The second witness known as by the commonwealth, Kerry Roberts — one other pal of O’Keefe’s — testified she, too, was woken up by Learn the morning of January 29. She joined the seek for O’Keefe by first driving to satisfy the 2 girls at McCabe’s residence.
Central to the commonwealth’s case was Roberts’ testimony concerning the defendant’s taillight: Roberts noticed the injury that morning when she pulled into McCabe’s driveway and parked behind Learn’s automobile. McCabe and Learn have been in Learn’s SUV, and Roberts was in hers, she testified, however she heard their dialog whereas on the telephone with them:
In earlier testimony, Roberts mentioned the dialog concerning the taillight occurred upon their arrival at O’Keefe’s residence. However on cross-examination, Jackson performed residence surveillance footage displaying the arrival, and Roberts conceded the footage didn’t present the interplay she described, saying she had been incorrect concerning the timing.
Known as to the stand for the protection, Brian Loughran, a snowplow driver, testified he didn’t see a physique within the yard at 34 Fairview early within the morning on January 29, 2022, regardless of passing by a number of occasions.
Loughran first drove the snowplow previous the house between 2:40 and a pair of:45 a.m. Although it was darkish and snowing exhausting, Loughran testified he might clearly see to the entrance door of the house. Requested what he noticed on the garden by the flagpole, Loughran responded:
“Did you see a 6-foot-1, 216-pound man mendacity on that garden?” protection lawyer David Yannetti requested.
“No,” Loughran mentioned.
Jonathan Diamandis, lead investigator’s childhood pal
Jonathan Diamandis testified about sexist and crude textual content messages he acquired from the lead investigator: his longtime pal, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor.
Diamandis was known as as a protection witness, nevertheless it was the commonwealth who had him learn the texts into proof. He declined to take action for probably the most offensive messages, together with one calling Learn “a whack job c*nt.”
Proctor apologized for the messages within the first trial, however the protection has continued to make use of them to color the investigation as biased. Neither facet known as him to testify within the retrial.
The messages finally led to Proctor’s dishonorable discharge from the state police.
Prosecutors underscored Proctor’s texts didn’t point out he dedicated misconduct. Requested whether or not Proctor ever instructed he framed the defendant or planted proof, Diamandis mentioned, “Completely not.”
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik testified concerning the investigation and Learn’s emergence because the suspect in O’Keefe’s loss of life. However Proctor, his former direct report, loomed massive over his testimony.
By Bukhenik, prosecutors tried to attenuate Proctor’s affect within the investigation. Whereas the protection held Proctor up because the lead investigator, Bukhenik mentioned every murder case is a “staff effort.”
Throughout cross-examination, Jackson tried to revive the sense of Proctor’s management over the case, displaying Bukhenik investigative paperwork that carried Proctor’s identify or signature. Nonetheless, Bukhenik refused to name Proctor the “lead investigator,” referring to him because the “case officer.”
Bukhenik was emphatic the investigation itself was dealt with with integrity and honor. However when pressed by Jackson, he mentioned Proctor’s texts lacked each.
The protection additionally used Bukhenik to current flirtatious textual content messages Learn exchanged with one other man, Brian Higgins, previous to O’Keefe’s loss of life. Higgins was among the many revelers who received collectively the evening of January 28, and the protection tried to recommend he ought to have been thought of as a suspect.
An lawyer for Higgins denied any wrongdoing by his shopper.
Nicholas Guarino described communications between Learn and O’Keefe. In a single occasion, he confirmed the jury textual content messages between Learn and O’Keefe from January 28, 2022, displaying the couple had been at odds.
Guarino later testified for the commonwealth that Learn known as O’Keefe greater than 50 occasions and left eight voicemails between the time she mentioned she dropped him off at 34 Fairview and when she began looking for him the subsequent morning. All went unanswered.
“You’re a f**king pervert,” she mentioned in a single voicemail left at 1:10 a.m., per Guarino’s testimony.
Seven minutes later, she left one other:
At 5:23 a.m., she left her seventh voicemail: “John, the place are you?”
Paul Gallagher, who retired as a lieutenant from the Canton Police Division, testified for prosecutors concerning the preliminary restoration of proof from the scene the place O’Keefe’s physique was discovered.
There have been about 4 inches of snow on the bottom, so Gallagher debated how one can take away it, he mentioned. He feared a shovel would hurt any proof, together with a damaged cocktail glass discovered within the snow.
Gallagher noticed pink spots within the snow he mentioned he decided to be “frozen or coagulated blood.” To protect it, he received crimson plastic cups and positioned the bloody snow inside, noting these selections have been made in a blizzard, underneath “horrible” situations.
On cross-examination, Jackson raised questions concerning the adequacy of the proof assortment. Gallagher acknowledged plastic cups aren’t usually used for proof restoration. Moreover, Gallagher testified he didn’t write a report about his actions on the scene.
Nicholas Barros, a sergeant for Dighton Police, was known as by the protection to refute the commonwealth’s narrative about Learn’s taillight being damaged when it allegedly collided with O’Keefe. The protection has tried to lift the specter of the taillight being tampered with after police seized the automobile and instructed its items have been planted on the scene.
Barros responded on January 29, 2022, to Learn’s dad and mom’ residence in Dighton, Massachusetts, at Proctor’s request to assist seize the automobile, he mentioned. Learn went there after it was confirmed O’Keefe had died.
In a report, Barros famous there was injury to a taillight. However he instructed on the stand it was comparatively minor.
Proven {a photograph} of the taillight after it was seized, Barros mentioned it didn’t mirror what he noticed that day. “That taillight is totally smashed out,” he mentioned.
Beneath cross-examination, Barros mentioned his report from that day merely famous “injury,” however didn’t describe it.
Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the Massachusetts medical expert who carried out O’Keefe’s post-mortem, outlined his accidents and his explanation for loss of life.
The blunt affect accidents have been the “main trigger” of loss of life, Scordi-Bello mentioned. O’Keefe had a big laceration on the again of his head, in addition to cranium fractures and bleeding on the highest of his mind.
Scordi-Bello additionally famous O’Keefe’s physique temperature on the hospital was 80.1 levels Fahrenheit — far beneath the conventional temperature of 98.6.
The medical expert couldn’t attain a conclusion on the style of O’Keefe’s loss of life — whether or not it was unintentional or a murder, as an illustration — acknowledging to protection lawyer Robert Alessi there was not sufficient “compelling” proof to determine.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Aizik Wolf described O’Keefe’s accidents — particularly a laceration on the again of his head — as “basic blunt trauma” in step with the sufferer falling backward and placing his head in opposition to the bottom.
Wolf testified one of these harm was comparatively frequent in locations with chilly climates, referencing his time working at a trauma middle in Minneapolis: “Very ceaselessly, sufferers which are drunk fall down on ice, sidewalks, and will develop lacerations of their head.”
A pivotal witness for the protection, Dr. Marie Russell is a retired emergency room doctor, a forensic pathologist and a former Massachusetts police officer who testified accidents on O’Keefe’s arm have been “the results of a canine assault.”
The protection has theorized O’Keefe was mauled by a German shepherd owned by the household who lived at 34 Fairview. The canine was rehomed someday after the sufferer died.
Referencing {a photograph} of O’Keefe’s accidents, Russell testified the injuries gave the impression to be moving into the identical course.
On cross-examination, Russell conceded she had by no means earlier than testified as an professional witness on canine bites. By Russell, Brennan identified holes within the arm of O’Keefe’s sweatshirt have been swabbed for DNA — however that no canine DNA was discovered, solely pig DNA. There was no clarification for the pig DNA’s origins.
Ian Whiffin, a digital forensics professional, illustrated the sufferer’s last actions after analyzing knowledge taken from O’Keefe’s cellphone.
The information confirmed Learn and O’Keefe got here to a cease outdoors 34 Fairview at 12:24 a.m., Whiffin mentioned. From that point on, he mentioned, the information indicated O’Keefe’s telephone remained close to the flagpole till his physique was discovered the subsequent morning. O’Keefe’s telephone display screen locked for the final time at 12:32:09 a.m.
Whiffin additionally testified to the telephone’s temperature: All through the night, the telephone had a mean temperature of about 80 levels Fahrenheit. However the temperature started steadily dropping round 12:22 a.m., Whiffin mentioned, falling to 50 levels at 1:36 a.m.
The following recorded temperature was after 6 a.m. — concerning the time O’Keefe’s physique was discovered — when it dropped to its lowest recorded temperature of 37 levels.
Why 36 steps recorded by a well being app might decide the Karen Learn trial
Judson Welcher, an accident reconstructionist and biomechanical engineer, testified for the prosecution the proof is in step with O’Keefe being struck by a automobile similar to Learn’s on January 29, 2022, round 12:32 a.m.
Black field knowledge from Learn’s SUV included two “set off” occasions recorded on her drive from the bar to 34 Fairview, Welcher mentioned. By evaluating this data with location knowledge from O’Keefe’s cellphone, Welcher’s agency discovered Learn’s SUV reversed between 12:32:04 a.m. and 12:32:12 a.m. — the time the commonwealth alleges O’Keefe was struck.
The information confirmed, at the moment, Learn’s automobile first moved ahead earlier than being put in reverse and transferring backward, Welcher mentioned. The information additionally confirmed the SUV reached a velocity of about 24 mph at 74% of the complete throttle whereas in reverse.
Welcher additionally testified concerning the broken taillight, describing assessments he carried out with a Lexus SUV similar to Learn’s. In distinction to Russell, Welcher testified the lacerations on O’Keefe’s arm have been “in step with the geometry and orientation” of Learn’s taillight.
Requested whether or not O’Keefe’s accidents — each to his arm and his head — have been in step with him being struck by a Lexus similar to Learn’s, Welcher mentioned they have been.
On cross-examination, Alessi seized on Welcher’s admission he didn’t have sufficient data to state precisely how O’Keefe was struck. Alessi pressed him to clarify why he didn’t conduct a extra strong crash check. Pedestrian impacts “are so very delicate,” Welcher mentioned, and if the outcomes of the assessments got here out in another way, he’d should defend it in courtroom.
The protection known as accident reconstructionist Daniel Wolfe to refute Welcher’s findings. Wolfe described assessments his agency, ARCCA, undertook to determine if O’Keefe’s accidents have been in step with the injury to Learn’s Lexus — particularly, the damaged taillight.
Footage taken from these assessments confirmed an instance taillight and automobile placing a dummy arm at completely different speeds to recreate the alleged collision between the SUV and O’Keefe. However at every velocity — 10 mph, 17 mph, 15 mph, 29 mph and 24 mph — the injury to the check taillights was lower than what was seen on Learn’s taillight, Wolfe mentioned. Not one of the assessments indicated the damaged taillight would trigger the holes present in O’Keefe’s sweatshirt.
The agency thought of different prospects for what may trigger the injury, together with a ingesting glass discovered alongside O’Keefe’s physique, in addition to his head and his “middle of mass.” In every occasion, Wolfe mentioned, the injury was inconsistent with that of Learn’s automobile.
Brennan tried to discredit the check outcomes on cross-examination: he famous the dummy arm weighed 9 kilos, whereas O’Keefe’s weighed 11.86 kilos. Brennan additionally emphasised the dummy was secured by a harness, which prevented it from being thrown to the bottom and illustrated the trajectory the sufferer’s physique would have taken as soon as hit.
CNN’s Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.