With the end of the Karen Read trial approaching, a doctor called by the defense testified Tuesday that John O'Keefe did not die from injuries suffered in a motor vehicle crash.
Prosecutors accuse Read of hitting O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, three years ago in Canton, Massachusetts, leaving him to die in the snow. She has long argued she is being framed.
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WATCH HEREDr. Elizabeth Laposata, who spent 12 years as chief medical examiner in Rhode Island, was first called to the stand Monday. She finished her testimony Tuesday.
She said that O'Keefe died from a serious brain injury, but that he was not hit by Read's SUV.
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SIGN UP "Brain injuries and skull fractures due to blunt force trauma of the head," she said. "By looking at the body, I could tell that there was no evidence of impact with a vehicle."
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
Prosecutors say O'Keefe slammed his head on the frozen ground, damaging his skull and brain. Laposata testified that the wounds on the back of his head are inconsistent with that explanation.
"We know it's from falling back backwards and striking something hard," she said. "The frozen ground can be hard, but it doesn't fit the pattern in this injury."
Laposata said O'Keefe didn't die from hypothermia because he had no ulcers, which are typical of when someone dies from the cold.
She said the injuries to his arm weren't cause by a motor vehicle, but rather an animal. The defense maintains it was a dog.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked Laposata about criticism she received as Rhode Island's chief medical examiner for staying away from the scene after the Station nightclub fire, which left 100 people dead in 2003.
"There was no need for me to go to the scene because I had my investigator there," she said on the stand.
After Laposata was excused, the defense called crash reconstruction expert Andrew Rentschler.
He's expected to be the last defense witness, since Read has said she will not be testifying.
Rentschler will return to the stand Wednesday.
Things got heated Monday as the defense called for a mistrial after the prosecution made what Brennan acknowledged to be a mistake about a key piece of evidence.
Defense witness Dr. Daniel Wolfe, also of ARCCA, was asked by the prosecution if he considered O'Keefe's clothes, specifically holes in the back of his sweatshirt — attempting to make the link that the hole was caused by road rash. But the holes were actually made by a prosecution criminalist cutting them when she was examining the sweatshirt.
"My brief review of the lab paperwork and looking at the hoodie, it appears that I made a mistake," Brennan said.
"What could be more egregious? What could be more misleading?" defense attorney Robert Alessi asked.
Judge Beverly Cannone denied the request.
