A decide in Massachusetts declared a mistrial on Monday within the high-profile homicide case in opposition to Karen Learn, the suburban Boston lady who was accused of killing her boyfriend, a police officer, after an evening out consuming.
The circumstances surrounding the loss of life of the boyfriend, John O’Keefe, throughout a blizzard in 2022 grew to become an obsession for folks within the Boston area and a worldwide viewers of true-crime fanatics, in addition to conspiracy theorists who’re sure that Ms. Learn has been framed.
The jurors started deliberating early final week, and twice signaled to the courtroom that they had been having bother reaching a unanimous verdict. In a be aware to Choose Beverly J. Cannone of Norfolk Superior Court docket on Monday morning, they wrote that they had been “deeply divided by elementary variations in our opinions and mind-set,” and that “consensus is unattainable.”
The decide then learn them last-ditch directions concerning the significance of reaching a verdict. However hours later, the jurors declared themselves deadlocked, and Choose Cannone declared a mistrial. It stays to be seen if prosecutors will choose to attempt the case once more.
Throughout the trial, attorneys for Ms. Learn, 44, picked aside the prosecution’s assertion that she deliberately struck Mr. O’Keefe after an evening out consuming in January 2022, leaving him to die of head accidents and hypothermia as a blizzard raged. They proposed an alternate concept: that he was fatally crushed at a late-night get together hosted by one other Boston police officer in Canton, Mass., after which dumped outdoors within the snow.
“The undeniable fact is, you’ve got been lied to on this courtroom,” Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Ms. Learn, mentioned throughout closing arguments. “One lie begets one other, and it’s a malignancy that grows — and that, people, is how a cover-up is born.”
Ms. Learn, who beforehand labored at an funding agency and taught faculty finance courses, pleaded not responsible to prices of second-degree homicide, vehicular manslaughter, and leaving the scene of an accident leading to loss of life. She confronted penalties starting from 5 to twenty years in jail for manslaughter, 10 years for leaving the scene, or life in jail for homicide.
Ms. Learn embraced relations contained in the courtroom after the decide declared a mistrial. She ordered attorneys to return to courtroom on July 22 to debate subsequent steps.
Prosecutors asserted that the couple had been combating and that Mr. O’Keefe, 46, had just lately tried to finish the connection. They informed jurors that Ms. Learn had repeatedly claimed duty for her boyfriend’s loss of life within the first moments after his physique was found, as described by a number of emergency responders who had been known as to the scene.
“‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” Adam Lally, an assistant district legal professional for Norfolk County, mentioned throughout closing arguments. “These are the phrases of the defendant, and also you heard testimony from 4 witnesses who overheard these statements.”
Daniel Medwed, a professor of regulation and criminology at Northeastern College, mentioned he had anticipated {that a} hung jury is perhaps attainable due to the robust emotions on either side of the case about Ms. Learn’s guilt or innocence. He predicted that the prosecution wouldn’t retry the case until new proof emerges.
“Are you able to think about prosecutors making an attempt to push this boulder of a case uphill once more?” he mentioned. “Received’t it simply slide again and crush them?”
The protection’s declare — that regulation enforcement officers conspired to cowl up the true circumstances of Mr. O’Keefe’s loss of life and as an alternative body Ms. Learn for the homicide — was embraced by a legion of believers, most with no private ties to the defendant. They included many native residents, in addition to folks across the nation who watched the trial day by day on-line or on tv after which flocked to social media to dissect the testimony.
Members of the Free Karen Learn motion rallied outdoors Norfolk County Superior Court docket at any time when the trial was in session and took their protests on the street on weekends. Their ardour was inspired by a neighborhood blogger referred to as Turtleboy, who championed Ms. Learn’s trigger and was charged final 12 months with intimidating witnesses. He’s due again in courtroom this month.
Shut followers of the case obsessed over proof, together with shards of purple plastic discovered close to Mr. O’Keefe’s physique, mentioned to be from Ms. Learn’s damaged taillight; lacerations on his arm that skeptics mentioned resembled canine bites; and a hotly contested Google search by a girl who was on the home get together that evening, asking how lengthy it takes to die within the chilly.
The state’s case was not helped by protection witnesses who testified that Mr. O’Keefe’s accidents weren’t per these ensuing from a automobile strike — or by vulgar and misogynistic textual content messages despatched by the lead investigator within the case, Michael Proctor, a Massachusetts state trooper. In texts despatched to buddies, the trooper joked about trying to find nude images on Ms. Learn’s cellphone, mocked her well being issues, critiqued her look and mentioned he hoped she killed herself.
Nonetheless, the prosecution reminded jurors in closing arguments, the investigator’s “indefensible” texts didn’t talk about framing Ms. Learn or planting proof.
“Why? As a result of it didn’t occur,” Mr. Lally mentioned.
