Jurors are hearing more testimony from key witnesses Thursday in the murder trial of Karen Read.
Matthew McCabe, who was present at the Canton, Massachusetts, home hours before John O'Keefe's body was found outside, was on the stand.
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Earlier, the Albert family remained in the hot seat. Colin Albert — a nephew of Brian Albert, the man who owned the Fairview Road home — was the first witness to take the stand.
Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston's YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.
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This after an eventful day of court where seven witnesses took the stand Wednesday. And for the first time in this trial, forensic evidence was introduced believed to have been retrieved from a shirt at the crime scene.
We also, for the first time, heard from two people who said they saw a man and woman inside a black SUV at the Canton home on the morning of the incident.
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O'Keefe, her boyfriend. He was found in the snow outside retired Brian Albert's home in Canton. Prosecutors say Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, while Read says she has been framed in a wide-ranging coverup, claiming the Albert family and the state's lead investigator, a family friend, put the blame on Read.
Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
With Colin Albert taking the stand again Thursday, text messages he sent and received on the night in question were the focus. The defense believes his whereabouts the night in question are key to their case.
Judge denies defense motion to strike Allison McCabe's emotional testimony
Before the jury entered the courtroom on Thursday, defense attorney David Yannetti formally renewed his objection to the alleged harassment of witnesses that came up during Wednesday's testimony by Allison McCabe.
While being questioned by Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally on Wednesday, McCabe spoke about some of the harassment she and her family have faced in connection with the Read case and became emotional, with her eyes filling up with tears.
"I'm not only renewing my objection to the alleged harassment that came in yesterday," Yannetti said. "I'm asking to strike that testimony and I'm asking the court to instruct the jury to disregard that evidence. It is our view that we didn't even come close to opening the door to that evidence."
"I stayed completely clear of any harassment whatsoever," he said. "I opened no door, I didn't even approach the door."
"It led to a moment I believe Mr. Lally was waiting for, which is for a witness to break down on the stand and feel sorry for them to gain sympathy from the jury. It was prejudicial to our client, prejudicial to our defense. It is an error, and we're asking the court to correct it."
Lally, however, argued that Yannetti "absolutely opened the door" with his line of questioning, and for that reason he believes his question was proper.
Judge Beverly Cannone sided with Lally, denying the motion and saying she disagreed with Yannetti "in the strongest way possible."
Colin Albert is cross-examined by defense about text messages
Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his cross-examination of Colin Albert on Thursday by asking Albert if he spoke with anyone to prepare for his testimony, including his parents. But Albert said he only spoke with his attorney.
Albert did say he spoke with Lally about a month ago in order to prepare for his testimony. He said they discussed questions that might be asked in court.
Albert was also asked if he had watched any coverage of the Read trial on television or social media. Albert said he had not, and said he doesn't even have social media.
He also denied talking to his friend Allison McCabe before her testimony.
In response to a series of questions from Jackson about trial preparations, Colin Albert seemed to have trouble remembering recent events, responding with a steady string of "I don't remembers" and "I don't knows."
Jackson asked him about a series of text exchanges between Albert and McCabe that were shown in court Wednesday. His memory on when he had seen those texts before also seemed fuzzy.
The defense attorney pointed out how odd it was that Albert could remember the exact minute he left his uncle's house on Fairview Road on the night before O'Keefe's death, but he has trouble remembering so many other things.
"Who's Courtney Proctor?" Jackson then asked, referencing the sister of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Read case who is now the subject of an internal investigation.
"My aunt Jillian she's friendly with. I know that they're pretty friendly," Colin Albert said.
He said he has been to Courtney Proctor's home four or five times over the years. Asked if her family is close to his family, he replied, "Not that close. I'd say we were more close when I was younger, not when I was older."
Jackson then showed Albert a photo taken sometime within the past 10 years, showing that Albert was the ring bearer in Courtney Proctor's wedding.
"You were actually close enough to be a member of her wedding party when she was married to her now husband, correct?" Jackson asked.
"When I was younger, correct," Albert replied.
Albert confirmed that Michael Proctor is Courtney's brother, and also that Michael Proctor was in the same photo and was part of the same wedding party.
Asked how long he has known Michael Proctor, Albert said, "Since I was a little kid" and acknowledged that he considers the Proctor family close to his family.
Albert said he was never interviewed by Canton police about the Read case, and was interviewed once by state police in the summer of 2023, about a year and a half after O'Keefe's death. He said Michael Proctor and another trooper conducted the interview at the Norfolk District Attorney's Office.
He said he couldn't recall how long the interview lasted, but was shown previous testimony he had given saying it lasted 10 minutes.
"What was the tone of that interview? Was it hostile and accusatory?" Jackson asked.
"Not that I remember, no," Albert said.
"He was friendly, cordial. And the interview was comfortable," Jackson said.
"Correct," Albert replied.
Albert also testified that Michael Proctor never took his phone or asked to see it.
Jackson then shifted gears and asked about the text exchange with Allison McCabe that was shown in court Wednesday. Albert acknowledged that McCabe is not only a family member but also a close friend.
Albert confirmed that when he communicated with McCabe, it was usually via text message.
Jackson displayed the text message exchange between Albert and McCabe, showing that there was almost a month gap in text messages between them following O'Keefe's death, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 20, 2022.
"Notwithstanding the fact of this tragedy, you and Allie didn't text each other one time for a month?" Jackson asked.
"I don't think that's correct," Albert replied.
"So where are all of the texts?" Jackson asked.
"We text on other platforms too," Albert said
Jackson then asked why they would have switched from text messages to another platform, like Snapchat.
"No reason," Albert replied. "We go back and forth between platforms."
"Do you know that Snapchat has an autodelete function?" Jackson asked him.
"If your app is set to that," Albert replied, but added that he couldn't remember if his app was set to that function.
"Isn't it true, Mr. Albert, that you either switched platforms or deleted texts because you didn't want your text communications with Allie McCabe to be discovered?" Jackson asked. "Is that right?"
"That's not true," Albert said.
"So where are those communications?" Jackson asked.
"I do not know," Albert said.
Jackson next asked Albert about a night on Feb. 26, 2022, less than a month after O'Keefe's death, when Albert and some friends were at a bar called Fenway Johnnies in Boston. He submitted a photo into evidence showing Albert with his arm around two friends. Jackson asked about Albert's right hand, and what he noticed.
"It's cut up," Albert said.
The photo was taken by a staff member at Fenway Johnnies and later posted on social media, Albert acknowledged.
"How'd you get those injuries?" Jackson asked.
"I was at a house party my senior year," Albert said. "I remember it being icy out. It was kind of like a steep hill of a driveway, and I was walking up the driveway and I slipped, tried to brace myself with my right hand and ended up sliding a little bit down the driveway."
Jackson then asked if Albert had ever been in a fight.
"Other than with my brothers, no," Albert said.
Jackson also asked Albert if he has ever boxed, and Albert said no, other than to "hit the bag for cardio."
Defense introduces videos of Colin Albert
Just before 10:30, following a sidebar with the judge, the jurors were sent out of the courtroom for their morning break.
During the break, with the jury out of court, Albert was shown two videos of himself making comments during his sophomore year of high school, threatening violence and using expletives. The second video ends with Albert saying, "Bang bang!"
"You indicated, 'You're a b****, bro.' Right?" Jackson asked.
Albert replied that he did.
"Was that a threat?" Jackson asked.
"Yes," Albert said.
"And then you said, 'KO, bang bang!' Right?" the attorney asked.
Albert said he did, and that "KO" means "knockout."
The witness said the videos were taken years before O'Keefe's death, and that they were sent to members of an area club hockey team known as the "Advantage Boys."
Albert explained to Jackson that he was making threats and threatening violence to an area club hockey team known as the "Advantage Boys." He said they sent him and his friends texts, and they responded with the videos.
"It was the girls in our friends group, a couple of the girls in our friend group, like, hung out with them a few times, so like, all my guy friends got a little salty about it, so that's why we kind of sent videos back and forth," Albert testified.
"The fact is, Mr. Albert, you do like to fight, right?" Jackson asked.
"Nope," Albert replied.
Jackson also asked Albert about another occasion when he testified in July of 2023 and was observed to have open injuries on his knuckles again. Albert said he told them he had gotten the injury while hitting a heavy bag.
Under questioning from Lally, Albert said he never threatened O'Keefe or had an exchange with him similar to what was in the videos.
Jackson also drew attention to previous testimony from Albert where he said the videos were shot in his junior or senior year of high school, and not his sophomore year. Albert was a senior in high school the year that O'Keefe died.
Albert was then led out of the courtroom so the defense and prosecution could present their cases to the judge about whether the videos should be allowed into the case.
"Your honor, it's very clear that these videos are highly, highly relevant," Jackson argued. "He indicated he's never been in a fight, he doesn't have any violent tendencies, violent proclivities."
He added that Lally opened the door for the videos to be let in by showing various photos of Albert with his family members.
"This should be a focus of the jurors' attention in terms of, 'Is there a third party who could have done this, that evidence points to that may have done this?'" Jackson said. "This evidence we now have is focused in that direction."
Lally countered by saying that there is no evidence that Albert was at the house on Fairview Road at the same time as O'Keefe or that there was any sort of fight.
"This is nothing more than rank speculation," he said. "There's no relevance whatsoever to this case. Whatever juvenile beef he and his friends had with individuals from another town, there's no evidence whatsoever of a physical altercation."
Cannone took a 15-minute recess around 10:50 a.m., and said she would return afterward with her decision.
Videos shown as Albert's testimony concludes
When court resumed, Jackson pressed Albert about the videos again, this time in front of the jury, confirming that Albert meant what he said in the videoes as a threat.
"These are threats of physical violence right?" Jackson said.
"Correct," Albert replied.
Jackson brought up the second time Albert gave testimony with injuries to his knuckles.
"It was me getting cardio," Albert explained, adding, when pressed by Jackson, that it was a form of fighting.
That concluded the defense's cross-examination, and Lally returned for follow-up questions. He confirmed that Allison McCabe is not Albert's cousin, that he and Albert didn't discuss instructions for the trial and how many times Albert had seen Michael Proctor in his life.
"Maybe five, six times," Albert said, adding that, until their police interview in the Read case, he hadn't seen him since he was 11, 12 or 13 years old.
Albert also said he didn't have any memory of the wedding which he served as a ringbearer, for which he was eight or nine years old.
Lally asked about some other testimony, including the videos that were played in court, which Albert said were to people he didn't know.
"Was this just you sending out videos or was this some sort of argument going back and forth?" Lally asked.
Albert siad it was an argument about girls, friends of his who'd spent some time with the other boys, from a hockey team.
Lally also confirmed with Albert that he hadn't ever gotten into a conflict with O'Keefe and that he never saw O'Keefe that night.
He also asked Albert about the harassment his family received since the controversy around the case erupted. Albert said his family has been called murderers, with people showing up at sports games.
"We couldn't leave the house without people taking pictures of us, and it's very terrible," Albert said.
Matthew McCabe testifies
McCabe was next called to the stand. The longtime Canton resident described his memory of the night, as well as his family's relationship with O'Keefe and Read.
The McCabes and O'Keefe had been neighbors, and O'Keefe consulted with McCabe's wife, Jennifer, as he raised his niece and nephew.
O'Keefe was "in essence acting as a mother and a father so he would do a lot of communicating with my wife about needing help," McCabe recalled.
The adults were friendly, too, and O'Keefe reached out in the summer of 2020, wanting to introduce his new girlfriend, Read, to the McCabes since both Jennifer and Read have muscular dystrophy, or MS.
"He thought it would be good for the two of them to get to know each other, have conversations with each other," Albert said.
McCabe recalled the first gathering involving the group that night, at the Waterfall Bar & Grille, which several other witnesses in the trial have testified about.
He arrived around 9 p.m. and didn't think anyone was overly drunk that night, when he had several drinks himself. He recalled speaking with Read, her saying something to the effect of "How do you do it?" about the McCabes raising four girls.
McCabe replied, jokingly, "Well, we're at a bar."
They left around midnight, McCabe recalled, with some talk in the group about going to D&E Pizza, which is owned by the Albert family. Read was among the group that wanted to go, but McCabe and Chris Albert — Brian's brother — were adamant that they didn't want to go, because they were dieting together.
The group traveled to the Albert house on Fairview Road, where McCabe recalled arriving at 12:30 and leaving around 1:40 or 1:45 a.m. He said there was no tension among those at the house. They were "having a good time, hanging out, talking."
At one point, his wife played "a foolish video that she wanted to show the kids," for the song "It's Raining Men," which involves an inside joke in the family and was a way of picking on McCabe's sister-in-law, Nicole Albert, who owned the house.
Neither Colin Albert nor Allison McCabe, his oldest daughter, were there when he was, he testified.
McCabe described seeing a dark SUV three times outside the house over a span of 12-15 minutes, starting not long after he arrived. He assumed it was O'Keefe and Read.
The second time he saw the SUV, it had moved up the road, and said he thought it was weird. When he looked again later, the SUV was further away, and recalled thinking, "What the hell are they doing?"
There was snow on the road by that point, and McCabe later noticed "tire marks" that he characterized as "a weird wave in the road." He said he assumed they came from the SUV but didn't know.
After the vehicle made the appearance, McCabe's wife tried to communicate with O'Keefe but didn't get an answer.
When the McCabes left the Alberts' house that night, they drove home two younger kids who were also at the gathering, then went to bed.
Lally asked what McCabe remembered from the morning of the 29th.
"I woke up to screams in my bedroom," McCabe said, in what ended up being the last testimony of the day.
For a look back at Wednesday's testimony, watch last night's "Canton Confidential" special below:
