John O’Keefe died from falling backwards and hitting his head on frozen floor, in response to a Yale-educated mind surgeon who testified Wednesday within the homicide trial of Karen Learn.
Learn, 45, is accused of killing her then-boyfriend, the 46-year-old O’Keefe, by hitting him along with her 2021 Lexus SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, then leaving him to die on the bottom in a blizzard in Canton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.
The pinnacle trauma and cranium fractures he sustained, coupled with hypothermia from the chilly, wouldn’t have killed him instantly, in response to Dr. Aizik Wolf, who testified he handled many related accidents in his profession working in Minneapolis.
“The only way he could get this kind of an injury was to fall backwards, hit the back of his head, and then the resulting energy forces going into his brain, into the base of his skull,” he informed the jury throughout questioning from particular prosecutor Hank Brennan.
O’Keefe suffered “a classic blunt-trauma injury,” Wolf stated.
O’Keefe fell backwards and hit his head, Wolf stated, and the pressure of the affect fractured his cranium and later resulted in “raccoon eyes,” which appear like black eyes.
“This is what happens when soft tissue hits a solid ground,” he testified.
Swelling within the sufferer’s mind would have killed him below regular circumstances, normally inside 24 to 48 hours, in response to Wolf. Some victims have died in as little as one to a few.
Within the January nor’easter, O’Keefe’s physique temperature additionally tanked. When paramedics discovered him at 6 a.m., his temperature was simply 80 levels, beneath the edge for what medical professionals name “severe hypothermia.”
Wolf stated he handled many sufferers with related accidents early in his profession, when he labored in a Minneapolis trauma middle.
Town might be brutally chilly throughout winter.
Lots of the wounds have been deadly.
Some have been inflicted on drunken sufferers who slipped on the ice.
Others concerned individuals who fell over after struggling a coronary heart assault.
“This testimony from Dr. Wolf sets up the commonwealth’s argument for count 2, the involuntary manslaughter charge,” stated Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts protection lawyer who’s following the case. “The commonwealth will argue to the jury that if they cannot find that Karen Read caused John O’Keefe’s death intentionally, counts 1 and 3, then her driving or sideswipe of him and then leaving him injured was the wanton and reckless act, which contributed to his death, then they should find Karen Read guilty of count 2.”
In line with Wolf’s bio on the Miami Neuroscience Middle, he’s a world-leading authority in his subject and the clinic’s director.
A brief cross-examination by protection lawyer Robert Alessi mentioned separate accidents that O’Keefe sustained, which weren’t related to the top trauma that killed him.
“I thought Attorney Alessi did a good job redirecting Dr. Wolf from the back of the head to the front of the head and eliciting testimony that those injuries were likely not from a fall,” Edwards informed Fox Information Digital. “This supports the defense theory that John O’Keefe was not hit by a vehicle and suggests it was something else because of the laceration to his face and the injuries to the arm, and the investigation did not pursue any other leads to determine how John O’Keefe sustained those injuries.”
Wolf began the day on the stand.
After his testimony, Christina Hanley of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab returned to the witness stand.
She is an professional on glass and plastic fragments who analyzed the damaged cocktail glass discovered outdoors 34 Fairview Highway and on the again bumper of Learn’s Lexus SUV, in addition to items of the damaged taillight.
Her testimony had been interrupted on the early finish of the day on Tuesday.
She stated Wednesday afternoon that a few of the plastic particles recovered from O’Keefe’s clothes was “consistent” with the supplies utilized in Learn’s Lexus however may have come from one other supply with related traits.
Throughout cross-examination, she revealed that not one of the damaged glass on Learn’s bumper matched the shattered cocktail glass discovered within the yard close to O’Keefe.
Protection lawyer Alan Jackson had her clarify that the one factor any of the bumper glass matched was a glass pattern recovered by former Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired in March after an inner probe into inappropriate textual content messages he despatched through the investigation.
Earlier within the trial, the protection performed video exhibiting Proctor standing close to the rear of the automobile, out of digicam view, whereas it was on the Canton Police Division headquarters.
Proctor, by way of his household, has maintained that his investigation was consistent with the proof and carried out with integrity.
Learn may face life in jail if convicted of the highest cost, second-degree homicide.
She can be accused of drunken driving, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a lethal accident.
