Testimony is expected to resume Friday inKaren Read's second murder trial,as the Massachusetts woman's defense team prepares to present its case to the jury. On Thursday, prosecutors finishedhighlighting evidencethey believe showed that Read, 45, struck her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, with her SUV and left him for dead in the snow outside another cop's home after a night of heavy drinking with friends in 2022. The former finance professor has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime. Like true crime? Check out Witness: A library of true crime stories But her defense team alleges the car crash at the center of the prosecutor's case never even happened. More:Karen Read claims police bungled the investigation. What did they supposedly do wrong? They say Read was framed for O'Keefe's murder ina conspiracy theorydeveloped by Massachusetts police officers, who they say beat O'Keefe, set a ravenous dog on him and then dropped his battered body on a pile of snow during a burgeoning blizzard. So far, Read's lawyers have built their case by fiercely questioning the prosecution's witnesses, often sewing doubt into the reliability of evidence they've presented. Now, they will begin trying to convince jurors of their own version of the events that led up to O'Keefe's death on January 29, 2022. The strategy is nearly identical to that used by the defense team in Read's first trial, whichended in a hung juryin 2024. CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Massachusetts home. You can watchCourtTV's live feed of the Read trialproceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings began at 10 a.m. ET. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Karen Read trial live updates: Defense team ready to present its case
