By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Canton paramedic Jason Becker told prosecutor Hank Brennan he didn’t ask for more details about Read’s argument with O’Keefe.

“At the time, as we went about the call, we didn’t think we would be witnesses in a murder trial,” Becker said. “We were there to support Karen” and get her to the hospital safely.

Jackson on re-cross also reiterated that Read showed Becker the missed calls she had placed to O’Keefe.

“She tried to,” Becker said. “I wasn’t going to look through her phone. I don’t know who she called.”

Cannone sent jurors home for the day after Becker stepped down shortly before 1 p.m. She then called the lawyers to a sidebar.

Testimony resumes Monday.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Prosecutor Hank Brennan handed paramedic Jason Becker a transcript of his prior testimony and had him read aloud a portion where he said “she was upset also, because she said, they had, you know, the last time they had talked, she had gotten into an argument. So she was upset that that was, like, her last words to him.”

Judge Beverly Cannone sustained a defense objection when Brennan asked if Becker, when testifying previously, believed the conversation she was describing “was about a voicemail.”

She then called both sides to a sidebar.

After the sidebar, Becker told Brennan he noted the argument in his report but made no mention of Read indicating her last words were by voicemail.

The defense has said the angry voicemails Read left on O’Keefe’s phone after dropping him off indicate that she had no idea he was in distress, which, they contend, tracks with their theory that she did not strike him with her SUV.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Following the sidebar, Canton paramedic Jason Becker told Read lawyer Alan Jackson he doesn’t “recall” previously saying that Read had indicated she and O’Keefe argued earlier in the night.

Jackson showed him a transcript of his prior testimony, and Becker confirmed he had specified that time frame.

Becker said he didn’t ask Read what her last words to O’Keefe were.

He said Read also “tried to” show him several missed calls to O’Keefe on her phone at the scene.

Becker told prosecutor Hank Brennan on redirect examination that Read did not specify that her last words came in a voicemail.

Read left multiple angry voicemails on O’Keefe’s phone after dropping him off at the Canton home and leaving.

Becker said Read didn’t specify the time earlier in the night when the argument occurred.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jason Becker told Read attorney Alan Jackson that he saw Read and another woman in the SUV when he first approached. He said he later learned that woman was Kerry Roberts.

“She had some blood, blood around her mouth, her neck area,” Becker said of Read. “She had said that she had given CPR to her husband.”

Becker told Jackson that Read’s speaking cadence “fluctuated” at the scene, at times becoming more rapid and repetitive.

Jackson asked if Read was “showing signs consistent of having gone through a trauma at the time,” and Becker said yes.

He said she was cooperative “for the majority of the transport” to the hospital.

Jackson also asked Becker if he had testified before a grand jury that Read was upset about her “last words to him.”

Prosecutors objected, and both sides were called to a sidebar.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Paramedic Jason Becker said he responded to a call for a Section 12, or a patient who needed a psychiatric evaluation, at the Fairview Road crime scene.

He said it was “windy” with “low visibility” amid the heavy snowfall at the time.

Becker said he approached Read who was sitting in an SUV with another woman. He said he spoke to Read for five to eight minutes before they moved to the ambulance.

En route to the hospital, Becker said, he asked Read “triage questions” to determine her needs.

“I asked her if she was suicidal,” Becker said. “We just knew that Ms. Read had found her husband ... dead on the side of the road.”

Read and O’Keefe were not married, but Read had described him that morning as her husband.

Becker said Read told him that she and O’Keefe had argued the last time she spoke to him. She did not say what prompted the argument, Becker said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

After Faller stepped down, prosecutors called Canton Firefighter-Paramedic Jason Becker to the stand.

Becker had responded to the crime scene for the psychiatric call indicating Read needed hospitalization for suicidal thoughts, according to previous testimony.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Dr. Garrey T. Faller, former lab director at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, walked jurors through the process of testing someone’s blood for alcohol.

Faller said hospital personnel do not use alcohol swabs when drawing blood for the testing, to avoid false positive readings.

He said blood draws are done by trained professionals known as phlebotomists.

Once the blood’s drawn, Faller said, it’s sent to the hospital lab.

Dr. Garrey Faller reviews the medical record of defendant Karen Read as he testified during her trial, Friday, April 25, 2025, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Josh Reynolds/Associated Press

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jurors returned from the visit to the crime scene around 11 a.m. and began hearing testimony.

The first witness to take the stand was a former lab director at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where Read and O’Keefe were both taken on the morning of his death.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Read attorney David Yannetti also briefly addressed jurors in the courthouse after Brennan spoke.

Yannetti, who informed the jury he has offices in Boston and Dedham, perhaps to counter any perception that Read’s defense team is made up entirely of out-of-state litigators, told jurors the view would serve as an invaluable resource.

“There is no substitute for your own two eyes,” Yannetti said, placing emphasis on the final three words. “As we all know, the photos and videos sometimes can be misleading in terms of relative distances, depending upon the perspective from which the photo is taken. But your eyes are the best computer that you could bring to the view.”

Like Brennan, Yannetti also previewed what he’ll ask jurors to focus on.

“The house, second-floor window to that house, the three front doors in the front of the house, the driveway, the street, the front lawn, and flagpole,” Yannetti said. “And we’ll be asking you specifically to consider the distance between that second-floor front window and the front lawn,” and the distance of the front doors from the lawn.

He said jurors should also take a good look at Read’s Lexus.

“To stand next to it, to size it up, to take it in,” Yannetti said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

After Judge Beverly Cannone delivered her instructions, prosecutor Hank Brennan offered some directions as well.

“I ask you to pay attention to the street, the front yard of the home,” Brennan said. “And you’ll see to the left side of the front yard in the corner, there will be a car,” the Lexus SUV that Read was driving when she allegedly struck O’Keefe.

“And you’ll also see a flagpole and a fire hydrant,” Brennan said.

He told jurors he wants them to view the scene from different vantage points.

“Take a look from that area where the flagpole is, from where the fire hydrant is,” Brennan said.

He noted that the weather and visibility will be “very different” Friday morning than they were during the predawn hours of Jan. 29, 2022, when O’Keefe’s body was found on the front lawn in the dark in a blizzard.

Read’s lawyers have stressed that no one who left the home early on Jan. 29 reported seeing O’Keefe’s body on the lawn, although a witness at the first trial testified to seeing some type of “blob,” and they plan to call a plow driver who will testify that he saw nothing when he drove his vehicle past the home a couple hours after O’Keefe was allegedly struck.

”I’d ask you to make a note on the Lexus about the height of the bumper," Brennan said. “I’d ask you to make note of the height of the right rear taillight.”O’Keefe had injuries to his face and skull, as well as scratches on his arm, but no broken bones or fractures or any other injuries to his lower body, according to court records and prior testimony.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Judge Beverly J. Cannone told jurors in Norfolk Superior Court on Friday to refrain from discussing the case while they visit the crime scene on Fairview Road in Canton.

“The purpose of the view is to help you better understand the evidence which you’ll hear during the course of the trial, and to help you appreciate the location and its surroundings,” Cannone said from the bench.

She jurors can use the observations they make during the view of 34 Fairview Road, where O’Keefe’s body was found on the front lawn near the road, when they deliberate.

Cannone said prosecutor Hank Brennan and Read attorney David Yannetti will each point out things to observe during the view.

“Otherwise there’s no conversation between the lawyers and the jurors,” Cannone said. “You’re not to take any notes. You’re not to take any pictures. You’re not to conduct any independent investigation at all, during the view or anytime during the trial. You’re not to return to the scene or ask anybody to go back there for you.”

Friday’s view, Cannone continued, “is your chance – you’ll see photographs during the course of the trial, I bet – but today is your chance to really look at everything.”

She said the “best way to summarize a view is that your job is to simply stop and look. It’s really no more complicated than that. So your responsibility is to see the place, observe it carefully, and to remember what you see. ... You’re not to discuss this case or anything about it with the other jurors.”

Court officers will accompany everyone, Cannone said.“You’ll be under their supervision until you’re returned back here,” Cannone said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jurors in Karen Read’s retrial on Friday will visit the Canton home where O’Keefe’s body was found on the lawn near the road.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone told jurors in Norfolk Superior Court on Thursday to wear comfortable clothes, since they’ll be walking around a bit.

Testimony will resume after the visit, which won’t be livestreamed. Cannone has issued an order barring reporters from filming jurors, and it also compels the press to stay at least 100 yards away from them.

Judge Beverly Cannone addressed the jury during the Karen Read trial on Thursday. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Jurors in Karen Read’s retrial on Thursday heard a State Police trooper read the flurry of text messages she exchanged with her boyfriend in the hours before she allegedly backed into him with her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage.

Prosecutors say Read’s relationship with O’Keefe was strained at the time of his death, and the tense, at times angry text messages introduced Thursday were meant to bolster that assertion.

Mass. State Police detective Nicholas Guarino reviewed cellular phone logs while testifying during the Karen Read trial on Thursday. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Here’s a transcript of the texts.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.