The prosecution within the second trial of Karen Learn rested Thursday after a couple of month of testimony spotlighting proof from the scene and witnesses who heard the defendant repeatedly say “I hit him” in reference to the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Learn, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, and leaving the 46-year-old officer to die on a snowy night time within the entrance yard of one other officer’s residence after she dropped him off at a celebration there in January 2022. Her attorneys say she was framed in a police conspiracy and somebody within the residence that night time killed him.
A mistrial was declared final 12 months and the second trial has attracted large media consideration and change into the topic of a Hulu documentary collection. Learn’s second trial on expenses of second-degree homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene has typically regarded much like the primary trial. If she is discovered responsible of probably the most critical cost of second-degree homicide, she might spend the remainder of her life in jail.
The video within the participant above is from an earlier report.
Simplified strategy
The prosecution, led this time by Hank Brennan, has taken a extra streamlined, targeted strategy.
Not like the primary trial the place witness after witness undermined the prosecution’s case, Brennan did every part to keep away from these errors. Most importantly, he kept away from placing Michael Proctor, the lead investigator within the case, on the stand.
Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board discovered he despatched sexist and crude textual content messages about Learn to his household and colleagues. His testimony performed a key position within the first trial. Protection attorneys used his textual content messages to aim to indicate Proctor was biased and ignored the potential for different suspects.
Brennan additionally did not put Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the home the place O’Keefe’s physique was discovered, on the stand. He additionally handed on placing on Brian Higgins, a federal agent who had exchanged flirty texts with Learn, on the stand.
All three testified within the first trial and could possibly be known as by the protection because it seeks to indicate O’Keefe was overwhelmed on the home social gathering hosted by Albert and left exterior to die.
Learn’s legal professional, Alan Jackson, nonetheless managed to lift issues about Higgins and Proctor.
Throughout the cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, he made him learn all of the flirtatious texts between Higgins and Learn.
Jackson additionally introduced up a textual content message chain with Bukhenik wherein Proctor mentioned, “I hate that man, I actually hate him” about David Yannetti, an legal professional for Learn.
Persist with the proof
Damaged items of Learn’s taillight. A damaged cocktail glass. Learn’s phrases the scene.
Prosecutors have spent a lot of the trial constructing their case by proof from the scene. Like earlier than, they began by introducing a number of legislation enforcement witnesses who have been among the many first responders and recalled listening to Learn repeatedly say “I hit him” after she discovered O’Keefe.
In addition they performed a number of clips of interviews Learn has accomplished because the first trial, wherein she talked about how a lot she drank and made feedback suggesting she knew what she did. She additionally talked about pulling a chunk of glass from O’Keefe’s nostril.
“May I’ve clipped him? May I’ve tapped him within the knee and incapacitated him?” she mentioned throughout an interview for a documentary on the case. “He did not look mortally wounded, so far as I might see” however “might I’ve accomplished one thing that knocked him in and out his drunkenness and within the chilly did not come to once more.”
Prosecutors known as a neurosurgeon who testified O’Keefe suffered a “traditional blunt trauma damage” related to falling backward and hitting the again of his head.
Prosecutors additionally confirmed jurors items of the Learn’s damaged taillight, which they are saying was broken when she hit O’Keefe. The protection argues the taillight was broken later when she was backing out of O’Keefe’s home and hit O’Keefe’s automobile.
Prosecutors additionally launched proof of a damaged cocktail glass, discovered on the scene, which they mentioned O’Keefe was holding when Learn backed into him.
DNA proof performed a component
Andre Porto, a forensic scientist who works within the DNA unit of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, detailed numerous gadgets he examined, together with the damaged rear taillight and items of a damaged cocktail glass present in within the yard. Solely O’Keefe was a possible match for each.
Porto discovered three DNA contributors however solely O’Keefe was a possible match. He additionally examined DNA from components of a damaged cocktail glass discovered within the yard and solely O’Keefe was seen as a possible match. Porto additionally examined a hair discovered on the taillight.
Later within the trial, analyst Karl Miyasako of Bode Expertise testified that assessments of the hair pattern taken from Learn’s car discovered a mitochondrial DNA match to O’Keefe. He mentioned which means the DNA could possibly be a match to O’Keefe or any one in all his maternal kinfolk.
What’s subsequent for protection
The trial might simply proceed a number of extra weeks as Learn’s protection staff makes its case. Learn has mentioned the protection’s case might be “extra strong” this time. It listed over 90 witnesses who might testify.
“I am anxious for everybody to study what we all know,” she mentioned final week.
Learn’s protection has vigorously questioned the prosecution’s witnesses and known as into query proof introduced about O’Keefe’s loss of life. Throughout opening statements in April, Brennan mentioned Learn “admitted what she did that night time” and pointed to a tv interview wherein Learn mentioned “might I’ve clipped him?” about O’Keefe’s loss of life.
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