Karen Read trial Day 30 recap: Last 2 defense witnesses testify

What to Know

Karen Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
She is accused of striking John O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton, Massachusetts.
Her defense team has said she is the victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O'Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
This is a retrial - the first, on the same charges, ended in mistrial.

Watch "Canton Confidential" in the video player below for analysis on what happened in court.

Witness testimony continued in the Karen Read trial Tuesday, after tensions ran high Monday, but the end of the trial is in sight.

Elizabeth Laposata returned to the stand, resuming her testimony from Monday. She was the chief medical examiner in Rhode Island for 12 years and has experience with a number of court cases.

After her, Andrew Rentschler, a biochemist who works for the company ARCCA, was called to testify. The defense has indicated he would be their last witness.

He'll be back on the stand Wednesday, but Judge Beverly Cannone told the jury at the end of the day that, "we're definitely winding down," and back on schedule.

A forensic pathologist called by Karen Read's defense was insistent that the evidence shows her SUV didn't hit John O'Keefe — and while she was prohibited from saying his arm injury was caused by a dog bite, Judge Cannone did give the defense a partial victory on the subject. Then, the defense called what's believed to be their final witness, and the ARCCA biomechanist also testified that the evidence doesn't suggest O'Keefe was hit by a vehicle. Plus, a juror's surprise note for the judge, how the jury appears to be holding on with the end finally in sight and more.

Read is accused of hitting John O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts. Her defense team has said she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O'Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

On Monday, the defense called for a mistrial over the prosecution's questioning of accident reconstruction expert Dr. Daniel Wolfe. The issue centered on John O'Keefe's clothes, specifically holes in the back of his sweatshirt, which special prosecutor Hank Brennan tried to establish were caused by road rash. In actuality, the holes were made by a prosecution criminalist cutting them when she was examining the sweatshirt - which was noted in paperwork.

Brennan admitted to making a mistake and Cannone opted not to grant the mistrial, instead offering jury instructions to correct the misunderstanding and allowing the documentation noting the holes to be entered into evidence.

Here's how the day unfolded in court.