Jurors in the high-profile case of glamorous murder suspect Karen Read, accused of killing her policeman boyfriend, have deadlocked.
The jury sent a note to the judge on Friday saying they “cannot reach a unanimous verdict” without four full days of deliberations.
But Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone ordered the jurors, consisting of six men and six women, to reach a verdict because they had not given enough time.
Read, a 44-year-old financial analyst and university professor, is accused of drunkenly running over her boyfriend John O’Keefe after an argument.
Throughout the trial he has attracted attention with his attention-seeking behavior in court, eating snacks and winking at the cameras.
Read faces life in prison for the alleged murder of her boyfriend and has raised eyebrows with some of her behavior during the trial.
Read faces murder charges in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, police officer John O’Keefe, who prosecutors say was run over by Read in his car after a night of drinking.
Cannone told jurors to eat lunch and take a breather before returning to work.
‘We all know how hard you’ve been working. Lunch will arrive shortly. When the time comes I would ask you to clear your head, have lunch and begin your deliberations again,” the judge said, according to cnn.
Read faces life in prison for the murder of O’Keefe, who was found dead outside a friend’s home in January 2022.
Prosecutors allege Read ran him over with her car after a drunken argument when she dropped him off at her house for an after-party. They claim to have found pieces of the taillight of her car around the man’s body.
He is alleged to have run over O’Keefe while intoxicated after a drunken argument.
She had spent the night drinking with her boyfriend and a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton, about 14 miles south of Boston, and the group was invited to her friend Brian Albert’s house for an afterparty.
Read, who prosecutors say had consumed several alcoholic beverages earlier, decided to drop O’Keefe off at the after-party before heading home (which he shared with his orphaned niece and nephew) to sleep around 1 a.m.
Court documents revealed the pair had been arguing heatedly for weeks before the incident. On the night O’Keefe died, Read left him a voicemail in which she called him a “fucking loser” and added: “John, I hate you.”
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O’Keefe’s death. He had worked for the Boston Police Department for 16 years.
Read has long denied having any involvement in O’Keefe’s death in January 2022. Instead, she claims the police are framing her in a vast conspiracy.
She said earlier this week that she is willing to testify and would love to prove her case herself.
Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone on Wednesday criticized Read’s courtroom antics during a discussion with his attorney over the verdict handed down to jurors.
Prosecutors allege that Read hit O’Keefe with his car after an argument, while she maintains she was framed by partygoers and members of the Boston Police Department.
As her trial began, Read received an outpouring of support from true crime fans and locals who camped outside the courthouse with signs reading “Free Karen Read.”
Jurors are expected to decide whether Read is guilty of second-degree murder, which in Massachusetts is punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole, Yahoo News reported.
Read also faces lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years, according to the news outlet.
Since Tuesday afternoon, they have been deliberating over the case, including a police cover-up, allegations of inappropriate conduct and sexist text messages from a lead investigator.
In the jury’s note to Judge Cannone that was sent shortly after noon Friday, the prosecution and defense asked him to consider different outcomes in his decision about what to tell the jury.
“It’s too early in their deliberative process to even consider giving them some type of Tuey-Rodriguez instruction or anything like that,” said Norfolk County Deputy Prosecutor Adam Lally.
In the state of Massachusetts, when juries cannot agree on a verdict, a special model called Tuey-Rodriguez is followed.
Read has come under scrutiny for a perceived flippant attitude in court, including winking at the cameras and popping speech bubbles during the proceedings.
Read and O’Keefe had been drinking on the night of his death, before she took him to an after-party while she went home to sleep. He was found dead on the lawn of the after-party house hours later.
“The note doesn’t really affirmatively state that they can’t come to a conclusion, it just says that they haven’t come to a conclusion through their deliberative process at this time.”
Defense attorney David Yanetti argued that the jury should be read the instructions of the Tuey-Rodriguez criminal model, indicating that they would like the court to proceed with having a hung jury, according to cnn.
Read could be seen shaking her head after being confronted by the judge, who bluntly replied: “It’s okay, we’re done.”
Throughout her trial, Read’s claims that she was framed have attracted a number of fans, who are often seen staked outside the courtroom insisting on her innocence.
Many have taken to wearing light pink to show their support, prompting Judge Cannone to issue a ruling at the start of the trial banning such clothing and preventing supporters from coming within 200 feet of the courthouse.