Karen Read trial recap: SUV data under scrutiny, new timeline of events

Show Caption

Editor's note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Monday, May 19. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit Paste BN's coverage for Tuesday, May 20.

Every second matters in Karen Read's second murder trial.

That's at least according to an analysis of crucial data from the Massachusetts' woman's Lexus SUV recorded the night before her Boston police officer boyfriend was discovered dead in front of another cop's home.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John O’Keefe with the car in a drunken rage and leaving him to die during a massive snowstorm in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed for the death in an elaborate conspiracy contrived by Massachusetts police officers.

As the case entered it's fifth week of witness testimony, prosecutors brought out digital forensics expert Shanon Burgess to lay out a timeline that potentially ties Read to the crime. It relies on clock data from Read's vehicle and O'Keefe's phone and a timeframe of about 10 seconds.

Read's defense attorney's have attempted to sow doubt about Burgess' integrity, as they seek to paint a broader picture for the jury of an investigation into O'Keefe's death riddled with bias, incompetence and deceit.

The testimony comes at a point where jurors have already heard about a bombshell admission Read allegedly made to first responders, the damaged state Read’s vehicle was in after O’Keefe’s death and DNA evidence left on items at the crime scene.

The Norfolk County case marks the second time Read has been tried for O'Keefe's death. A trial in 2024 ended in a hung jury. It spurred a years-long whodunnit legal saga that has fixated true-crime fans across the country, spurring an array of podcasts, movies and television shows.   

Here's what you missed from Day 18 of the trial out of Dedham, Massachusetts.

Read's defense attorney pokes holes in witness credibility

Upon cross-examination, Read’s defense attorney, Robert Alessi, attempted to discredit Burgess’ testimony by pointing to multiple errors in his education history and questioning the foundation of his report.  

Alessi began by asking if “credibility and honesty” were important traits for people in Burgess’ profession. He confirmed they were.  

Alessi then probed his education background. Burgess confirmed he does not have a bachelor’s degree but is “currently pursuing” one. But Alessi said Burgess’ biography page on his company, Apeture’s, website and LinkedIn profile both state he has a degree in mathematics and business administration from the University of Alabama Birmingham. Paste BN confirmed the education record appears on both websites.

Alessi said another version of Burgess' CV said he obtained his degree in 2022.  

Burgess said his LinkedIn hadn’t been updated in “quite some time” and the CV had “a number of errors,” including the name of the degree he was working toward and the date of completion.  

Alessi asked if he was familiar with the term “academic dishonesty,” before moving into questions about Burgess’ work in O’Keefe’s case.  

Burgess said his proposal to analyze Read’s SUV data was based on a belief that an earlier analyst missed data. He said that earlier report was based on a “working theory and misinterpretation” of computer megabits and computer megabytes.  

Alessi questioned whether the “entire foundation” of the earlier proposal was based on a misunderstanding, and Burgess responded “no, not the entire thing.” 

Later, Alessi interrogated Burgess about why he submitted a supplemental report in Read’s case on May 8, weeks into the defendant's second trial.  

Synchronized SUV, cell phone data depicts timeline of events  

Prosecutors called to the stand Shanon Burgess, a digital forensics expert specializing in vehicles and cell phone to lay out his in-depth analysis of Read’s movements before O’Keefe’s death.  

The testimony is key in helping prosecutors outline the timeline of events they say occurred in the early morning hours before O’Keefe’s body was found.  

Burgess explained to the jurors his process for determining the exact time, to the second, when Read’s Lexus SUV turned on and off. The ignition started at 12:12:36 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 and turned off at 12:42:08 a.m., Burgess said. That is believed to be around the time when Read and O’Keefe drove from a bar to the house at 34 Fairview Road in Canton. 

Burgess said he attempted to synchronize Read’s SUV clock to O’Keefe’s iPhone clock. He did so by looking at two events recorded on the devices: a three-point turn and a back-up maneuver. 

He was able to pinpoint when O’Keefe’s phone recorded the three-point turn using speed, location and directional data. By comparing that to the Lexus data, Burgess said there was between a 21-29 second lag between the SUV's clock and O'Keefe's phone.

Based on that, his analysis shows the three-point turn occurred between 12:23:59 a.m. and 12:24:07 a.m.  The back-up maneuver occurred between 12:32:04 a.m. and 12:32:12 a.m. O’Keefe’s iPhone was locked for the last time during that timeframe at 12:32:09 a.m.

The timeline suggests Read's Lexus could have struck O'Keefe while backing up.

O’Keefe’s mom rolls her eyes  

DNA analyst Karl Miyasako from Bode Technologies, a crime evidence testing center in Virginia, said a piece of hair found on the right rear panel of Read’s SUV was a potential match for O’Keefe.  

He explained the lab tested the hair for mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother. Mitochondrial DNA is not specific to any one individual and can match anyone along the same maternal line.  

Read’s defense attorney asked Miyasako whether it was reasonable that the hair could have come from O’Keefe’s nephew.  In the background, O’Keefe’s mother, who was sitting behind Read in a light blue sweater, rolled her eyes. The question was sustained.  

Whose DNA was on Read’s broken taillight?  

Nicholas Bradford, a DNA expert with Bode Technologies, said he found “strong support” that DNA collected from Read’s right taillight matched O’Keefe and two unknown individuals.  

Bradford was also asked to test for DNA matches of Massachusetts State Trooper Yuri Bukhenik and former trooper Michael Proctor, both of whom investigated O’Keefe’s death. Read’s defense team has questioned the integrity of their work on the case.  

Bradford said neither of the men’s DNA appeared to statistically match the DNA found on Read’s taillight. 

He was asked by Read’s lawyer about whether he compared the DNA to that of Brian Higgins, Brian Albert, Kevin Albert or former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz, all of whom they say could have colluded against Read. Bradford said he had not.  

How to watch the Karen Read trial   

CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Canton, Massachusetts home.  

You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings begin at 9 a.m. ET.  

Contributing: Michael Loria, Paste BN