← The Stefon Diggs Trial: Commonwealth Confidential
The Stefon Diggs Trial: Commonwealth Confidential
The alleged Karen Read-John O'Keefe crash, reconstructed in court
00:22:04
It was a key day in the Karen Read murder trial as biomedical engineer Judson Welcher, a prosecution crash reconstruction expert, showed highly detailed video that illustrated what he said the data shows about Read's SUV and John O'Keefe's death — but his testimony ended with a dramatic objection over his conclusion on what happened. We break down what the jury saw — and what they missed while out of the courtroom — as well as what the defense's addition of four new witnesses may suggest about their strategy, which will reveal itself when they soon present their case in chief.
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- [00:00]
Anchor
NBC10 Boston news worthy of you. Tonight, the prosecution's final witness takes the stand. Could it be the most important one yet?
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Dr. Judson Welcher
I have no dog in this fight. I don't quite frankly, care. What I'm doing is trying to do a good engineering job, which is looking at the data and drawing sound principles and sound conclusions from the data.
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Anchor
An accident reconstruction expert goes over his.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
Findings that impact did not break or crack that tail light.
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Anchor
The takeaways on the injuries and the physical evidence found at the scene. Plus the big moment stricken from the.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
Record, the regional degree of scientific certainty. That is what happened.
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Anchor
We go over that and more with our panel of experts. Canton Confidential. The Karen Reed murder trial starts right now.
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J.C. Monahan
Court was back in session today and it was a big day for the prosecution. Good evening everyone. I'm J.C. monahan. Glenn is off tonight. A crash reconstructionist went over his analysis of the data from Karen Reed's car and John o' Keefe's phone and gave his expert opinion on what happened the night John died. Let's get right out to Melody Mendez. She's joining us live from Norfolk Superior Court with the very latest on today's proceedings. Melody?
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Melody Mendez
Well, J.C. you're absolutely right. That accident reconstructionist is a biomedical engineer. His name is Dr. Judson Welcher. He was on the stand all day today. He works for a company called Aperture. We've heard a lot about them before. One of his colleagues testified just last week. But here's the thing. Reid says he is the prosecution's final witness. Now, we can't confirm that because the attorneys for both sides are under a gag order in this case, but court certainly ended in a very interesting way today. Take a look.
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Expert Witness
Dr. Judson Welcher began his work after the first trial ended in September of 2024, delving into the data from Karen Reed's SUV, John O' Keeffe's iPhone, taking a visit to the scene at 34 Fairview Road and even buying a Lexus SUV like Reed's to conduct testing. First, he acknowledged that there is no vehicle data that would show the impact of a pedestrian collision like this Lexus.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
Is 6,000 pound vehicle. Mr. O' Keefe is only 216 pounds, so it's not going to register.
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Expert Witness
Today Welcher focused on two trigger events in the SUV's data. A three point turn made before Reed arrived at the home on Fairview Road and a second trigger event reversing outside Fairview. An approximate match, he says, for when o' Keeffe's cell phone locked for the final time. He also testified that Reed's SUV did make contact with o' Keefe's SUV when she was pulling out of the driveway on Meadows Ave.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
But says that impact did not break or cr.
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Expert Witness
He also studied o' Keeffe's injuries, even trying to recreate the alleged contact by dressing like o' Keefe and having a car drive into him with grease paint on the tail light, leaving markings on his arm.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
The location orientation of the laceration on John o' Keeffe's right forearm and arm are consistent with the geometry and orientation.
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Expert Witness
Of the right tail light, all culminating with this moment on the stand.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
I've inspected the Lexus. I've looked at where it wasn't. Wasn't damaged. I've inspected the taillight. I got an exemplar Lexus. I ran lower speed contacts to verify that the injury pattern and location on the arm is consistent with the height and orientation of the tail light. And then I've looked at Ms. Reed's interviews as well. Based on all the evidence you considered, could you share with the jury what your opinion is to a reasonable degree of engineering certainty about whether the defendant's Lexus struck Mr. O' Keefe? Yes. Based on the totality of the evidence, DNA, everything I've talked about that is consistent with that happening, with the regional degree of scientific certainty that is what happened.
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J.C. Monahan
Objection. Move to strike, your honor. So I'm going to strike that. I'm going to see council.
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Melody Mendez
All right, so you heard him say there, that is what happened. And that, that statement, that moment on the stand, that testimony is now at the center of some very heated debate. So you heard the defense object immediately, and you heard Judge Beverly Kanone immediately sustain the objection and then strike that from the record. J.C. su that was an integral moment.
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Expert Witness
In the courtroom today.
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Melody Mendez
They actually ended the day. Sue, you and I were talking about this at length. They ended the day at sidebar with attorneys from both sides arguing over whether that expert can even make a statement like that on the stand, whether they can even be asked that question on the stand. The judge set to make a ruling on this tomorrow morning. But I know you guys have a much bigger conversation to be had around this. That exact moment of testimony you just saw.
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J.C. Monahan
All right, Melody, exactly. Sue, you are in the courtroom to hear Dr. Welcher's testimony. Testimony. And that moment that came at the very end. We've never heard anyone in the first trial or in this trial say clear cut the data leads to the fact that Karen Reed's SUV Hit John o' Keefe at that time. And that night was there any reaction in the courtroom?
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Sue O'Connell
So JC the jury doesn't know what they don't know about the law. And having the question asked twice in two different ways, having it objected to and sustained and then struck and then having the sidebar, you know, this was supposed to be the prosecution's big moment, as you said, bringing it all together, all the questions, all the witnesses that the jury has seen, all the evidence that they're going to consider and saying here it is tied up in a bow, here's what happened. But the afternoon was start and stop and start and stop because Robert Alessi for the defense, he was up and down like a jack in the box with objections that were suspended, sustained by Judge Beverly Kanoni. And in many cases the witnesses statements were struck from the record. And then there was sidebar, sidebar, sidebar. So this buildup and this dramatic moment that I think Hank Brennan and the prosecution wanted to deliver kind of sputtered and then left the jury hanging saying go home for now, we'll pick this up again tomorrow. So yes, we know it was a big moment. The question is, does the jury understand?
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J.C. Monahan
Right. And that's always, you know, we're trying to get into the jury's minds, which of course we can't do. But I. He was very clear, as you saw, that he got the exact replica Lexus. We don't know who paid for that by the way. That's another distortion.
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Sue O'Connell
We're working on that.
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J.C. Monahan
But he got the exact replica. He did the whole grease paint thing where, you know, bumping in to see so he could match on the right arm and the right forearm, the scratches, we've never had anything like that. So the fact that we don't know what the jury is thinking. Was there anyone in the courtroom? The o' Keeffes? Well, let me tell you this, that went.
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Sue O'Connell
Yeah, no, not really because of the way it started and stopped. But to the juror's point of view, we're assuming that they didn't watch the first trial. Right. And this was actually the most csi, if I can quote another networks television show presentation, Law and Order. Well they often don't do this reconstruction. You know, here's the video. We took the data, we built it together. Here's the 3D representation of Karen backing out of the garage and tapping John Okeefe's car, which he testified for the two times today. For the first time, yes, she actually tapped his car. And so they were really being taken on this story of the visualization of how it happened.
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J.C. Monahan
Yes.
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Sue O'Connell
So if they didn't have anything to compare it to because they didn't watch the first trial. Right. This is what they expected they were going to see. And then at the end it just sort of sputters out after Alessi has been just very, in a friendly and nice way saying, you, Honor, I object to this and Beverly Kanoni immediately sustaining it. So it was an odd day because knowing what we know, here's the big moment, but the jurors all paying attention, all attentive, all but that one guy taking notes very aggressively. I'm sure they're going to put it all together, but I don't know if it landed the way that it landed for us or that it landed for people who are watching the trial at home.
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J.C. Monahan
Well, here's how Karen Reid reacted to today's testimony. This is what she said outside court.
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Karen Reed
The data is what the data is and it's going to come out cleanly, more cleanly. In our case in chief, I think it's important to demonstrate what is the commonwealth accusing me of? The speed, the positioning. Recreate that for us. Back, back up into crash Test dummy at 24.2 miles an hour in the arm and see happens. That's what I would want to see if I were you.
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J.C. Monahan
She's the only one who can talk, right? Gag order.
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Anchor
Right.
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Sue O'Connell
The o' Keeffe's can talk if they want to talk, but lawyers cannot talk.
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J.C. Monahan
All right, sue, stay there. We're going to get back to you. But right now we want to go to Danny Savalas. Here's our NBC legal expert coming in from 30 Rock. Talk to me about what you thought, what happened at the end of court today with an expert saying Dr. Welcher, her car hit John.
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Danny Savalas
Yeah, that's a major issue for the defense I would have objected to. I'm a defense attorney. I mean, that really goes to the ultimate issue and the prosecution's argument that, well, it's not really about a collision, our case is about the intent and whether or not she intended to strike him, whether or not this is murder. To me, it's all the same. And I think that that was probably, even though I think the judge is going to allow that testimony in, I still think it was really skirting the line because it's not the kind of testimony the expert's supposed to opine on the final conclusion, so to speak. So on the whole, generally there was a lot of good stuff for the prosecution, but there was a Lot of good stuff for the defense in this expert. If you could listen through all the hyper technical stuff, which, by the way, we've got a young jury, that might be an issue for them.
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J.C. Monahan
There was absolutely a lot of tech talk. It did come, at least with the PowerPoint presentation. We had some visuals to go along with all of the data that he said. But Danny, if we have an expert who has done all this work, how is it that you can't ask, well, then what's your conclusion? You're supposed to just leave it all out there for someone else to decide how to put the pieces together. I'm a little confused.
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Danny Savalas
It was really the way the question was asked experts in this case. It was the to say that to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that this collision happened and that this car struck John o' Keefe is a little beyond what the expert is allowed to do. So really it could have been done pretty closely in another way. It just was the phrasing of the question. That's why I think ultimately the answer is going to come in when the judge comes back tomorrow. But on the whole, it was an objectionable question. It's such a close call. I still think it comes in.
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J.C. Monahan
So then what does the jury go home with today if that's how it ended? If you didn't watch that, it was an objection, immediate sidebar, jury go home. We'll pick it up tomorrow. What are they left to think?
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Danny Savalas
Well, they're left to wonder whether or not did they just hear a piece of testimony that they weren't supposed to hear. But believe me, I think they're all buffering from all the other hyper technical stuff. They listened to all the testing, all the visuals. There was a lot today and even though it ended on kind of an awkward note, there was a lot of really, really complicated technology for the jury to have to digest. So we'll see on cross if the defense can poke some holes.
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J.C. Monahan
All right. Earlier today, the defense filed a motion to add four more witnesses to its list. Danny, what does that tell you? If it tells you anything at all about the state of the defense's argument? Because is it typical to bolster a witness list when we're, you know, halfway through the trial?
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Danny Savalas
Oh, no. I think that for the defense, you often haven't completely formulated what, who you're going to call and what your plan is until the prosecution's case is over. You got to see how the government's case goes in. If it goes in really poorly and you feel really good about your case, then maybe you don't call any witnesses at all. By the way, it's very common, especially for me, to call zero witnesses for the defense, even though leading up to that moment when I have to make the decision I might be on the fence. But ultimately, what that tells me is if the defense is adding witnesses, then they feel like they have to put on a case. If they were feeling really sanguine, really confident about their chances, they might call very few witnesses and rest after maybe a couple days. But for whatever reason, they believe they need to actually put in their own evidence to rebut the commonwealth's case. I don't necessarily think that that signals that they feel weak about their chances or that they feel like they're in trouble. I think it just means they've shifted their strategy, which as a defense attorney, you do all the time.
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J.C. Monahan
All right. Thank you so much for joining us, Danny. We'll see you later this week.
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Anchor
Don't miss any of the Karen Reed murder trial. Get the full recap of what happened in court, expert analysis and what we could see next. This is coverage you won't see anywhere else. Canton confidential, weeknights at 7 on NBC 10 Boston.
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J.C. Monahan
We are back now with retired Massachusetts Judge Jack Lew and of course, our courtroom insider, Sue o' Connell. Let's back things up for just a bit. It was a long day of tech talk, as Danny Savalas was just talking about. So let's get both of your responses to how that went over for a prosecution. You're the judge, you're listening to all of this. Is it landing? Is it playing out the way the prosecution would want?
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
If I'm trying to if I'm the judge assessing whether it's landing with the jury, I don't see the jury. But I'm saying I'm thinking that this was a bad, bad day for Karen Reeb.
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J.C. Monahan
Bad day.
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Sue O'Connell
Sue well, on one hand in the morning, I'm just going to forget that whole morning because it was not great. And I don't mean for the prosecution, just from the presentation part of it. But luckily for them, this was a lot of information. The jurors had already heard from prior testimony. So I saw the least amount of note taking in the morning than I have seen. But again, I think it's because they had already seen it and the visuals were not great. But the afternoon that was a different story where you had the visuals, the 3D creation and more, you know, more new information that was visually storytelling, telling a story to the jurors.
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J.C. Monahan
Let's we need to mention the day started with a very long sidebar and then a voir dire with the expert witness. Why in this last minute, what are they doing a voir dire for today? Do you know what that was about? The jury wasn't there. They got to ask. Did the defense ask Dr. Welcher questions?
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
I'm sure it was the complicated question of how far can he go on his opinion. He's. I disagree. Dr. Welcher was the best expert, really. Opinion witness, we call it, that has testified in this trial and they need to on cross. There's going to be pressure on whoever it's going to be. Mr. Alexi.
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Sue O'Connell
I imagine it would be Alessi.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Yeah, yeah, he. A lot of pressure. A lot of pressure. This witness is highly damaging. And the. The ultimate opinion testimony, you could see it's going to come in tomorrow because Massachusetts law requires that it be admitted. And my ESP tells me that Mr. Brennan, he's annoyed at the defense for putting up such a stink about directly on point. Law requires be admitted. I hope they advise the judge at sidebar that there is contrary authority, but blah, blah, blah. They're required to do that.
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Sue O'Connell
I don't think he was a bad witness. I just think the afternoon was a difficult day of test. The morning was not great testimony with the visuals. The afternoon was just not great testimony for him because of Alessi's successful objections.
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J.C. Monahan
Interrupting all right, Dr. Wech will cast this wide net to reach his conclusions. Just to give you a little insight. He personally mentioned being very hands on during his investigation. Take a listen if you're going to.
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Dr. Judson Welcher
Talk about what happened to the cars or what happened to the people. To look at what happened to the cars, meaning to actually look at the cars, not just look at photographs when possible. For example, on the Lexus, I climbed in it, over it, underneath it, I downloaded data from it. I did a whole bunch of things looking at Ms. Reed's Lexus to assist in my analysis, to try and add some further objective data to what we're doing here.
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J.C. Monahan
Didn't just do that. Purchased his own vehicle. Identical. And then in a very odd way wore clothes almost identical to what Mr. O' Keefe was wearing that night and did those tests with the grease paint on them. So again, this was his conclusion. This is all the information that he came to the table with. And yet we had this end that didn't go anywhere.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
That's nothing. That's nothing. Because Mr. Brennan has got, as Mr. Ellican said on this show last week, Mr. Brennan's got this very coordinated, succinct, professional presentation. And the jury's well rested because the judge selected great jurors and has a million jurors in the box. That's all she cares about. So she's happy.
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J.C. Monahan
She's still at 18.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Hey, that's a miracle.
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J.C. Monahan
And just a quick thing watching this. The rest of us have to watch it live streaming. The graphics were very hard to see. The camera wasn't always on them. And you said in court they were terrible.
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Sue O'Connell
Listen, the morning graphics were terrible. A black background with white type on two big screens that the jurors cannot read. I mean, Guerrino's trooper, he did the best presentation in terms of how to present to people who are going to read it. I know they're going to get to see some of this in deliberations, but when the lights are down and someone is reading you a report from a black background with white type, it's not great. But I'll also say the shocking testimony we're not talking about is that your Lexus is built on a Toyota that also came out today. And so we had a number of laughs around that, where people are like, oh, God, that's great.
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J.C. Monahan
No, it's a Toyota chassis. Yeah. No, it's just bells and whistles. All right, we have time for a couple of viewer questions. We want to start with Angie. She is wondering, I thought Ms. Reed had a juror from the first trial who was going to be part of her defense team for her retrial. Why haven't we seen her Sue? Is she in court?
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Sue O'Connell
Nope. She hasn't been in court in a while. We haven't seen her. Last time I checked David Unetti's website, I don't think I saw her on there. So that's a mystery that we will continue to suss out.
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J.C. Monahan
All right, Jack, a question that relates to the objections that we've heard during witness testimony. Each time there's an objection, Judge Kanoni has to make a snap decision to sustain or overrule. Can appeals later be filed based on her ruling to sustain or allow specific testimony? How does that work?
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Absolutely. And that will undoubtedly, I can tell you to this point, there is no reversible error. Okay. I'm confident there is no reversible error to this point, but the appeal will have a whole bunch of issues, and some of them will be that the judge erred in some evidentiary objections. They're very difficult. They're very. You have to do them right. You have to think really fast. So it's very difficult. And they say good trial judges sometimes are about 75% correct. So it's a hard way to get a successful appeal, but it's often an appeal that is brought.
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J.C. Monahan
Well, isn't that part of it going on the record that you objected to these moments in court?
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely.
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J.C. Monahan
Okay. All right. So then here we are. And then what are we expecting tomorrow? What happens?
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Sue O'Connell
Well, they'll have that issue settled. I imagine that Brennan said he was almost done with this witness before the end of the day. And then Alessi will do the cross, and then Brennan will do the cleanup, which he does really well. And then we imagine that we'll see.
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J.C. Monahan
The prosecution will rest.
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Sue O'Connell
That's it.
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J.C. Monahan
Okay. And that's when the defense can stand up and say this case should be thrown out. Right, Right.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
We move for a required finding of not guilty.
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J.C. Monahan
And if you are the presiding judge.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
It has to be denied.
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J.C. Monahan
It has to be denied.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
It has to be denied.
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J.C. Monahan
What are the.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Because this is a jury issue, the jury will decide all three counts. You know, I'll give you the most frank but accurate advice. It will be that motion for required finding of not guilty. If there were a jury involved, I might be a little bit shy about saying anything, but this judge doesn't care what I say. All three counts, the judge is required to deny on this. And we're going to hear long arguments about it and we'll all sit patiently and watch. But they're going to be denied. And the motion is going to be renewed at the end of the defendant's evidence.
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J.C. Monahan
Right. And be denied. And then go to the jury.
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Judge Beverly Kanoni
Yeah, and then the jury's going to have this fun job.
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J.C. Monahan
No, no, no, nothing. Especially today, dissecting all of that. All right, so we'll circle back with everybody. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for asking those great questions. If you have any about this case, keep sending them our way. The email is on your screen. Canton confidentialbcuni.com we'll answer as many questions as we can. And remember, of course, join us every weeknight at 7 on NBC 10 Boston. We'll have a full recap of the latest developments from court, as well as legal analysis. Plus, this week's episodes will be added to our streaming on Peacock starting Sunday. Be sure to check out the True Crime podcast as well about the case. It's the audio version of our nightly show, and that way, if you need to, you can catch up on all the twists and turns. Up until this point, you're watching Canton Confidential, the Karen Reid murder trial.
- [21:54]
Dr. Judson Welcher
Foreign.
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J.C. Monahan
Way with NBC 10 Boston Morning News worthy of you.