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Here’s a quick primer on some of the key witnesses who’ve testified so far in the high-profile trial.
Here’s how testimony unfolded on Thursday.
11:30 a.m. — State police investigator continues testimony under cross-examination
Defense lawyer Jackson asked investigator Yuri Bukhenik if he had any meetings with Adam Lally, the prosecutor, about his testimony. Bukhenik said they met twice over the past couple of weeks.
”Generally we discussed portions of the case that I would be presenting,” Bukhenik said.
He told Jackson that Lally had shown him portions of video footage from the sally port at Canton police headquarters but he couldn’t recall which parts. Bukhenik said neither he nor fellow investigator Michael Proctor touched Read’s damaged taillight or any part of the vehicle in the sally port before obtaining a search warrant.
Jackson then played video footage of the SUV entering the sally port and Bukhenik said the footage was “inverted,” meaning what appears to be the passenger side in the clip is actually the driver’s side.
That would mean the right taillight isn’t visible in the footage, which at one point shows an officer going to the rear of the vehicle by that light.
The officer lingers by the taillight for a brief period, and Jackson asked if that person is Proctor. Bukhenik said he wasn’t certain. The person is “standing there, hovering around it,” Jackson said.
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”We don’t know the distance that they are in proximity” to the SUV, Bukhenik said.
Jackson noted the footage at one point shows another person moving from the back of the vehicle as the timestamp jumps suddenly. Asked if it appears portions of the video were deleted, Bukhenik said, “I cannot tell what is happening with the video.”
”Everything in this video is completely backwards,” Jackson said.
”It’s not backwards, it’s a mirrored reversal,” Bukhenik said. “You can look at yourself in the mirror in the morning. You can still see your own face.”
Following a sidebar, Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors they will likely begin deliberating “some time the last week in June.” She dismissed jurors for the day shortly before noon. Testimony resumes Monday.
11:05 a.m. — State Police investigator faces tough questioning from defense
Yuri Bukhenik told Read lawyer Alan Jackson that a State Police report dated Nov. 4, 2023, noted the recovery of items from the Fairview lawn in February 2022. On Feb. 4, 2022, he told Jackson, he received a call indicating that Kenneth Berkowitz, the Canton police chief, was at the Fairview scene.
Jackson asked if Bukhenik knew Canton police had recused themselves from the case at that point, and Bukhenik said that was in regard to interviews. Jackson asked if Bukhenik knew at that point that Canton police had recused themselves because Canton detective Kevin Albert is the brother of Brian Albert, who owned the Fairview Road home where John O’Keefe’s body was found outside.
”I knew that that was the connection between them,” Bukhenik said.
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Asked if he knew any involvement by Canton police at that time would compromise “your otherwise clean investigation,” Bukhenik said, “not necessarily.”
Jackson asked if Bukhenik during the Feb. 10 search at Fairview had asked crime scene services to come back out and photograph the new items that were found. Bukhenik said troopers had “collected so much evidence already” so they did not contact the unit for more photographs and “simply collected [the items] for processing.” He said the items collected on Feb. 10 were found in the “same vicinity” of the items found on Feb. 4.
Jackson put a picture of an evidence bag on the monitor indicating Bukhenik had collected six pieces of plastic from 34 Fairview on Feb. 10. He told Jackson the writing on the bag was not his handwriting.
”Are you aware that this particular bag that contains those six items of material that you’ve already indicated was incredibly important to the investigation,” wasn’t logged until March 14, 2022, Jackson asked.
”I was not aware of that, no,” Bukhenik said.
Jackson also asked Bukhenik about Ring video from O’Keefe’s home showing Read’s SUV pulling out of the driveway early on Jan. 29.
“I observed the vehicle come near Mr. O’Keefe’s car” in the footage, Bukhenik said.
The defense has asserted that Read’s taillight was damaged when she struck O’Keefe’s car as she pulled out of the driveway to look for him shortly after 5 a.m. on Jan. 29.
Jackson played the video footage on the monitor, with a close-up frame of the back wheel of O’Keefe’s vehicle appearing to shake slightly as Read’s SUV backs up close to it.
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“It appears that there is movement” of O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV comes near it, Bukhenik said.
He had testified Wednesday that authorities found no damage or debris on or around O’Keefe’s vehicle.
10:50 a.m. — State Police investigator continues testimony under cross-examination
Yuri Bukhenik told Read attorney Alan Jackson “we did not secure the home” on 34 Fairview Road “as a crime scene” on the morning of Jan. 29.
No crime scene analysts “at your direction ever went into” the Fairview home, Jackson said.
”No, they did not,” Bukhenik said.
He told Jackson that O’Keefe’s orange T-shirt and gray sweatshirt were stored and double-bagged in his truck until they could be processed in his office on the night of Jan. 29.
Jackson asked who controlled the items once Bukhenik left and if State Police investigator Michael Proctor had access to them as well. Read’s defense team has focused on Michael Proctor, saying he had a conflict of interest in the case.
Bukhenik said that he did. He said he didn’t know who sealed up the items and placed them into storage at the office.
”But you didn’t personally do that,” Jackson said. ”No, I did not,” Bukhenik said.
He said a bag indicates the clothing was collected by Proctor on Jan. 29. Jackson said writing on the bags suggest that the T-shirt and the sweatshirt were at one point bagged together and then bagged separately.
”That’s what the description is,” Bukhenik said. “I do not know if that was in fact the case.”
Jackson also pointed out that notations on one evidence bag suggested the clothing wasn’t processed until Feb. 4.
“What was happening to these items” between Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, Jackson asked.
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”To the best of my knowledge, those items were drying on the butcher paper,” Bukhenik said.
”For six days?” Jackson asked.
”If that’s what the label marker says, yes,” Bukhenik said. “They were soaking wet.”
10:30 a.m. — State police investigator continues testimony under cross-examination
Yuri Bukhenik told Read attorney Alan Jackson he did not write the search warrant affidavit for the Ring security videos from O’Keefe’s home. Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, wrote up the warrant and received the data, Bukhenik said.
The defense has said Proctor has social ties with witnesses in the case.
“There was no evidence revealed that my client ever logged into that [Ring] account, correct?” Jackson asked.
“There were no activity logs provided by Ring,” Bukhenik said.
Jackson then handed Bukhenik a document that he said includes activity logs from the company.
“That is the first time I saw that document,” Bukhenik said.
He told Jackson “nothing provided by Ring” showed that Read had accessed O’Keefe’s security system.
Bukhenik said he didn’t recall exactly when he learned John O’Keefe was a Boston officer but he “most likely” gleaned that information at some point on Jan. 29.
He said Proctor had been on call from 7 a.m. on Jan. 28 through 7 a.m. on Jan. 29. Bukhenik said he did not go to Fairview Road on Jan. 29.
“My initial understanding was that the defendant stated that she hit him,” Bukhenik said.
Jackson asked Bukhenik if he called the Brockton hospital where O’Keefe was taken to inform medical staff that he believed O’Keefe was “struck in the face with a co*cktail glass.”
“I do not recall contacting” the hospital, Bukhenik said.
Jackson then showed him a document on the witness stand.
“I never spoke to Good Samaritan Hospital,” Bukhenik said.
Jackson asked if Bukhenik said O’Keefe had been wounded due to a “domestic situation,” and he repeated that he never spoke to the hospital.
Bukhenik later clarified that he told someone in the medical examiner’s office at 10:41 a.m. on Jan. 29 that investigators had “suspicions.”
Asked if he indicated that O’Keefe may have been hurt in a “physical altercation,” Bukhenik told Jackson, “That’s correct, yes.”
10 a.m. — State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik continues to testify about evidence found at the crime scene
Bukhenik also identified photos of a glass shard and of O’Keefe’s baseball hat found on the lawn on Feb. 3.
In addition, he identified a picture of a larger red piece of plastic with a black molding found on the lawn.
O’Keefe’s hat was found “compacted underneath the snow” on the ground, he said.
On Feb. 4, Bukhenik said he drove to the scene on his way to work and was told while en route that more items had been discovered.
“Each item that was collected was placed in an evidence paper bag,” Bukhenik said, adding that investigators used latex gloves. “Then those items were transported to our office, logged into the system, and stored in the evidence lockers at the office.”
He said troopers went back to Fairview on Feb. 10, seizing additional glass and plastic shards from the lawn.
“There were six items of clear red and black plastic, and 14 items of plastic and glass,” Bukhenik said.
Lally then handed Bukhenik an evidence box containing some of the items.
Bukhenik removed the black baseball cap and displayed it for the jury.
Bukhenik said O’Keefe’s Ring video system showed no footage of Read leaving his home with another woman on the morning of Jan. 29 to look for him. There was video footage of a man arriving to pick up his daughter around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 28; his daughter had been at the home with O’Keefe’s niece.
On Feb. 3, Bukhenik interviewed Nicole Albert, who lived at 34 Fairview Road with her husband Brian, a Boston police officer, Bukhenik said.
On June 9, he met with Read. That was the day she was indicted on second-degree murder in connection with O’Keefe’s death. Lally played audio from that conversation, which occurred when Read was being booked after the indictment.
Read said that everyone is “in on the same joke” and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten.
”I advised the defendant not to further speak,” Bukhenik said
9:15 a.m. — State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik continues his testimony
Bukhenik returned to the stand Thursday morning, a day after walking jurors through video footage of Read drinking heavily at two Canton bars on the night of O’Keefe’s death, as well as footage of her damaged rear taillight the following day.
On Thursday, Bukhenik said video footage from the bars shows Read having nine drinks. He said Ring camera video at John O’Keefe’s home was missing that would have shown Read’s arrival at his residence after dropping him off on Fairview Road, where his body was later found. He said additional Ring footage from the driveway was missing that would have shown Read pointing out her damaged taillight to two other women who were with her later that morning.
On Feb. 3, 2022, he said that troopers returned to Fairview Road to search for more evidence with the snow melting.
”We were specifically looking for Mr. O’Keefe’s baseball cap,” Bukhenik said. “We requested assistance of the crime scene services section of the Massachusetts State Police.”
Bukhenik said troopers found O’Keefe’s hat, a drinking straw from a co*cktail glass, and pieces of plastic on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road during the search. Bukhenik said Wednesday that O’Keefe was seen leaving the Waterfall bar with a co*cktail glass shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. Witnesses have also said Read had a clear glass in her coat pocket when she first entered the Waterfall from McCarthy’s, the first bar she and O’Keefe went to.
On Thursday, he identified photos of the items troopers found on the lawn. Prosecutor Adam Lally displayed the photos on the monitor.
”The items photographed were discovered ... [and] then photographed instantly,” Bukhenik said.
Bukhenik pointed out red and clear pieces of plastic in the photos as Lally displayed them on the monitor. He identified additional photos of a black co*cktail drinking straw as well as pieces of apparent “molding from a taillight” found on the lawn on Feb. 3.
The straw was found on the road close to the curb, according to the photo displayed. Another red piece of plastic was found on the lawn “by the road,” Bukhenik said. He identified additional photos of “small red pieces of plastic” and a “flimsy piece of circular ... clear plastic” found on the lawn.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.
