Karen Read and John O’Keefe ‘never entered my house,’ Canton homeowner testifies. Here’s how Friday unfolded.

Prosecutors say that Read returned to the scene hours later with two other women and found O’Keefe’s snow-covered body, repeatedly shouting “I hit him” in the presence of emergency responders. Read’s lawyers have cross-examined first responders in an effort to convince jurors they fabricated hearing the incriminating statements and have also questioned police officers about their personal ties to the Albert family, which hosted the gathering.

On Thursday, a witness recounted driving to her relative’s Canton home on Jan. 29, 2022, to drop off birthday donuts for her nephew, only to learn Read’s boyfriend had been found left for dead on the front lawn of the property hours earlier.

She later faced a sharp cross-examination about her relationship with the sister of Michael Proctor, the State Police’s lead investigator on the case.

Here’s a rundown of the witnesses who’ve testified so far.

Here’s how the testimony unfolded on Friday, ending the trial’s second week.

3:45 p.m. — Brian Albert continues his testimony

In the days after Jan. 29, Albert said he saw emergency vehicles and police personnel in the front yard area of the house. ”I believe it rained a few times during that time,” he said.

Prosecutor Adam Lally asked him when he and his wife first discussed selling their home, and he said the couple began considering in the fall of 2021 after his brother sold his for a good price.

”We thought we could get a good deal for the house, and so that’s when we started exploring it,” Albert said. He said they sold the home in April 2023.

”Absolutely not,” Albert said when asked if the sale had anything to do with O’Keefe’s death.

Cannone paused testimony for the week around 3:50 p.m. The defense will begin cross-examining Brian Albert on Monday.

3:30 p.m. — “It was an unbelievably chaotic morning,” Brian Albert testifies.

Albert said he did not recall any phone conversations with Higgins or anyone else after 2 a.m. Lawyers for Read have cited phone records and prior testimony indicating Higgins and Brian Albert did speak briefly during that timeframe.

Albert, who lived at the home where O’Keefe’s body was found near the road, said he woke up when his “sister-in-law Jen burst into my room” around 6:30 a.m.

“She was very upset,” he said. “Almost hysterical. She said something to the effect [of], ‘John is dead.’”

He didn’t initially know who McCabe was referring to, he said.

The bedroom conversation with McCabe lasted about a minute, he said.

“She said that the police were downstairs,” he said. “I saw a Canton police officer downstairs.”

Brian Albert said he recognized the officer as “Officer Lank,” referring to Canton police sergeant Michael Lank. “I didn’t socialize with him,” Albert said. “I had met him multiple times. I knew him to know my brother Chris.”

Lank was initially by himself but was later joined by another officer, he said.

“Of course they were welcome in my house,” he said when Lally asked if he allowed them in.

The group in the house initially spoke to police for 10 or 15 minutes, Brian Albert said. Lank returned later, this time with Canton police lieutenant Paul Gallagher.

“That may have been longer, maybe a half hour,” Brian Albert said of the second interview.

He said he also called Higgins later that morning because he thought it was important for him to know what had happened.

“I was not aware too much about a relationship with Brian [Higgins] and either” O’Keefe and Read, Brian Alert said. He said he wasn’t aware of any relationship between Higgins and Read.

Julie Albert, his sister-in-law, also arrived on the morning of Jan. 29 to drop off birthday donuts for his son, Brian Albert testified, and he asked her to come inside.

“It was an unbelievably chaotic morning,” Brian Albert said. Julie Albert seemed “very [much] in shock” when she learned what had happened.

Julie Albert returned a second time with her husband, Brian Albert’s brother Chris, he said.

After Jennifer McCabe burst into their bedroom with the news, Brian Albert said he looked out his window and saw emergency vehicles outside.

He said he never went out into the yard where investigators were working.

“They were trying to conduct an investigation” and he didn’t want to interfere with it, Brian Albert said. “To my knowledge I believe [O’Keefe] was on the way to the hospital” when McCabe alerted him and his wife.

Brian Albert said he had never met State Police investigator Michael Proctor but had met another trooper who spoke to him on Jan. 29 “once or twice before.” He was interviewed in the late morning or early afternoon at his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe’s house.

“I believe they spoke with Jen, and then her husband Matt, and then myself,” Brian Albert said.

He said the troopers interviewed them separately.

“I was upstairs when they were being spoken to,” he said of McCabe and her husband.

Albert said he had gone to their home because McCabe had appeared “distraught” at the home and he wanted to comfort her.

3:15 p.m. — Brian Albert testifies that “John O’Keefe and Karen Read never entered my house.”

Brian Albert, who lived at the home where O’Keefe’s body was found near the road, said he, his wife, and his daughter Caitlin made the short drive to their home after leaving the Waterfall bar. When they arrived, Brian Higgins was backing his car out so “I could pull my car in,” he said.

Higgins had arrived at the house earlier, Albert said.

The Albert family had a Ford Explorer, Cadillac SUV, Ford Edge, and one other vehicle that one of his children drove at the time, possibly a Ford Escape.

“We didn’t use the garage a lot [to park], because we kind of used it for storage,” he said. “I believe I pulled in on the left side of the driveway.”

He said he didn’t recall where Higgins parked his vehicle after pulling out of the driveway.

Albert’s son, Brian Jr., was home with two female friends when everyone got back, as well as his nephew Colin, who was “17, 18″ at the time and still in high school.

Colin Albert was standing in the kitchen near Brian Jr. and his two friends. He left after “no more than five minutes,” Albert testified.

Brian Albert said he went to the bathroom and his nephew “was gone” when he returned. He said he thought his nephew had left before the McCabes arrived.

Lally also asked Albert about their dog, which Albert described as a German Shepherd mix they had owned for about six or seven years.

At some point, Brian Albert said, “I went upstairs to grab the dog and let her use the bathroom.” He said he typically opened the back door to let Chloe out into a fenced-in yard.

Behind the back fence is a commuter rail track, he said.

“I stayed at the doorway, and the dog went to the bathroom, and ran right in,” Brian Albert said, adding that the whole process took a couple minutes.

He said the dog went to the kitchen for a couple minutes before he walked her back upstairs. The dog never went back outside, Albert said.

Trains went by the Fairview house five or six times daily, he said.

“It’s loud,” he said, adding that he became “kind of immune to the sound” of passing trains after a while.

Albert said he came downstairs after putting Chloe back in his room and gathered with everyone in the kitchen area.

“People were just sitting around having drinks,” listening to music, and “just talking, hanging out.”

The mood in the house was “pleasant,” he said, and “everything was going great.”

He said he stayed in the kitchen with everyone for the majority of the time but at one point went upstairs to show Higgins some military photos. That lasted two to three minutes, Brian Albert said.

Higgins left first, around 1:30 a.m., he said, so he went upstairs and watched television in his bedroom.

He said he “popped back down at one point” to see how long the remaining guests would stay before he went back upstairs.

At one point, Brian Albert said that the brother of one of his son’s friends came and she went outside to talk to him.

He said he never saw or heard anything in front of the house to draw his attention outside and had never been told that Read and O’Keefe were coming.

“John O’Keefe and Karen Read never entered my house,” he said.

3:05 p.m. — Brian Albert continues his testimony

Albert said “there was some conversation” at the bar about going to his brother’s pizza shop.

”For whatever reason, it didn’t happen,” he said. But since his son, Brian Jr., was turning 23 at midnight, his wife mentioned to the McCabes that people could come by the house to wish him happy birthday, he said.

Albert said anyone who wanted to come by was welcome.

Lally later showed him surveillance footage of the group at the Waterfall shortly before midnight on the 28th,. Brian Albert said he had difficulty identifying everyone because a timestamp was partially obstructing the image. He later identified his wife, his daughter, and himself in the footage.

”It’s a little grainy,” he said

3 p.m. — “Although I didn’t know him well, I considered him to be a friend,” Brian Albert says of John O’Keefe

Albert, who lived at the home where O’Keefe’s body was found near the road, said he couldn’t recall what he drank at the Waterfall bar in Canton but that he normally drinks Michelob Ultra. He said Higgins arrived at the bar about a half hour after he did. After another 30 minutes or so, he said that “John O’Keefe came into the Waterfall with the defendant.”

“I knew John O’Keefe but not well,” Albert said. He said he “knew him to be a Boston cop” but had only met him a couple times.

Albert said he never recalled working directly with O’Keefe at the Boston Police Department, which at any given time has upwards of 2,000 sworn officers.

”I knew him to be a friend of my brother Kevin’s” and other relatives, he said. Brian Albert said he also knew O’Keefe had decided to “step up” and raise his niece and nephew after their parents died.

”Although I didn’t know him well, I considered him to be a friend,” Brian Albert said of O’Keefe. “I considered him to be somebody that I could hang out with and have a good time with.”

He said he had met Read about a week earlier.

”I met her at the Hillside, I believe she was there with John, a week prior,” he said. At the Waterfall on Jan. 28, he spoke briefly with O’Keefe, who let him know his sergeant was leaving and joked that “I should try to get a job where he works.”

He said he did not recall speaking to Read at the Waterfall, where “everybody was in a great mood.”

2:45 p.m. — The next witness is Brian Albert, Julie Albert’s husband

After the sidebar, Julie Albert stepped down and her husband, Brian Albert, took the stand.

Albert said he lives in Norwood with his wife and two of their children, Brian Jr. and Brendan.

Brian Albert told prosecutor Adam Lally he’s the oldest of seven siblings. Before moving to Norwood, he and his family lived on Fairview Road for about 11 years, he testified. His parents lived at the same address before that.

He said he worked as a police officer for about 30 years and is now retired from the Boston Police Department. He said he, his brother Kevin Albert, a Canton police detective, and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent, had joined him in New York City earlier in the week to attend a police officer’s funeral.

He said he met Higgins through work and they became friends. They drove back to Massachusetts from the funeral, he said.

Initially, he went to Charlestown on the night of Jan. 28 to pick up his vehicle, a department-issued Ford Edge. From there, he met Higgins at a Canton bar called the Hillside. Brian Albert said he got to the Hillside around 9:30 p.m. He and Higgins “had a drink and hung out” for a while, he said.

While there, Brian Albert said he heard from his wife that a group was at the Waterfall bar and she invited him to come by. He drove over and saw several of his relatives gathered, he said.

Brian Albert said he has known his sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, who was at the bar, since she was 6 or 7. He said he greeted everyone and “I’m sure I ordered a drink” though he didn’t “recall exactly.”

2:15 p.m. — Nicole Albert resumes her testimony

Under cross-examination from Read’s lawyer Elizabeth Little, Albert said the front door was unlocked on the morning of Jan. 29. Little asked if there were blankets in the house and she said there were.

”Neither you nor your husband went outside to help John,” Little said.

”Weh were sound asleep,” Nicole Albert said, adding that she didn’t know what was happening until her sister, Jennifer McCabe, entered her room.

On redirect, she told prosecutor Adam Lally that Jennifer McCabe’s calls to her before she entered the house did not wake her.

Lally asked Albert about the family’s former dog, Chloe. She said that in May 2022, she and her husband offered to pay the medical bills for a person who was injured when its dog got in a fight with Chloe. After the incident, they decided to rehome the dog. Albert said she called a shelter in Texas, which found someone in Vermont who wanted to take the dog.

She also told Lally that her husband and his friend Brian were out of her sight for just “a couple minutes” in the early hours of Jan. 29.

Little then asked Albert if she received any voicemails from her sister Jennifer McCabe on the morning of Jan. 29. ”Not that I’m aware of,” Albert said.

Little also asked if she had ever provided information about Chloe’s current whereabouts to prosecutors, and Nicole Albert said she believed she did. The lawyers then went to sidebar.

1:30 p.m. — Aidan Kearney vows to appeal judge’s decision to keep him out of courtroom during some testimony

Kearney, speaking to reporters outside the courtroom during the court’s lunch recess, said he plans to appeal Judge Beverly Cannone’s ruling to higher courts.

”What they’re doing is disgraceful,” he said. “They’re trampling on the First Amendment and they’re trying to prevent justice for John O’Keefe. And they’re trying to frame an innocent woman in doing so.”

Earlier on Friday, Cannone said she would “excuse” Kearney, a blogger known as Turtleboy who has written extensively about the Read case, from being present for the testimony of several witnesses, including Nicole and Brian Albert, the owners of the home where John O’Keefe was found. But she said he would be allowed to return for other testimony.

12:55 p.m. — Nicole Albert testifies that she didn’t hear any commotion outside after they returned home from the bar

She told Read attorney Elizabeth Little that people gathered in the kitchen area of her home early on Jan. 29. She told Little she didn’t hear any commotion outside, such as the screeching of car brakes.

Little cited grand jury testimony in which Nicole Albert said she couldn’t place her husband and his friend Brian Higgins at the kitchen table.

”Because I don’t believe they ever sat at that table,” she said.

Little also noted that Nicole Albert had told the grand jury she wasn’t sure where her husband and Higgins went in the house while she was cleaning. Nicole Albert said it takes four or five steps to get from the front door of the home to the basement.

Little said Albert had told police something different about the order of people who left her house that morning. Little asked if she had told investigators that her daughter Caitlin had left around 12:15 a.m.

“I’ve always maintained that she was the last to leave,” Nicole Albert said. “I don’t believe I said that.”

She told Little she spoke to State Police investigator Michael Proctor on Feb. 3, 2022.

Little asked if she “left a lot of names out” when she told Proctor who was in the home that morning. Little asked why she neglected to tell Proctor that Colin Albert had been in the home.

”I didn’t consider Colin as being there, because I literally crossed paths with him. He left, and I didn’t consider him part of the group that was there,” Nicole Albert said.

She said “that is not true” when Little asked if she was trying to protect her daughter and nephew. Nicole Albert said she did not hear any firetrucks or ambulances or see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles outside her home before her sister Jennifer McCabe burst into her room between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.

Little noted that video surveillance indicates that McCabe entered the home around 6:45 a.m.

”I never answered any phone calls from my sister that morning,” Nicole Albert said after Little asked about phone records suggesting the two had spoken briefly by phone before McCabe entered the home.

Little showed the records to Nicole Albert indicating that McCabe had called her at 6:07 a.m. and again several minutes later.

”I never answered a phone call from my sister that morning,” Nicole Albert said.

”At 6:07 a.m., someone had a nine-second call with Jennifer McCabe, correct?” Little asked. Judge Beverly Cannone sustained a prosecution objection and then dismissed jurors for lunch.

12:45 p.m. — Nicole Albert continues under cross

After a sidebar, Albert told Read attorney Elizabeth Little that her husband has boxing experience, but she balked at Little’s suggestion that he had fighting experience in the Marine Corps, saying she was uncertain what the lawyer meant.

Little showed another surveillance clip of Nicole Albert outside the Waterfall bar with a can in her hand a couple of minutes before midnight, around the time she left.

Little tried to ask about a black Ford Edge vehicle at the Fairview Road home, but Judge Beverly Cannone repeatedly sustained prosecution objections.

Little asked Albert to describe her interaction with her nephew Colin when she got back to her house. Nicole Albert said she “immediately saw him” and that he was “getting ready for someone to pick him up.”

“He said to me, ‘My ride’s almost here, I’m leaving,’” Albert said. “So I didn’t see anything outside about his ride. ... I assumed he left, because I never saw him again.”

Little also asked if the Alberts’ dog, Chloe was “not great with strangers.”

“I’d say she’s fine with strangers,” she said, adding that Chloe had attacked other dogs.

“Chloe has injured other humans, hasn’t she?” Little said.

Nicole Albert said there had been a previous incident in 2022 when Chloe was fighting with another dog and its owner was injured.

She also said Chloe, who weighed about 70 pounds, had escaped from the backyard previously.

Nicole Albert said she “rehomed” her dog in Vermont months after O’Keefe’s death.

“If she is ever needed for anything, we know where she is,” Nicole Albert said.

12:30 p.m. — Nicole Albert testifies under cross-examination

Albert told Read attorney Elizabeth Little she was at the Waterfall bar for about four hours on Jan. 28.

”Over the course of those four hours you were there, did you see any sort of tension whatsoever between John O’Keefe and Miss Read?” Little asked.

”I didn’t have really any interaction with them, but no I didn’t see anything,” Nicole Albert said.

She said she did not observe any signs of intoxication in Read but also didn’t speak to her. She also told Little she saw her husband and his friend Brian Higgins “fooling around” with each other at the bar when asked about a moment the two men were play-fighting.

Little asked Nicole Albert if her husband often gets into fighting stances when he drinks, or if it was unusual for him to engage in “practice fighting.”

”They were fooling around,” Nicole Albert said. She denied that her husband was a “highly trained fighter” when Little asked.

12:15 p.m. — Nicole Albert continues her testimony

Albert said she was interviewed by State Police investigators “a couple days later” at her home. Earlier on the morning of Jan. 29, she said there were “blizzard conditions” outside. She said she did not go outside onto the front lawn that morning.

She said she couldn’t recall if her car was parked in the garage at the time due to the storm.

“The garage was a little bit cluttered” at the time, she said.

She said the family at the time had a German Shepherd mix named Chloe.

”We got the dog from a shelter in Texas,” she said. “At nighttime when we went up to bed, it came up with us and it slept in our bedroom.”

She said when they returned from the Waterfall bar, her husband had let Chloe out in the backyard to go to the bathroom. The backyard was fenced in, she said.

The dog “went, did her business, and came back in,” Nicole Albert said, adding that Chloe went upstairs and did not go back outside at any point.

Read’s lawyers have alleged that Chloe may have attacked O’Keefe during a fight in the home.

Regarding the sale of her home, Albert said her family had discussed it before O’Kefee’s death after a relative’s home sold for a good price.

The sale of the home was finalized in April 2023, she said.

”It had no relation” to O’Keefe’s death, Nicole Albert said. “We reached out to a realtor” in late 2021.

11:45 a.m. - Nicole Albert takes the stand

Nicole Albert said that in January 2022 she lived with her husband Brian and their children at 34 Fairview Road. Her son, Brian Jr., turned 23 on Jan. 29, 2022.

”He had mentioned he was going to get together with some friends” that night, Nicole Albert said, so she suggested perhaps the family could get together the night before.

But beause of the storm, she suggested her “just do something with your friends Friday night,” she testifed.

She and some of her relatives ultimately decided to go to the Waterfall bar. She was “probably” drinking White Claw, she testified. Around 11 p.m., John O’Keefe “walked in with his girlfriend,” she said.

She said she hadn’t met Read before and had only met O’Keefe once or twice. The only interaction she had with O’Keefe at the bar was when he first came in and asked if anyone else needed a drink, she said.

She said she had no interaction with Read at the bar.

As the bar was closing, Nicole Albert said she told her sister, Jennifer McCabe, that she could come by the house to wish Brian Jr. a happy birthday. She and her husband and her daughter Caitlin drove home shortly before midnight, pulling into the driveway. Her nephew Colin Albert, then 17, was at the house and said someone was oming to pick him up, she testified.

He left after a “couple minutes, not even,” she said. “Just a quick interaction.”

Her son and two female friends were also in the home when she got back, she said.

”They were just sitting there,” she said. “Later on I remembered that we had music connected to a little speaker that we were playing.”

She said she wished her son a happy birthday and then started tidying up a bit around the house.

”That’s kind of what I do,” Nicole Albert testified.

Her husband’s friend, Brian Higgins, arrived later, as did her sister Jennifer McCabe and her husband, she said. Colin Albert had already left the house by then, she testified.

The guests sat at the kitchen table and had more drinks, she said.

”By the time everyone left it was probably close to 2″ in the morning, Nicole Albert said. Higgins left first around 1:30 a.m., then the McCabes, and then Brian’s friends, she said. Caitlin Albert left after that when her boyfriend picked her up.

She said Higgins may have come to the house previously for a graduation party but she didn’t recall him ever being inside before. Nicole Albert said she didn’t hear or see anything unusual while she was at the house.

Neither O’Keefe nor Read ever came inside, she said. Lawyers for Read have asserted that O’Keefe was beaten in the basement of the home before his body was dumped on the front lawn in the snow.

”They never came into my home,” Nicole Albert said.

The mood “was fine” earlier at the Waterfall, she said, and back at the house, “we were just hanging out.”

“Having a good time, nothing crazy,” she said. Brian Albert was watching television in bed when she went upstairs, she said.

”I do not” recall him talking with anyone on the phone in bed, she said.

Around 6:30 a.m., her sister, Jennifer McCabe, “came bursting into my bedroom,” she testified. McCabe said, “he’s out in the snow. ... We don’t know if he’s OK,” Albert testified. She asked McCabe, “Jennifer what are you talking about?”

10:45 a.m. — Testimony paused to discuss Aidan Kearney’s presence in the courtroom

Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors out after Julie Albert concluded her testimony to hear arguments on a prosecution motion to bar Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, from the courtroom when certain witnesses are testifying.

Kearney, who has championed Read’s innocence and helped draw extensive attention to the case, was in the courtroom on Friday for the first time during the two-week trial.

Kearney is charged with harassing and intimidating several of the witnesses in the case, but his lawyer, Timothy Bradl, noted that two judges had previously ruled he could be present in the courtroom for the proceedings.

”The government is seeking to essentially trample all over my client’s First Amendment rights as a journalist,” Bradl said. “Mr. Kearney has covered this case and written about 350 news articles that have added to the ... evidence in this matter. He’s never caused a problem. He wishes to be in the galley of journalists like everyone else.”

Prosecutor Adam Lally countered that prosecutors weren’t seeking to bar Kearney from watching the testimony remotely or covering the case, but that he could not be in the courtroom.

”Mr. Kearney has been indicted and has open cases” relating to allegations of witness intimidation in the case, Lally said. “The witnesses have expressed concern,” he said, and the district attorney’s office is worried his presence could cause certain witnesses to testify differently.

Judge Beverly Cannone said she would “excuse” Kearney from being present for the testimony of several witnesses, including Nicole and Brian Albert, the owners of the home where John O’Keefe was found. But she said he would be allowed to return for other testimony.

Kearney then left the courtroom.

He later posted a response on X, writing that “No one is scared. No one is intimidated. They are simply trying to violate my First Amendment rights to Freedom of the Press.”

10:15 a.m. — Defense questions Julie Albert about timeline of Jan. 29

Read lawyer David Yannetti showed Albert surveillance video of her husband leaving the Waterfall bar around 12:13 a.m. He had testified that he walked home from the bar.

“That’s what it says on the screen,” she said of his departure time.

Yannetti said the revised timeline would mean her husband came home closer to 12:20 a.m. or 12:21 a.m.

“Correct,” she said.

She said her husband went to the bedroom when he got home and immediately removed his wet clothes.

“I think he got right into bed,” Julie Albert said. “I was just sitting up in bed praying for my headache to go away.” (Albert had testified Thursday that she left the bar earlier on the 28th because she had a migraine.)

“As a mother you couldn’t have gone to sleep until you knew your kids were home, correct?” Yannetti asked.

“Correct,” Julie Albert said.

She and her husband had both testified Thursday that Colin Albert came home shortly after Chris Albert.

Julie Albert also told Yannetti that when she arrived at the Fairview Road home on the morning of Jan. 29, the police were gone and she did not see any shards of glass or pieces of broken taillight on the lawn.

She said she had gone to the house to drop off birthday gifts for her nephew when Brian Albert came to the door and asked her to come inside.

She testified that at the front entrance to the home is a foyer area, with a library to the left.

“If you walk straight ahead, there’s a door to the left that goes down to the basement, correct?” Yannetti asked.

“Correct,” Julie Albert said.

Read’s lawyers have alleged in court filings that O’Keefe was fatally beaten in the basement of the home.

Yannetti said Julie Albert had another State Police interview in early April 2022. She said the troopers did not take her phone but had searched it for contacts. They then returned the phone to her, she said.

State Police had previously seized Read’s phone.

Julie Albert also told Yannetti that Read did not appear intoxicated at the Waterfall bar and wasn’t arguing with O’Keefe.

She said her son Colin had been at a friend’s house earlier on Jan. 28 before heading to his uncle’s house to wish his cousin a happy birthday.

“You learned that he was there on Jan. 29, correct?’ Yannetti said of the Fairview Road home.

“Yes, after midnight,” she said.

Yannetti asked if she neglected to mention to investigators that Colin had been at the Fairview Road home.

“I don’t recall my interview,” she said.

On redirect, prosecutor Adam Lally asked Julie Albert if the 67 calls she exchanged with Courtney Proctor over a several month period was more or less, on average, than she normally has with close friends.

“Less so,” she said.

She told Lally she voluntarily spoke to State Police and provided her phone.

She also testified that she hadn’t been expecting to go inside the Fairview Road home on the morning of Jan. 29 and did not know O’Keefe had been found unresponsive on the front lawn hours earlier. He was pronounced dead later that morning at a Brockton hospital.

Her testimony concluded shortly after 10:10 a.m. and Judge Beverly Cannone called a morning recess.

9:45 a.m. — Julie Albert testimony continues

Albert, whose family lived on the same street as O’Keefe when he was dating Read, told Yannetti she never saw any fights or tension between them.

Yannetti then turned the questioning back to the night of Jan. 28 at the Waterfall bar, where Read, O’Keefe, members of the Albert family, and an ATF agent named Brian Higgins had gathered.

She testified that her brother-in-law, Brian Albert, and his friend Higgins arrived together, before Read and O’Keefe.

“He said ‘What’s up?’ and made a joke,” Julie Albert said of O’Keefe.

“John was the same jokester he always was, correct?” Yannetti asked.

“Correct,” she said.

And Read was “just very bubbly that night, correct?” Yannetti asked.

“Correct,” Julie Albert said.

Her husband, Chris Albert, was also among the group at the bar and came home around 12:10 a.m., she said.

Yannetti asked her if she had discussed that specific time with anyone before taking the stand to coordinate their stories.

“No,” Julie Albert said.

9:30 a.m. — Cross-examination of Julie Albert continues

Read lawyer David Yannetti asked Albert again about how frequently she had spoken with Courtney Proctor, the sister of the lead State Police investigator on the case.

Yannetti reminded her she had testified Thursday that she “rarely” spoke with Proctor by phone, though phone records indicated the two spoke 67 times in seven months, between February and early September 2022.”

That wasn’t every day,” Albert said of the calls.

She said she didn’t recall discussing the Read case with Courtney Proctor during any of those calls.

”I don’t deny it, but I don’t remember,” she said.

As he did on Thursday, Yannetti noted that Albert and Courtney Proctor spoke for 12 minutes by phone the day Read was arrested on Feb. 1, 2022.

”You certainly mentioned my client’s arrest with Courtney Proctor ... correct?” Yannetti asked.

“Correct,” she said.

Yannetti asked about three calls Albert had with Proctor the following day, when Read was arraigned.

”Certainly when you were talking to [lead investigator] Michael Proctor’s sister on Feb. 2 ... you were discussing the 9 o’clock arraignment, correct?” Yannetti asked.

Judge Beverly Cannone sustained a prosecution objection, and Albert later said “I don’t remember, exactly,” when asked again if she had discussed the case with Courtney Proctor.

”I don’t remember what I was talking about,” she said.

”It could have been about the publicly televised arraignment,” Yannetti said.

”Yes, it could have been,” Albert said.

She later was interviewed by Michael Proctor, the State Police investigator.

”Of course I was nervous in general about a police interview,” Albert said.

Yannetti asked if she had been nervous about investigators possibly asking her son, Colin Albert, about his whereabouts the night of Jan. 28.

“No,” she said.

Yannetti also noted that Albert and her husband were interviewed together.

“Correct,” she said.

Albert and her husband, Chris Albert, both testified Thursday that Colin Albert returned from a party at the Fairview Road home shortly before 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 29. Prosecutors say that was before Read dropped O’Keefe off outside the home, where O’Keefe’s body was found hours later in a blizzard.

After the State Police interview, phone records indicate Julie Albert and Michael Proctor spoke on his personal cell phone on Feb. 10, 2022, Yannetti said.

”I do not remember” what the call was about, Julie Albert said.

She said Courtney Proctor is her sister’s best friend, and she is also close with her.

Yannetti worked to establish that Julie Albert was far less close to Read.

”She was an outsider,” he said.

”She was not from Canton,” Julie Albert said.

8:45 a.m — The drama outside the courtroom

The competition to witness the proceedings at Norfolk Superior Court intensified overnight. Just minutes after testimony wrapped up on Thursday, reporters placed chairs to hold their spot in line for the following day. As the opening of court approached on Friday, two bloggers among the first few seats, Grant Smith Ellis and Aidan Kearney, also known as Turtleboy, exchanged words and recorded each other doing so before going their separate ways.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.