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Confusion erupts in Karen Read murder trial as jurors backtrack on verdict announcement
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There was confusion surrounding a potential verdict in the Karen Read murder trial Wednesday, according to Judge Beverly Cannone, who called the sides back around 2 p.m. only to tell them jurors had backtracked.
“I received word from a court officer that the jury had knocked on the door, indicating that they had a verdict,” Cannone said in court. “But before I could even summon everybody into court…shortly thereafter, they knocked again and said they didn’t have a verdict.”
She sealed the unseen verdict slip and entered it into evidence without anyone other than the jurors having seen it.
KAREN READ JURY QUESTIONS SUGGEST SAME LEGAL DILEMMA AS LAST YEAR’S MISTRIAL
WATCH: Judge Cannone explains confusion in court over potential Karen Read verdict
“So we do not have a verdict, because as we all know, there is no verdict until it is announced and recorded in open court,” she said. “So we are still awaiting a verdict.”
She asked everyone to remain in the courthouse for the rest of the day.
Karen Read signs to supporters as she leaves Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
Read, 45, is accused of killing boyfriend John O’Keefe, 46, in a drunken hit-and-run Jan. 29, 2022, outside a party in Canton, Massachusetts.
Were Karen Read’s unorthodox media interviews a next-level strategic move from her defense?
Maybe, according to one Massachusetts legal expert following the case.
After her first trial, which ended with a deadlocked jury last year, she sat down with multiple reporters to tell her side of the story, a move many legal experts have called ill-advised. But it may have a payoff because jurors appear focused on a lesser charge that she may have admitted to on video.
Karen Read signs to supporters while exiting Norfolk Superior Court for lunch Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
“She was ‘testifying’ when she made those statements, knowing they could be used in court,” said Grace Edwards, a criminal defense trial attorney. “Crazy as it seems, this may have been a strategy to give the jury something to hang their hat on and find her guilty of the OUI and get this done.”
She was referring to the charge of operating under the influence, a topic jurors asked multiple questions about Tuesday during the third day of deliberations after more than 30 days of trial testimony.
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WATCH: Prosecution in Karen Read trial uses Read’s own words to dismantle defense’s theory
“That’s an interesting theory – fall on the sword for the OUI to spare her the more serious offenses,” said Randolph Rice, the Maryland legal analyst and attorney who represents the family of slain mother of five Rachel Morin. “That would be a risky play for the defense.”
Read the amended verdict slip for Count 2:
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Still, he said, the common thinking is that defendants should avoid speaking to the media.
“I’m sure the Karen Read camp is feeling good right now,” he added. “Cautious optimism.”
Read the original verdict slip:
The top charge against Read, second-degree murder, could land her a life prison sentence if she’s convicted. Lesser charges include drunken driving, manslaughter and leaving a deadly accident.
WATCH: Karen Read recounts night of drinking at local bar in 2024 television interview
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The manslaughter charge also includes additional lesser charges that jurors could find her guilty of, including operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor, which carries a much lighter sentence and doesn’t include the homicide charge.
Read did not take the stand in her own defense but spoke to reporters outside court almost every day. After her mistrial last year, she sat for numerous news and documentary interviews and even invited a magazine writer to stay at her house for a weekend.
Murder defendant Karen Read speaks with reporters after leaving the courthouse in Dedham, Mass., June 6, 2025. (Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
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Special prosecutor Hank Brennan subpoenaed the unedited source material from reporters and played a handful of clips in court in front of the jury.
In one, which appeared to be related to what jurors had questions about, Read discussed spiking her own drinks in the hours before O’Keefe’s death because she didn’t think the bartender was making them strong enough.
“The drinks that they were pouring me at McCarthy’s, which was where I consumed most of the alcohol, was the weakest vodka tonic,” she said. “It tasted just like all soda water with lime, not that I need it to be a martini, but it might have a splash of vodka in it.”
Officer John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)
Jurors asked the judge four questions Tuesday, many of them focused on the OUI charge.
- “What is the timeframe for the OUI charge? 12:45 or 5 a.m.?”
- “Are video clips of Karen’s interviews evidence?”
- “Does convicting guilty on a subcharge, for example offense 2 No. 5, convict the overall charge?”
- “If we find not guilty on two charges but can’t agree on one charge, is it a hung jury on all three charges or just one charge?”
Jurors failed to reach a verdict by the end of the day Tuesday. Deliberations resume Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. ET.
“I still think it’s good for her right now,” Rice told Fox News Digital. “Reading between the lines, I think they can’t find the intent needed for two counts and are trying to figure out the reckless component.”
Read faces up to life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge of second-degree murder. Some of the OUI-related charges also carry multi-year penalties, Edwards said.
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BENNINGTON, Vt. (WRGB) — A Massachusetts woman accused of killing her two children appeared in court virtually in Vermont on Monday.
Janette MacAusland joined the court hearing from Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland and waived her extradition rights, signing a waiver to be transported back to Massachusetts.
The case began Friday night, when Bennington police were reportedly called for a welfare check on MacAusland. Police say she arrived at a family home distraught and with a neck injury.
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While speaking with police, officers reportedly became increasingly concerned for her children in Wellesley, Massachusetts — a boy and a girl, ages 7 and 6.
Authorities there conducted a welfare check and found the children dead.
MacAusland was arrested and charged with murder.
The Boston Globe reports MacAusland was going through a contentious divorce and seeking custody of both children.
A check-in will be required in two weeks to ensure she is picked up. In the meantime, she remains in jail without bail.
MORE: “Deeply disturbing”: Elderly woman attacked, son indicted
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CBS6 will have updates on-air and online.
A new study showing deaths from rectal cancer are rising sharply among younger adults in their 30s and 40s — a troubling trend that researchers in a recent study say is not fully understood — is an important reminder for New Hampshire to include screening in their regular checkups.
The study, published March 2 in the American Cancer Society journal, found colorectal cancers — once more common in older adults — are increasingly diagnosed in younger people and are often more advanced at detection.
Colorectal cancer includes both colon and rectal cancer. In New Hampshire, 31.9 in 100,000 people were diagnosed from 2018 to 2022, according to the researchers’ analysis of federal health data. Death rates from 2019 to 2023 were 10.9 in 100,000 people.
Researchers said rectal cancer deaths could surpass colon cancer deaths by 2035 if current trends continue. Colorectal cancer is already the leading cause of cancer death among Americans under 50, with mortality in that group rising about 1% per year even as death rates decline among older adults, particularly those 65 and older.
Rectal tumors now account for about one-third of all colorectal cancer diagnoses, up from roughly one-quarter in earlier decades, indicating a growing share of the overall burden. Overall incidence has declined slightly, driven by a roughly 2.5% annual drop among adults 65 and older, but it is rising in younger groups—about 3% per year among those ages 20 to 49 and 0.4% annually among those 50 to 64. As a result, nearly half of new cases now occur in people under 65, up from about a quarter in the mid-1990s.
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Researchers estimate 158,850 new colorectal cancer cases and 55,230 deaths nationwide in 2026, with about 45% of diagnoses and nearly one-third of deaths expected in people younger than 65.
The reasons for the rise in younger adults remain unclear. Researchers point to possible links to diet, obesity, environmental exposures and other lifestyle factors, as well as changes in the gut microbiome.
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As these generations age, the burden of rectal cancer “will continue to swell like a tsunami moving through time, underscoring an urgent need for etiologic research to discover the cause of rising incidence,” the researchers said.
Two private contractors have been hospitalized following, what police called, an “advanced life support emergency,” after they were likely electrocuted while working at a property in Ocean City, New Jersey early Monday.
According to police, the incident happened at about 8:57 a.m., when first responders were called to a property along the 100 block of Somerset Lane in Ocean City, New Jersey, after two men were possibly electrocuted.
Officials said the incident happened when one of the workers contacted electrical supply lines with a metal ladder while working on the exterior of a property.
The initial worker was injured when they were likely electrocuted and fell from a ladder police said.
A second worker was likely electrocuted as well when, officials said, they grabbed the ladder in an effort to help the first worker.
Police said fire department personnel at the scene administered trauma assessment and initial treatment while paramedics administered advanced life support care for the pair of workers before they were taken to a nearby hospital by helicopter.
Officials did not immediately provide information on the victims’ conditions upon being admitted to the hospital.
An investigation into this incident, officials said, remains ongoing.
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