Karen Read

What was Karen Read's blood alcohol level the day John O'Keefe died? Here's what we learned

The high-profile murder trial is now in its fifth week, but no further testimony is expected until June 3

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A woman accused of leaving her Boston police officer boyfriend for dead in a snowbank after a night of drinking was still legally intoxicated or close to it roughly eight hours later, a former state police toxicologist testified Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Karen Read dropped John O’Keefe off at a house party hosted by a fellow officer in January 2022, struck him with her SUV and then drove away. Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, and her defense team argues that the homeowner’s relationship with local and state police tainted the investigation. They also say she was framed and that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home and left outside.

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As the highly publicized trial entered its fifth week, jurors heard from Nicholas Roberts, who analyzed blood test results from the hospital where Read was evaluated after O’Keefe’s body was discovered. He calculated that her blood alcohol content at 9 a.m., the time of the blood test, was between .078% and .083%, right around the legal limit for intoxication in Massachusetts. Based on a police report that suggested her last drink was at 12:45 a.m., her peak blood alcohol level would have been between .135% and .292%, he said.

Multiple witnesses have described Read frantically asking, “Did I hit him?” before O’Keefe was found or saying afterward, “I hit him.” Others have said the couple had a stormy relationship and O’Keefe was trying to end it.

John O'Keefe's niece and nephew testify

O’Keefe had been raising his niece and nephew, and they told jurors Tuesday that they heard frequent arguments between him and Read. arguing between them increased in January. The children also said Read never called or wrote them after O'Keefe's death.

In the only day of court this week, we heard testimony about Karen Read's reported blood-alcohol level on the day of John O'Keefe's death, and defense attorneys continued to grill ATF Agent Brian Higgins over his phone records.

The third-party culprit defense

The defense, which has been allowed to present what is called third-party culprit evidence, argues that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects. Those they have implicated include Brian Albert, who owned the home in Canton where O’Keefe died, and Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was there that night.

Higgins, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified last week about exchanging flirtatious texts with Read in the weeks before O’Keefe’s death. On Tuesday he acknowledged extracting only those messages before throwing away his phone during the murder investigation.

Higgins said he replaced the phone because someone he was investigating for his job had gotten his number. He got a new phone and number on Sept. 29, 2022, a day before being served with a court order to preserve his phone, and then threw the old one away a few months later. Questioning Higgins on the stand, Read’s lawyer suggested the timing was suspicious.

“You knew when you were throwing that phone and the destroyed SIM card in the Dumpster, that from that day forward, no one would ever be able to access the content of what you and Brian Albert had discussed by text messages on your old phone,” attorney David Yannetti said.

Katherine Loftus joins NBC10 Boston’s Glenn Jones to discuss testimony in the Karen Read murder trial, including what we heard from doctors and a forensic toxicologist about the amount of alcohol in Read’s system the morning of John O’Keefe’s death, her thoughts on Brian Higgins' disposal of his cell phone, and more. Follow NBC10 Boston on... Instagram: instagram.com/nbc10boston TikTok: tiktok.com/@nbc10boston Facebook: facebook.com/NBC10Boston X: twitter.com/NBC10Boston

Karen Read trial schedule

After a full day of hearing from witnesses on Tuesday, no testimony is scheduled in the trial for the rest of the week. The case is scheduled to resume on Monday, June 3.

Judge Beverly Cannone said at the end of Tuesday's testimony that Monday will be a full day of testimony. There will be no testimony Tuesday, June 4, a full day of testimony on Wednesday, June 5, and a half day on Thursday, June 6. No testimony will be heard on Friday, June 7.

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