Jury to keep deliberating Karen Read's murder charge on Monday after saying they haven't agreed

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Karen Read trial went home for the weekend after telling the judge Friday that they couldn’t agree, only to be told to keep trying.

The jury must decide whether prosecutors have proven that Read drunkenly and angrily slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die. The defense challenged the evidence and suggested that one or more colleagues killed John O’Keefe, dumped his body outside in a panic and then framed Read to cover it up.

On their fourth day of deliberations in the two-month murder trial, a foreperson told the judge that they hadn’t reached a unanimous verdict despite an “exhaustive review of the evidence and our diligent consideration of all disputed evidence.

But Judge Beverly Cannone told the six men and six women to take lunch and try again, and they did for several more hours. “Clear your heads, we’ll start fresh on Monday,” Cannone told them later Friday.

A handful of women with posters showed up Friday to counter the self-proclaimed “sidewalk jury” of true crime bloggers and pink-shirted Read supporters, many of them waving the Stars and Stripes, who have gathered outside the Norfolk County courthouse every day since the trial began.

Police officers stood between the two groups, neither of which was particularly pleased.

“A hung jury, that would be terrible,” said Paul Harvey, who owns a moving company in East Boston. He said Read should have been acquitted on the first day.

“This is unbelievable, the poor woman has been framed," said Michael Ward. “This not only hasn't been proven, but what's been proven is she's innocent.”

Demonstrators on the other side called out what they said has been harassment of the O'Keefe family and prosecution witnesses.

“Every day, these witnesses are getting death threats. It is just disgusting to John’s memory,” said Julie Guinto, an administrative assistant who said she doesn’t know the family.

Much of the attention has been fed by social media.

“We know as well as I’m sure the jury knows that all roads lead to Karen Read,” said Kate Peter, a Youtuber from North Attleborough. She's been battling online against Aidan Timothy Kearney, aka Turtleboy, whose website has relentlessly questioned the prosecution.

“I am hopeful and faithful they will reach a just verdict and she will be held criminally responsible for her actions in this murder,” Peter said.

Read, 44, had worked as an equity analyst and was an adjunct lecturer in finance at her alma mater, Bentley University. O’Keefe, 46, was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who was raising his niece and nephew.

Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of Brian Albert, a Boston police detective, after a night of bar-hopping in January 2022. Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was among those gathered inside, had exchanged flirty texts with Read earlier that month. The lead investigator was State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was friends with several witnesses and sent offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.

Read was charged with second-degree murder, punishable in Massachusetts by life in prison with the possibility of parole. She also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years; and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years.

Pieces of Read’s broken taillight were found at the scene and a single hair from O’Keefe was found on the rear bumper of Read’s SUV. Prosecutors say that Read repeatedly said, “I hit him. I hit him. Oh my God, I hit him” to first responders and others. Prosecutors replayed angry voicemails Read left for O’Keefe, painting a picture of a failing relationship. They also questioned her behavior, saying she never cried after O’Keefe’s body was found.

Read contends that the prosecution’s case is based on lies by officers trying to protect themselves. Her lawyers say the pieces of taillight and the hair were planted at the crime scene, which was left unsecured. They also suggested O’Keefe might have been beaten up by Higgins, who had flirted with Read through texts, and that the men panicked, dumping his body outside before trying to cover up the crime.

Regardless of any verdict, the case revealed questionable techniques and actions on the part of law enforcement. Proctor, who had personal relationships with several of the people involved, called Read a “wack job” and texted his sister saying he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said that was a figure of speech and that his emotions had gotten the better of him.

The defense also pointed to sloppy policing: The crime scene was left unsecured for hours; the house wasn’t searched; blood-stained snow was scooped up with red plastic drinking cups; and a leaf blower was used to clear snow. The defense also claims that a prosecution witness conducted an incriminating internet search hours before O’Keefe’s body was discovered and then deleted it, and that others linked with the case destroyed phones and manipulated videos.

A half-dozen people supporting the O'Keefe family heckled Karen Read supporters and called for her conviction in her murder trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photos/Michael Casey)

Defense attorney David Yannetti, standing, addresses the court as Karen Read, at left, listens after jurors stated they could not reach a unanimous verdict during Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

A half-dozen people supporting the O'Keefe family heckled Karen Read supporters and called for her conviction in her murder trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photos/Michael Casey)

A half-dozen people supporting the O'Keefe family heckled Karen Read supporters and called for her conviction in her murder trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photos/Michael Casey)

Karen Read listens as judge Beverly Cannone reads a note from jurors, which stated they could not reach a unanimous verdict, during Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Karen Read stands as jurors depart the court to continue with deliberations at the trial of Read at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Judge Beverly Cannone addresses the jury before deliberations continue in the trial of Karen Read at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Karen Read watches as jurors are seated in court to continue with deliberations at the trial of Read at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Karen Read, left, arrives with her defense team, including Elizabeth Little at right, at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. A jury is deliberating Read's fate, as her trial is nearing its end. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather near Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. A jury is deliberating Read's fate, as her trial is nearing its end. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather near Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. A jury is deliberating Read's fate, as her trial is nearing its end. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read watches as jurors are seated in court to continue with deliberations at the trial of Read at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Jennifer O'Donnell, of Canton, Mass., right, a supporter of Karen Read, displays a placard while standing with other Read supporters near Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. The jury began deliberations in the trial Tuesday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Karen Read speaks with her attorney, Alan Jackson as the jury leaves the courtroom to start their third day of deliberations, in her murder trial, in Norfolk Superior Court on Thursday, June 27, 2024 in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Karen Read listens as Judge Beverly J. Cannone greets the jury, at the start of the third day of deliberations in her murder trial, in Norfolk Superior Court on Thursday, June 27, 2024 in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read display signs to passing cars near Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. The jury began deliberations in the trial Tuesday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Karen Read speaks with her lawyer as the jury deliberates in her murder trail, Wednesday June 26, 2024, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Read speaks with her lawyer as the jury deliberates in her murder trail, Wednesday June 26, 2024, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Read watches as the jury enters the courtroom for the start of the second day of deliberation at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP)

Karen Read, center, walks toward Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. The jury began deliberations in the trial Tuesday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Judge Beverly Cannone looks over the verdict slip the jurors have to fill out when they reach a verdict in Karen Read's murder trail, Wednesday June 26, 2024, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. The defense has asked for some modifications. Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read display signs near Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, in 2022. The jury began deliberations in the trial Tuesday. (AP Photo/Nick Perry)

Karen Read, center, departs Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Dedham, Mass.(AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Beginning Monday, a California law will require credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard to provide banks with special retail codes that can be assigned to gun stores in order to track their sales.

But new laws will do the exact opposite in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming by banning the use of specific gun shop codes.

The conflicting laws highlight what has quietly emerged as one of the nation's newest gun policy debates, dividing state capitols along familiar partisan lines.

Some Democratic lawmakers and gun-control activists hope the new retail tracking code will help financial institutions flag suspicious gun-related purchases for law enforcement agencies, potentially averting mass shootings and other crimes. Lawmakers in Colorado and New York have followed California's lead.

“The merchant category code is the first step in the banking system saying, `Enough! We’re putting our foot down,'” said Hudson Munoz, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Guns Down America. "`You cannot use our system to facilitate gun crimes.’”

But many Republican lawmakers and gun-rights advocates fear the retail code could lead to unwarranted suspicion of gun buyers who have done nothing wrong. Over the past 16 months, 17 states with GOP-led legislatures have passed measures prohibiting a firearms store code or limiting its use.

“We view this as a first step by gun-control supporters to restrict the lawful commerce in firearms,” said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group that backs laws blocking use of the tracking code.

The new laws add to the wide national divide on gun policy. This past week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, citing a rising number of firearm-related deaths, including more than 48,000 in 2022. The move was quickly criticized by the National Rifle Association.

States have dug opposing trench lines on other gun policies. On July 4, for example, Republican-led Louisiana will become the 29th state to allow residents to carry concealed guns without a permit.

By contrast, Democratic-led New Mexico this year tightened laws for people who don't have concealed-carry permits, requiring a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, which is more than double the three-day period for a federal background check.

States also have responded differently to recent mass shootings. In Maine, where an Army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others, the Democratic-led Legislature passed a variety of new gun restrictions. Following school shootings in Iowa and Tennessee, the Republican-led legislatures there took steps that could allow more trained teachers to bring guns into classrooms.

The surge of legislation targeting firearm store category codes addresses a behind-the-scenes aspect of electronic financial transactions. The International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva, sets thousands of voluntary standards for various fields, including category codes for all kinds of businesses, from bakeries to boat dealers to bookstores.

Those category lists are distributed by credit card networks to banks, which assign particular codes to businesses whose accounts they handle. Some credit card issuers use the category codes for customer reward points.

The codes can be used by financial institutions to help identify fraud, money laundering or unusual purchasing patterns that are reported as suspicious activities to the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Banks and other depository institutions filed more than 1.8 million confidential reports in 2022 flagging more than 5.1 million suspicious activities. About 4% of annual reports lead to follow-up by law enforcement and an even smaller percentage to prosecution, according to the Bank Policy Institute, a trade group representing large banks.

Stores that sell guns have previously been grouped with other retailers in merchant category codes. Some have been classified as sporting goods stores, others as miscellaneous and specialty retail shops.

At the urging of New York-based Amalgamated Bank, which worked with gun-control groups, the International Organization for Standardization adopted a new four-digit category code for gun and ammunition shops in 2022. Major credit card networks initially said they would implement it but backed off under pressure from conservative politicians and the gun industry.

Munoz, who helped lead the effort to establish the firearms store code, noted credit cards were used to buy weapons and ammunition for some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings.

The intent of a gun merchant code is to spot suspicious patterns, like a person with little history of gun purchases who suddenly spends large amounts at multiple gun stores in a short period. Once alerted by banks, authorities could investigate, potentially thwarting a mass shooting, Munoz said.

California's new law requires credit card networks to make the firearms code available to banks and other financial institutions by Monday. Those entities then have several months to determine which of their business clients should be categorized as gun stores and assign them new codes by May 1.

Visa, the nation's largest payment network, recently updated its merchant data manual to add the firearms code to comply with California's law.

Democratic-led legislatures in Colorado and New York this year also passed firearms code mandates aligned to kick in with California's next May.

“If there was someone suspiciously purchasing a large number of firearms, right now it would be very difficult to tell," said California state Assemblymember Phil Ting, a Democrat who sponsored the new law. “You couldn’t tell if they were soccer balls or golf balls or basketballs."

Even with a firearms store code, it won't be possible to know whether a particular sale is for a rifle, storage safe or some other product such as hunting apparel.

The state laws prohibiting gun store codes have varying effective dates but typically allow state attorneys general to seek court injunctions against financial institutions using the codes, with potential fines reaching thousands of dollars.

The merchant code could lead more people to buy guns with cash instead of credit in order to protect their privacy, said Dan Eldridge, owner of Maxon Shooter’s Supplies in suburban Chicago. Though his business has yet to be recategorized, Eldridge said he already has placed an ATM in his store.

“Viewed most benignly, this code is an effort to stigmatize gun owners," Eldridge said. "But a more worrisome concern is that this is another private sector end run around the prohibition against the federal government creating a gun registry.”

Iowa state Sen. Jason Schultz, a Republican sponsor of legislation banning the firearms code, said he feared federal agents could gain access to data about gun store purchases from financial institutions, then use that as justification to raid gun owners' homes and infringe on their Second Amendment rights.

“States are going to have to make a choice," he said, "whether they want to follow California or whether they’d like to support the original intent of the U.S. Constitution.”

Guns for sale are displayed at Maxon Shooter's Supplies in Des Plaines, Ill., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. A new national divide is emerging among states over whether to track sales by gun stores. A California law taking effect Monday will require credit card networks to provide banks with special retail codes to assign to gun stores. By contrast, new laws taking effect in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming will prohibit the use of special gun shop codes in financial transactions. A total of 17 states have passed some sort of limit on category codes for gun retailers, while California has been joined by Colorado and New York. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Maxon Shooter's Supplies owner Dan Eldridge poses in his store in Des Plaines, Ill., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. A new national divide is emerging among states over whether to track sales by gun stores. A California law taking effect Monday will require credit card networks to provide banks with special retail codes to assign to gun stores. By contrast, new laws taking effect in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming will prohibit the use of special gun shop codes in financial transactions. A total of 17 states have passed some sort of limit on category codes for gun retailers, while California has been joined by Colorado and New York. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Guns for sale are displayed at Maxon Shooter's Supplies in Des Plaines, Ill., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. A new national divide is emerging among states over whether to track sales by gun stores. A California law taking effect Monday will require credit card networks to provide banks with special retail codes to assign to gun stores. By contrast, new laws taking effect in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming will prohibit the use of special gun shop codes in financial transactions. A total of 17 states have passed some sort of limit on category codes for gun retailers, while California has been joined by Colorado and New York. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Maxon Shooter's Supplies owner Dan Eldridge poses in his store in Des Plaines, Ill., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. A new national divide is emerging among states over whether to track sales by gun stores. A California law taking effect Monday will require credit card networks to provide banks with special retail codes to assign to gun stores. By contrast, new laws taking effect in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming will prohibit the use of special gun shop codes in financial transactions. A total of 17 states have passed some sort of limit on category codes for gun retailers, while California has been joined by Colorado and New York. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)