Jurors will start deliberating the destiny of Karen Learn, a Mansfield girl accused of murdering her boyfriend John O’Keefe outdoors a Canton house in 2022, right this moment after sitting for testimony over the higher a part of two months. Either side will current their closing arguments to jurors this morning.
The prosecution
Learn, 44, faces expenses of second-degree homicide, motorized vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting the demise of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at age 46 within the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022. Her trial started on April 29 and has spanned 30 in-court days at Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, together with 29 days of testimony.
Prosecutors have argued that taillight items discovered on the snowy scene of O’Keefe’s demise on the entrance garden of 34 Fairview Highway in Canton, heavy ingesting the night earlier than, and a demonstrated historical past of jealousy and unrest within the relationship between Learn and O’Keefe factors to her guilt. Prosecutor Adam Lally argues the Mansfield monetary analyst and Bentley College lecturer purposely struck him together with her automotive as she dropped him off at that home someday after midnight.
To develop on this concept, prosecutor Adam Lally referred to as on 68 witnesses. The forged included minor figures like individuals who had simply had some drinks with Learn and O’Keefe within the hours earlier than his demise however weren’t that shut, to long-time mates who may opine on any modifications to the connection. There have been some witnesses whose function was equally restricted however essential, like two sisters who testified that Learn blew up at O’Keefe throughout a visit to Aruba when she suspected that he made out with one other girl.
Then there have been the Canton cops and paramedics who testified, variously, that Learn both made incriminating statements on the scene of O’Keefe’s demise like “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him” or that she merely questioned whether or not she may have hit him. Then there have been the Massachusetts State Police investigators who detailed their case, from finding damaged taillight fragments and a ingesting glass resembling the one O’Keefe left his final bar with in addition to a single shoe and his hat buried within the snow. Forensic scientists testified {that a} hair beneath the taillight of Learn’s automobile made a match to O’Keefe to a stupendously excessive mathematical diploma.
The protection
The protection has a considerably totally different view of the case. Throughout cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, the protection slowly constructed up the concept of a nefarious plot: that somebody or a number of folks inside 34 Fairview Highway — the house whose yard O’Keefe’s physique could be discovered partially buried within the snow — beat him to demise and positioned his physique there. Learn’s function on this plot was merely a simple mark for the murderers and people concerned within the conspiracy to put the blame so the actual murderers may stroll free.
During the last two days of trial, Friday and Monday, the protection referred to as solely six witnesses earlier than resting its case.
On Friday, the three witnesses promoted the conspiracy model of occasions. A Canton snow plow operator testified that he noticed one other automotive outdoors the house throughout a essential hour. A health care provider testified that wounds to O’Keefe’s proper arm appeared like canine bites and claw marks — the protection has stated the canine of the house, Chloe, may have participated within the deadly assault. And a pc forensics professional stated that he believed a key witness made the suspicious search “hos long to die in cold” hours earlier than O’Keefe’s physique could be discovered, pointing towards conspiracy.
On Monday, the protection referred to as three extra witnesses they used to poke holes within the prosecution’s concept of occasions. A forensic pathologist backed up the Friday physician’s dog-bite concept but in addition testified that it doesn’t matter what context or extra proof is current, a vehicle-pedestrian strike would all the time end in vital bruising to the sufferer, which O’Keefe didn’t show. Two consulting forensic scientists initially employed within the federal probe of the investigation, a element that jurors have no idea about, testified that the science doesn’t again the idea of a automobile strike in anyway.
This can be a growing story.
