Key witness Jennifer McCabe remained on the witness stand all day Wednesday for testimony in the second murder trial of her former friend, Karen Read, whose boyfriend they found on her sister’s front lawn during a blizzard in January 2022.

She said she was sure that Read said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” that morning, but lead defense attorney Alan Jackson grilled her over the claim in a cross-examination that took up most of the day. 

Read is accused of slamming John O’Keefe with the back of her SUV, then fleeing the scene hours before returning to find him dead in the snow. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene and denies having hit him at all.

No mention of it was made in two police reports from officers who interviewed McCabe, he said, and she didn’t testify about that claim in front of a grand jury just three months after O’Keefe’s death.

Jackson also illustrated McCabe’s many friendships and familial ties to members of local law enforcement, asking her about her family tree in front of the jury. Brian Albert, on whose lawn O’Keefe was found dead, has a brother in the Canton Police Department and another brother who is a member of Canton’s Board of Selectmen. McCabe also knew police officers and paramedics at the scene from growing up in the area.

But another contentious moment came when Jackson grilled her about an interview with two unidentified agents of law enforcement from a body that was not identified but noted not to be either the Massachusetts State Police or the Canton Police Department. 

Karen Read listens to a sidebar conference on April 30, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Lying to those interviewers would be a crime, Jackson noted, asking McCabe if she lied to them about who she talked to during a 10-minute stretch before they met for an interview at her house.

McCabe testified that she told them she’d spoken to Kerry Roberts, another key witness in the case who was present with Read and McCabe when they found O’Keefe, and her husband, Matt McCabe. Roberts admitted last week that some of the testimony she gave to the grand jury wasn’t true.

She later called those investigators back and told them she’d forgotten to mention three other people: O’Keefe’s mother, her witness advocate at the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office and Brian Albert.

A federal investigation into the state police’s handling of the case ended this year without charges, special prosecutor Hank Brennan revealed at a March 4 hearing, according to CBS News.

An independent audit of the Canton Police Department found no evidence of a conspiracy. And Proctor, a former state trooper and former lead investigator on the case, was fired after an investigation into lewd text messages he sent about Read, which included confidential information about an active investigation to people outside law enforcement.