Friday was an especially brutal day for the defense in the Karen Read murder trial as there were unexpected surprises as the jury visited the murder site and the defense was not fully allowed to use a third-party defense in the questioning of a witness.
The day started with the continued testimony of Firefighter Katie McLaughlin, who was one of the members of the team of paramedics who worked on victim John O’Keefe at the crime scene. McLaughlin again confirmed testimony from the other members of her ambulance crew that Read reportedly said, “I hit him! I hit him! I hit him!” when she was asked basic questions about O’Keefe’s health.
Upon cross examination, attorney Alan Jackson attempted to impeach the testimony of other witnesses from the ambulance crew as he asked if McLaughlin actually heard Read make her “I hit him” remarks and then told the other members of the crew about it, implying that they were not present when Read allegedly made the remarks and just parroted what McLaughlin told them that Read said.
Following up on this and outside the presence of the jury, Judge Beverly J. Cannone allowed Jackson to question McLaughlin about social media photos taken from Caitlin Albert, the daughter of crime scene homeowner Brian Albert, Facebook account.
The photos showed Caitlin Albert and McLaughlin in group photos in apparently two different trips to the beach, with a one apparently cropped out of a larger photo appearing to show the women sitting next to each other with Albert holding a beer and smiling.
Copies of at least one of the photos had appeared on Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney’s X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, while the prosecution had only been provided copies of the photos Friday morning.
Jackson attempted to paint McLaughlin as “growing up with Albert” in the small town of Canton, Massachusetts, and were good friends to this day. McLaughlin characterized their relationship as acquaintances and testified that she had not spoken to Albert in many years.
Based on this trial impeachment of McLaughlin, Judge Cannone ruled against showing the photos to the jury. When the jury was brought back into the room, Jackson questioned if McLaughlin talked to Albert in days following the murder and implied that it was Albert who told McLaughlin to say that Read said “I hit him” which was then parroted by her fellow EMS technicians. McLaughlin denied these allegations.
Following McLaughlin’s testimony, the jury was taken for a view of the crime scene. In an unexpected move, Karen Read’s car, the alleged murder weapon, was parked in front of Brian Albert’s house and featured damage from the 2022 incident that resulted in the death of John O’Keefe.
Things appeared to get worse for the defense team in the afternoon session as multiple witnesses testify about treating Read for mental health issues both at the scene and after transporting read to a local hospital for a mental evaluation.
Read told multiple EMS technicians that her husband had just died and she was worried about being responsible for the care of O’Keefe’s children (his niece and nephew who were in his care following the death of his sister and her husband), who she specified were not her children. Read was described as being argumentative with hospital staff and refused to wear a hospital gown during her evaluation.
Read’s medical history was brought up by the defense and her previously unknown diagnosis for Multiple sclerosis was blamed in part for her behavior. Multiple sclerosis is a neurological condition that impacts the nervous system. Those suffering from the condition may experience early-stage eye pain, facial paralysis, persistent limb weakness or numbness and severe, ongoing dizziness.
The hearing wrapped up early on Friday with the jury dismissed a little after 4PM ET as the Judge then met with the prosecution and defense to reorder exhibits related to the trial.
Reminder: Reporter Jim Finch is now part of the Welsh New’s Network’s YouTube coverage of the Karen Read Murder Case. Each weekday the folks at WNN provide live coverage of the trial along with insights and information of where things stand. Coverage starts at 9AM ET each day when the trial is in session and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@welshnewsnetwork6412.
Correction: Previous versions of this story referred to Caitlin Albert as Brian Albert’s niece. She is, in fact, his daughter. Our apologies for the mistake as the Albert family is indeed huge and hard to follow.
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