A Massachusetts State Police sergeant returned to the stand Thursday within the homicide trial of Karen Learn, the Massachusetts girl accused of hitting John O’Keefe, her boyfriend, with an SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.Learn, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not responsible to second-degree homicide and different prices. The prosecution says she hit O’Keefe together with her black SUV exterior of a house at 34 Fairview Highway in Canton throughout a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following an evening of ingesting. Her protection plans to argue that another person is liable for killing O’Keefe. Protection legal professional Alan Jackson questioned Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick a few video that reveals Learn’s SUV contained in the storage of the Canton Police Division.Jackson identified writing on one other automobile within the storage and on a storage door. Bukhenick stated the video was “mirrored,” nevertheless he couldn’t clarify why. The sergeant defined that what the jurors had been seeing was the driving force’s facet of the automobile, and never the passenger’s facet, which appeared to have a broken taillight in one other video proven to the jury. “So the video is inverted. Fully inverted. It is a mirror picture, which means that the driving force facet is the passenger facet and vice versa however the timestamp throughout the underside just isn’t inverted, which implies any person needed to put that on the inverted, the manipulated, the altered video on objective,” protection legal professional Alan Jackson advised reporters exterior the courthouse. Earlier, Bukhenick testified that investigators recovered a number of items of proof exterior the house on a number of events within the weeks after O’Keefe’s loss of life. The proof included a Boston Police Division hat, a ingesting straw and several other chards of glass and items of plastic, which had been revealed after the snow melted. He eliminated the hat and from a brown proof bag and displayed it to the jury. Assistant District Legal professional Adam Lally performed the audio of an interview that Bukhenick stated he performed with Learn on June 9, 2022. “You are conscious he was overwhelmed up by Brian and Colin Albert? I imply, we’re all in on the identical joke, proper? My tail gentle was cracked, and John was pulverized,” Learn stated.Bukhenik stated he suggested Learn at that time to cease speaking. Protection legal professional Alan Jackson questioned Bukhenik in regards to the investigation and why he initially thought O’Keefe’s loss of life was as a result of a “bodily altercation.””I communicated our suspicions to the medical expert’s workplace,” Bukhenik testified. Jackson additionally handed Bukhenik an proof bag containing O’Keefe’s clothes. The label signifies it was Trooper Michael Proctor who positioned the clothes within the baggage.Bukhenik confirmed the label on the bag reveals the clothes was bagged on Feb 4, 2022, six days after they had been first recovered from O’Keefe when he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. Bukheikc stated the gadgets had been within the snow and so they had been “drying throughout that point.”Jackson additionally questioned Bukhenik about surveillance video that reveals Learn backing her SUV out of O’Keefe’s residence on Jan. 29, 2022.”It seems that there’s motion” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s automobile as Learn’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik stated. Stay updates: Comply with posts from reporter David BienickRelated hyperlinks:Recap of testimony, proof from every day of the case Proof slideshowWhat to know in regards to the case:Karen Learn, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of second-degree homicide and different prices. The prosecution says she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, together with her automobile exterior of a house in Canton throughout a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following an evening of ingesting. She returned hours later to search out him in a snowbank.Learn has pleaded not responsible.Learn and her protection crew declare she is the sufferer of a cover-up and plan to current a third-party perpetrator protection. They declare O’Keefe was overwhelmed inside the house, bitten by a canine, after which left exterior.In pretrial motions, prosecutors revealed the existence of textual content messages they stated steered a “romantic entanglement” with a good friend who was current at areas Learn and O’Keefe visited on the evening of the incident. Different paperwork have additionally steered hassle within the relationship between Learn and O’Keefe.Learn can also be accused of getting frequent contact with a controversial blogger often known as “Turtleboy,” Aiden Kearney, who now faces prices in associated circumstances.Opening statements had been delivered on April 29.The trial is anticipated to final 6-8 weeks.Case proof slideshow: Prosecutors are attempting to point out that Learn’s alleged actions exterior 34 Fairview Highway had been intentional. Learn’s legal professionals have alleged there was a cover-up involving members of a number of legislation enforcement companies. They are saying O’Keefe was overwhelmed by another person inside the house, bitten by a canine after which left exterior.The protection, which has been allowed to current what is named third-party perpetrator proof, argues that investigators targeted on Learn as a result of she was a “handy outsider” who saved them from having to contemplate different suspects. These they’ve implicated embody Brian Albert, who owned the house in Canton the place O’Keefe died, and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who was there that evening.Higgins testified a few “romantic” encounter and a sequence of textual content messages he exchanged with Learn. In these flirty messages, Learn advised him that O’Keefe had “connected” with one other girl throughout a trip. The protection is attempting to persuade the jury that O’Keefe was overwhelmed and steered that Colin Albert, nephew of the household that owned the house on Fairview Highway, had been in a battle. Albert stated a hand harm got here when he fell in a driveway and that he by no means noticed O’Keefe in the course of the celebration of his cousin’s birthday on the evening in query.He additionally confirmed on cross-examination that he has identified the lead state police investigator on this case, Trooper Michael Proctor, since he was a toddler. A former Massachusetts police toxicologist, Nicholas Roberts, testified that Learn’s blood alcohol content material at 9 a.m. was between .078% and .083%, proper across the authorized restrict for intoxication in Massachusetts. Based mostly on a police report that steered her final drink was at 12:45 a.m., her peak blood alcohol stage would have been between .135% and .292%, he stated.O’Keefe had been elevating his niece and nephew, and so they advised jurors that they heard frequent arguments between him and Learn. Each of the youngsters described an incident through which O’Keefe requested Learn to go away the home and he or she refused.The trial’s first few days detailed the futile efforts of first responders to avoid wasting O’Keefe. They discovered him face up once they arrived simply earlier than daybreak on Jan. 29. He was pronounced useless on the hospital, and an post-mortem later discovered he died of hypothermia and blunt power trauma. A number of of the primary responders stated they heard Learn make statements, together with, “I hit him,” after O’Keefe was discovered. Protection attorneys confronted a number of of these witnesses by asking why these alleged remarks weren’t included in official experiences.Officers additionally testified about uncommon procedures used in the course of the investigation, together with the choice to gather bloody snow in crimson plastic cups and clearing snow from the crime scene.
A Massachusetts State Police sergeant returned to the stand Thursday within the homicide trial of Karen Learn, the Massachusetts girl accused of hitting John O’Keefe, her boyfriend, with an SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not responsible to second-degree homicide and different prices. The prosecution says she hit O’Keefe together with her black SUV exterior of a house at 34 Fairview Highway in Canton throughout a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following an evening of ingesting. Her protection plans to argue that another person is liable for killing O’Keefe.
Protection legal professional Alan Jackson questioned Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick a few video that reveals Learn’s SUV contained in the storage of the Canton Police Division.
Jackson identified writing on one other automobile within the storage and on a storage door. Bukhenick stated the video was “mirrored,” nevertheless he couldn’t clarify why.
The sergeant defined that what the jurors had been seeing was the driving force’s facet of the automobile, and never the passenger’s facet, which appeared to have a broken taillight in one other video proven to the jury.
“So the video is inverted. Fully inverted. It is a mirror picture, which means that the driving force facet is the passenger facet and vice versa however the timestamp throughout the underside just isn’t inverted, which implies any person needed to put that on the inverted, the manipulated, the altered video on objective,” protection legal professional Alan Jackson advised reporters exterior the courthouse.
Earlier, Bukhenick testified that investigators recovered a number of items of proof exterior the house on a number of events within the weeks after O’Keefe’s loss of life.
The proof included a Boston Police Division hat, a ingesting straw and several other chards of glass and items of plastic, which had been revealed after the snow melted. He eliminated the hat and from a brown proof bag and displayed it to the jury.
Assistant District Legal professional Adam Lally performed the audio of an interview that Bukhenick stated he performed with Learn on June 9, 2022.
“You are conscious he was overwhelmed up by Brian and Colin Albert? I imply, we’re all in on the identical joke, proper? My tail gentle was cracked, and John was pulverized,” Learn stated.
Bukhenik stated he suggested Learn at that time to cease speaking.
Protection legal professional Alan Jackson questioned Bukhenik in regards to the investigation and why he initially thought O’Keefe’s loss of life was as a result of a “bodily altercation.”
“I communicated our suspicions to the medical expert’s workplace,” Bukhenik testified.
Jackson additionally handed Bukhenik an proof bag containing O’Keefe’s clothes. The label signifies it was Trooper Michael Proctor who positioned the clothes within the baggage.
Bukhenik confirmed the label on the bag reveals the clothes was bagged on Feb 4, 2022, six days after they had been first recovered from O’Keefe when he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. Bukheikc stated the gadgets had been within the snow and so they had been “drying throughout that point.”
Jackson additionally questioned Bukhenik about surveillance video that reveals Learn backing her SUV out of O’Keefe’s residence on Jan. 29, 2022.
“It seems that there’s motion” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s automobile as Learn’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik stated.
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What to know in regards to the case:
- Karen Learn, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of second-degree homicide and different prices. The prosecution says she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, together with her automobile exterior of a house in Canton throughout a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following an evening of ingesting. She returned hours later to search out him in a snowbank.
- Learn has pleaded not responsible.
- Learn and her protection crew declare she is the sufferer of a cover-up and plan to current a third-party perpetrator protection. They declare O’Keefe was overwhelmed inside the house, bitten by a canine, after which left exterior.
- In pretrial motions, prosecutors revealed the existence of textual content messages they stated steered a “romantic entanglement” with a good friend who was current at areas Learn and O’Keefe visited on the evening of the incident. Different paperwork have additionally steered hassle within the relationship between Learn and O’Keefe.
- Learn can also be accused of getting frequent contact with a controversial blogger often known as “Turtleboy,” Aiden Kearney, who now faces prices in associated circumstances.
- Opening statements had been delivered on April 29.
- The trial is anticipated to final 6-8 weeks.
Case proof slideshow:
Prosecutors are attempting to point out that Learn’s alleged actions exterior 34 Fairview Highway had been intentional. Learn’s legal professionals have alleged there was a cover-up involving members of a number of legislation enforcement companies. They are saying O’Keefe was overwhelmed by another person inside the house, bitten by a canine after which left exterior.
The protection, which has been allowed to current what is named third-party perpetrator proof, argues that investigators targeted on Learn as a result of she was a “handy outsider” who saved them from having to contemplate different suspects. These they’ve implicated embody Brian Albert, who owned the house in Canton the place O’Keefe died, and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who was there that evening.
Higgins testified a few “romantic” encounter and a sequence of textual content messages he exchanged with Learn. In these flirty messages, Learn advised him that O’Keefe had “connected” with one other girl throughout a trip.
The protection is attempting to persuade the jury that O’Keefe was overwhelmed and steered that Colin Albert, nephew of the household that owned the house on Fairview Highway, had been in a battle. Albert stated a hand harm got here when he fell in a driveway and that he by no means noticed O’Keefe in the course of the celebration of his cousin’s birthday on the evening in query.
He additionally confirmed on cross-examination that he has identified the lead state police investigator on this case, Trooper Michael Proctor, since he was a toddler.
A former Massachusetts police toxicologist, Nicholas Roberts, testified that Learn’s blood alcohol content material at 9 a.m. was between .078% and .083%, proper across the authorized restrict for intoxication in Massachusetts. Based mostly on a police report that steered her final drink was at 12:45 a.m., her peak blood alcohol stage would have been between .135% and .292%, he stated.
O’Keefe had been elevating his niece and nephew, and so they advised jurors that they heard frequent arguments between him and Learn. Each of the youngsters described an incident through which O’Keefe requested Learn to go away the home and he or she refused.
The trial’s first few days detailed the futile efforts of first responders to avoid wasting O’Keefe. They discovered him face up once they arrived simply earlier than daybreak on Jan. 29. He was pronounced useless on the hospital, and an post-mortem later discovered he died of hypothermia and blunt power trauma.
A number of of the primary responders stated they heard Learn make statements, together with, “I hit him,” after O’Keefe was discovered. Protection attorneys confronted a number of of these witnesses by asking why these alleged remarks weren’t included in official experiences.
Officers additionally testified about uncommon procedures used in the course of the investigation, together with the choice to gather bloody snow in crimson plastic cups and clearing snow from the crime scene.