Karen Read, trial witness grilled during search

Crime

McCabe denied performing – and deleting – the now-infamous alleged Google search at 2:27 a.m. “I would never have let John O’Keefe die in the cold,” she said.

Witness Jennifer McCabe on Wednesday disputed the 2:27 a.m. timestamp for her now-infamous “Hos long to die in cold” Google search, pushing back against claims she had hypothermia on her mind hours before John O’Keefe be found unconscious in the snow. .

McCabe’s Google searches played a central role in Karen Read’s third-party defense, as the Mansfield woman’s lawyers seek to blame others for the murder of O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years.

Read, 44, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence and fleeing the scene of a collision causing injury and the death. Prosecutors say she drunkenly — and intentionally — backed her SUV into O’Keefe as she was dropping him off at a home in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

However, Read’s lawyers say she has been accused of a widespread cover-up. They allege that O’Keefe walked into a social gathering at 34 Fairview Road that night and was beaten, attacked by the family’s pet dog and left outside in a snowstorm.

McCabe, they claim, was involved in the plot.

She previously testified that she was drinking at a bar with family and friends on January 28, 2022, when Read and O’Keefe arrived and joined the group. At the end of the outing, McCabe’s sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, extended an open invitation to their home at 34 Fairview Road.

McCabe, who attended the afterparty, denied seeing O’Keefe enter the house that night.

As his cross-examination continued Wednesday morning, defense attorney Alan Jackson pointed to McCabe’s cellphone data, indicating that she did several Google searches when she returned home shortly after 2 a.m. on the 29th. McCabe confirmed that she had Googled a basketball team that her daughter had been invited to.

When asked why she didn’t wait until later in the morning to do her research, she explained that she had been texting during a group chat about basketball and that “basketball -ball was clearly on my mind.”

“Did you have anything else on your mind at this early hour?” » asked Jackson.

“I don’t believe it,” McCabe replied.

Jackson asked her if she had also done research on how long it would take someone to die from exposure to extreme temperatures.

“I did it in the morning, at the request of your client,” McCabe said.

“And what expression did you use?” » » Jackson asked.

“I’m not sure,” McCabe said.

“Really?” » Jackson asked skeptically.

McCabe, Read and a third woman, Kerry Roberts, went looking for O’Keefe on January 29, 2022 and found him outside 34 Fairview Road around 6 a.m. McCabe previously testified that Read asked him to “Google hypothermia.” Google how long it takes to die in the cold” after discovering O’Keefe’s body. On Wednesday, she said she didn’t remember exactly what she typed that morning.

“How about this: ‘He can’t wait to freeze to death,'” Jackson suggested. “Does that sound familiar?” »

“Yes, it’s everywhere,” McCabe said.

“Why does this sound so familiar?” » » Jackson asked.

“Because you put it out on social media,” McCabe said.

“Well, I haven’t posted anything on social media, because I don’t personally have social media,” Jackson responded.

“I’m sorry, Turtleboy did it,” McCabe corrected, referring to blogger Aidan Kearney, who faces several charges of witness intimidation in connection with his coverage of the Read case.

Jackson showed McCabe the data from her cell phone extraction, indicating that she had made several searches on both “how long to freeze to death” and “how long to freeze to death.”

“Why these two searches? ” He asked.

“She (Read) was standing next to me, screaming and shaking my hand,” McCabe said. “My hand was cold. I was trying to google it. Obviously, maybe what came first didn’t make sense because I had a few spelling mistakes, so I started again.

Jackson pointed to the timestamp of 2:27 a.m. for his first “hos long” search. Similar searches were timestamped later, at 6:23 a.m. and 6:24 a.m.

“MS. McCabe, you did this search at 2:27 a.m. because you knew John O’Keefe was out on your sister’s lawn, freezing to death, correct? He asked.

“Absolutely not,” McCabe replied. “I didn’t do that research at that time, no.”

Jackson continued the third degree: “Ms. McCabe, you realized the next morning, after John’s discovery, after 6 a.m., that you had been the subject of an incriminating search on your phone, is not isn’t it?

“Absolutely not,” she replied.

“To cover your tracks, you did a new search to overwrite the original search at 2:27, correct?” asked Jackson, who suggested that McCabe failed to replicate her search at 2:27 the first time, so she searched again.

“Again, absolutely not,” McCabe said. She also denied suppressing the alleged 2:27 a.m. search, although Jackson showed jurors a phone extraction report indicating otherwise.

“Did you delete this search because you knew you would be involved in the death of John O’Keefe if this search was found on your phone?” He asked.

“I did not delete that research,” McCabe maintained, adding, “I would never have let John O’Keefe die in the cold, because he was my friend that I loved.”

She also testified that she wouldn’t even know how to delete a search from her phone.

During redirect questioning, McCabe told Assistant Prosecutor Adam Lally that she left an Internet tab open after completing her basketball-related Google searches earlier on the 29th.

“I would always leave my tabs open and my kids would yell at me,” she added.

McCabe further testified that she used the same tab later that morning, when Read frantically asked her to check for hypothermia.