Karen Learn prosecutors wish to bar Third-party killer thought throughout opening assertion

Accused assassin Karen Learn’s protection crew received’t be capable to counsel throughout their opening assertion that accidents to sufferer John O’Keefe had been brought on by anybody inside the house on whose garden he died on 2022 if the prosecution has its approach.

“The Commonwealth moves for an order that defense counsel refrain from claiming in their opening statement that any of the victim’s injuries were caused by any person or animal that was inside the home at 34 Fairview Road,” particular prosecutor Hank Brennan requested in a Thursday movement, yet one more last-minute preparation earlier than the trial begins on Tuesday.

Learn, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of putting Boston Police Officer O’Keefe, 46, her boyfriend of about two years, together with her SUV and leaving him to freeze and die in a significant snowstorm on the entrance garden of that Canton handle on Jan. 29, 2022. She is charged with second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorcar below the affect, and leaving the scene of an accident inflicting demise.

The protection counters that O’Keefe really made it inside the house and was crushed to demise there by others with assist from the house’s German shepherd named Chloe after which positioned on the entrance garden. They are saying the prosecution’s entire idea is only a cover-up for well-connected unhealthy actors inside the house.

To that impact, they’ve positioned canine chunk consultants — in addition to consultants to testify to different elements of the alleged conspiracy — on their witness checklist and the prosecution has its personal consultants able to rebut them.

Brennan in his movement notes that the protection is barred from referencing its claims of a third-party killer, or killers, “prior to establishing a viable basis supported by admissible evidence” and thus to reference it in any respect within the opening could be “improper.”

The prosecutor in the latest listening to within the case additionally launched the thought of hiring an “independent reader” to learn statements and textual content messages which can be launched at trial. It’s a request that Learn’s crew argued in opposition to within the listening to, with lawyer Alan Jackson saying not solely would it not be applicable for the witnesses to learn their very own messages, however that was the way it was finished in the course of the first trial final yr.

Jackson additionally mentioned {that a} reader’s “inflection” might coloration the messages past their content material, an argument expanded on the crew’s Friday 8-page formal objection to such “inappropriate ‘theater’ especially given the high probability that such a staged delivery could be unduly prejudicial against Ms. Read.”

“Notably, at no point in its writings or oral arguments has the Commonwealth provided any legal authority or basis for its desired use of independent readers in this context, namely for the reading of text messages,” the protection objection states.