It was a tense day in court Thursday as a key investigator in John O'Keefe's murder took the stand, putting vulgar text messages and high stakes evidence on full display as Karen Read's defense team grilled into Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik.
The Massachusetts State Police sergeant served as one of the lead investigators and says he went to interview Read shortly after he was named to the case.
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WATCH HERE“The defendant stated that she dropped Mr. O'Keefe off at 34 Fairview. She was asked if she saw him go in the house, she stated that she did not see him go into the house,” Bukhenik said on the stand.
Outside of court, Read said she did see O'Keefe go into the house.
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SIGN UP Read is accused of backing her SUV into O'Keefe outside of a Canton home and leaving him to die on the front lawn. She maintains she is being framed by people that were inside the house.
In addition to conflicting accounts about whether O'Keefe went inside, we did see evidence that Bukhenik says he helped secure -- camera footage, O'Keefe's clothes, his hat, and pieces of Read's tail light that were allegedly recovered at the scene days after O'Keefe was found.
One of the biggest takeaways Thursday, though, is that the prosecution is seemingly trying to distance themselves from Michael Proctor, who in the last trial was referred to as the lead investigator but now in the retrial is being referred to as the case manager by Bukhenik.
Bukhenik says Proctor didn't play a major role in the investigation despite Proctor's name being on a number of affidavits, police reports and evidence logs in the case.
Proctor was fired from the department in part due to misconduct displayed while investigating O'Keefe's death. That misconduct is laid out in text messages that we should see more of Friday when testimony resumes in what's expected to be another full day of trial.
