A second professional on smartphone forensics testified Wednesday within the Karen Read trial that Jennifer McCabe’s Google search about hypothermia occurred after John O’Keefe’s stays had been discovered, not earlier than, because the protection has argued.
Jessica Hyde testified that she might say with scientific certainty that McCabe used her iPhone to look the phrase “hos (sic) lengthy to die in chilly” at 6:24 a.m.
The protection declare that the search occurred at 2:27 a.m. – hours earlier than investigators say Learn, McCabe and Kerry Roberts discovered O’Keefe useless within the snow at 34 Fairview Street – is inaccurate, she testified. The sooner timestamp has no connection to the search however is definitely assigned to the time McCabe opened the browser tab on her cellphone.
That testimony supported earlier testimony from Ian Whiffin, a digital forensic professional from the agency Cellebrite, which makes among the software program and {hardware} that investigators use to search for info on telephones and different units.
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Karen Learn talks together with her lawyer, Alan Jackson, throughout her homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Mass., on Might 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger through AP/Pool)
Hyde testified utilizing particular phrases – “hex editors,” “hash values” and database recordsdata, wading into technical particulars about how cellphone information is extracted, preserved and interpreted. Even inexperienced analysts can have bother making sense of issues, she testified.
David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area protection lawyer who has been following the case, questioned the prosecution’s resolution to have an professional witness for such technical testimony take the stand earlier than the courtroom’s noon break.
“For an professional, you need them to make it make sense to a 5-year-old,” he advised Fox Information Digital. “They failed in the present day. Add in that it was an extremely boring topic, I’d guess the jurors had been simply trying on the clock the entire time pondering what they may order for lunch.”
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John O’Keefe (Boston Police Division)
After lunch, protection lawyer Robert Alessi dealt with the cross-examination, mentioning the identical technical phrases and grilling Hyde about her testimony at Learn’s first trial, which he was not a part of.
The trial final yr ended with a deadlocked jury, main the state to usher in particular prosecutor Hank Brennan to retry the case.
With out the jury current, Alessi requested the courtroom for permission to reference a current Maryland case that he mentioned confirmed Hyde was an unreliable witness. Choose Beverly Cannone sided with Brennan’s staff and mentioned he couldn’t convey up the choose’s resolution in that case, however she mentioned he could be free to cross-examine Hyde on the methodology she used to make her findings.
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Witness Jessica Hyde, a digital forensic information analyst, talks about information on Jennifer McCabe’s cellphone in the course of the Karen Learn homicide trial on Might 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger through AP/Pool)
Underneath cross-examination, she testified that O’Keefe’s cellphone was not secured in alignment with established “finest practices” after police recovered it from the scene.
She sparred with Alessi, typically utilizing the identical technical phrases that will have alienated the jury on direct examination, Gelman mentioned.
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“Jurors don’t wish to sit by means of this for days and days,” he mentioned. “They wish to get into the meat and potatoes.”
Learn has pleaded not responsible to prices of homicide, manslaughter and fleeing the scene. She might face life in jail if convicted of the highest cost.
Massachusetts prosecutors allege she backed her Lexus SUV into and fatally struck O’Keefe earlier than driving away after an evening out consuming in Canton, a suburb of Boston.
Legal professional Robert Alessi speaks throughout Karen Learn’s homicide trial on Might 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger through AP/Pool)
By her protection attorneys, she has denied putting him in any respect.
Earlier in Wednesday’s continuing, Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe took the stand to debate how he collected proof within the case, together with telephones from McCabe and Roberts in addition to damaged items of a taillight and O’Keefe’s sneaker from the crime scene.
At one level, he opened an proof bag in entrance of the jury, and it had three items of damaged plastic inside, not the anticipated two.
Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe presents taillight fragments into proof throughout Karen Learn’s homicide trial on Might 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger through AP/Pool)
“Are you aware if the opposite piece within the bag is a bit that broke off?” Brennan requested. “Are you aware how that arrived there?”
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“I don’t,” Keefe mentioned.
Brennan requested for the items to be moved into proof, however after an objection from Learn’s protection, the courtroom instructed Keefe to position the third piece in a separate proof bag.
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Karen Learn, left, listens to attorneys Robert Alessi and Hank Brennan throughout her homicide trial on Might 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger through AP/Pool)
However Keefe’s testimony helped prosecutors set up a firm timeline of when and the place police discovered damaged taillight fragments: within the snow-covered avenue in entrance of 34 Fairview Street, the place O’Keefe and Learn had been seen the evening earlier than.
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Testimony is anticipated to renew shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday.
