When the third episode of “A Body in the Snow” gets underway, Karen Read’s defense is in full swing preparing for her forthcoming trial.
The third and fourth episodes of the docuseries aired Tuesday night, providing a glimpse at how Read’s defense built its theory that she is being framed for the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe.
The episodes feature glimpses of Read and her lawyers planning their strategy both before her first trial started and then during the trial, aided by clips of witness testimony.
Here’s what we learned.
Read’s claims of a coverup
As she does throughout the series, Read denies hitting O’Keefe with her car, as prosecutors have said she did. She tells the camera that despite her heavy drinking that night she doesn’t “black out.”
“I have no memory of a 200-pound man hitting my car,” she says, adding there is “no part of me that thinks I hit John.”
It is only when Read saw Ring camera footage from O’Keefe’s home that she realized what may have happened to her right rear taillight, pieces of which were found at the scene of O’Keefe’s death. The footage shows Read’s SUV hitting O’Keefe’s as she leaves his house on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022 in search of him.
Read’s lawyers have seized on that video to further their claim she is being framed, as they explain in the series. They have accused the lead investigator, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, of smashing the taillight and planting pieces of it at the scene.
The “broken taillight created an opportunity they took advantage of,” Read attorney David Yannetti says.
Another lawyer for Read, Alan Jackson, says Proctor knew the family that owned the home O’Keefe was found outside of, and had for decades.
The “police culture there [in Canton] is deeply, deeply connected,” Jackson says.
Later, Read describes Brian Albert, who owned the home on Fairview Road where O’Keefe was found in 2022, as the “don.”
“Albert was in charge of that family, that crew,” Jackson says. “He was the brains.”
“If anyone’s going to know how to cover up a crime, it’s Brian Albert,” adds Yannetti.
What actually happened to O’Keefe, according to Read’s lawyers
Toward the end of the third episode, Read’s lawyers lay out what they believe actually happened to O’Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022.
Jackson tells the camera Read and her lawyers believe O’Keefe exited her car and walked into 34 Fairview Road. (Prosecution witnesses testified he never did during Read’s first trial).
Once inside the home, they believe O’Keefe was “confronted” before going down to the basement where words were exchanged and “punches flew,” Jackson says.
“Whoever killed him likely didn’t intend to,” Yannetti says. “We believe they just went too far.”
But Brendan Kane, a longtime friend of O’Keefe’s, rejects that theory.
“Why would you put Johnny’s body on your front lawn?” he says, adding that the Alberts have a set of train tracks behind their home that would have been a more likely place to intentionally leave a body. “Nothing points to anyone other than Karen.”
Read during the trial
Kane criticizes Read for not showing a “modicum of sadness or loss” during the trial.
It’s “quite unprofessional the way they all carried on while John’s family has to watch that,” adds Tara Kerrigan, an ex-girlfriend of O’Keefe’s.
But viewers see that Read’s behavior during the trial, during which she largely sat stoically, was intentional.
“If she’s too stoic, then she’s uncaring,” Jackson says. “If she smiles, then she’s not taking it seriously enough.”
“I also don’t want to look b****y,” Read adds.
She acknowledges the difficulty of the trial for O’Keefe’s family, saying, “I’m sure [they] hate every part of this.”
But “I’ve done nothing wrong,” she says.
She also speaks to how difficult the trial was for her, saying she wakes up nervous and anxious each day.
“I like being in control,” Read says, adding, “I want to scream at that judge: is this a game?”
The series finale airs Wednesday night.
