Was John O’Keefe alive to hear the “last words” from Karen Read when he died Jan. 29, 2022? That was a key question prosecutors and her defense sought answers to Friday in her retrial on murder charges in his death. 

Each side sought to fit them into the context of their respective cases.

During an ambulance ride after Read, Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe found O’Keefe under a pile of snow outside another officer’s house, Read told paramedics about an argument she’d had with her boyfriend, both sides agree.

But a key point of contention Friday arose during the testimony of a Canton firefighter and paramedic named Jason Becker. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan portrayed the remark Becker mentioned as a reference to an argument between the two.

“When you spoke to the defendant, and she shared with you that her last words with her ‘husband’ were (an) argument, why didn’t you ask for more detail about that?” Brennan asked.

“I didn’t feel it was my, you know — at the time, we went about the call as that we didn’t think we would be witnesses in a murder trial,” Becker replied. “We were there to support Karen and ultimately get her to the hospital safely.”

Alan Jackson, one of Read’s defense attorneys, questioned whether Read’s statement could have had different context, something she said over voicemail or earlier in the evening.

“But she did — when she was having this conversation with you about her last words to him,” Jackson said. “She did actually take out her phone and show you a bunch of missed calls to him at the same time, didn’t she?”

“She tried to, yes,” Becker said.

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