DAY 20: Karen Read Retrial
Leading Neurosurgeon confirms that John's black eyes were not caused by direct impact to the face, but from a very high-speed impact his head made with the ground.
WOWZA Wednesday.
Today was a huge day for the prosecution in regard to John O’Keefe’s head injury.
As much as it was fascinating to hear from a leading neurologist in the medical field, it was also gut-wrenching to learn about the trauma John endured.
And maybe the most painful thing to hear…
Was that he could have been saved had someone rendered him medical aide earlier. This information is clearly a building block for the Commonwealth pursuing the Murder 2 charge against Karen Read.
ON THE STAND TODAY:
Dr. Aizik Wolf (Neurosurgeon)
Christina Hanley (Forensic Scientist)
Dr. Aizik Wolf (Neurosurgeon)
Founder and Director of the Miami Neuroscience Center at Larkin Hospital.
Dr. Wolf shares a long list of accomplishments from over the decades. Instead of listing them here, I grabbed a quote of Dr. Wolf online, which highlights his career.
The doctor explains the external back head wound as a classic linear basilar skull fracture.
Dr. Wolf states that the only way he could get this kind of an injury was to fall backwards, hit the back of his head, and then the energy forces going into his brain and into his base of his skull.
Back head wound is inconsistent with being hit with a blunt instrument object (hammer, bat, etc.) because there was no depressed skull fracture.
John’s black eyes were not caused by a direct trauma to the face.
Dr. Wolf explains how the impact of the back head wound would cause the brain to project forward into the front of the skull, ultimately leading the eyes to swell and fill with blood. Commonly known as “raccoon eyes”.
It's impossible to know whether he became immediately unconscious, but his injuries were very substantial, and it's more probable than not that at some point, he quickly became unconscious and was unable to do functional activities.
John would not have died immediately.
“It's a process, and it's a process of a combination of things. swelling, which takes a while to develop, decreased blood flow to your brain because you're getting swelling, and ultimately, death of the brain stem that controls your heart and your breathing. And so this is why there is a whole big issue about brain death. You know, when is someone brain dead? Because it's not instant, and it can take a long time to to be conceived.”
Neither this type of head wound, nor hypothermia would cause someone to die immediately.
CROSS-EXAMINATION:
Defense Attorney Alessi spends a brief moment questioning the doctor.
Asks if the small laceration above John’s eye would be caused by the impact that caused John’s head wound. Doctor Wolfe says no.
Christina Hanley (Forensic Scientist)
Christina testified yesterday briefly before court ended regarding the glass pieces she analyzed. Her testimony continued today after Dr Wolf testified due to scheduling issues.
She analyzed the debris collected from the victim’s shirt and sweatshirt. Tiny pieces of clear and red plastic were discovered. The largest being the size of rice, the smallest being under a 16th of an inch. Threads from John’s clothing are seen attached to several of the shards. Here is a photo taken under a microscope of the debris.
The plastic shards were consistent in color and instrumental properties of Karen Read’s broken taillight.
The scientist describes how glass pieces discovered at the crime scene matched the broken cocktail glass found near the victim.
She also analyzed several glass pieces located on the bumper of the SUV (and one located on scene) that were not a mechanical match with the cocktail glass, but was consistent with the instrumental properties of that cocktail glass. This means that these few specific glass shards could not connect to the jigsaw of the glass cup the scientist was able to match. Not all pieces of the tiny clear shards were located in the blizzard aftermath (which is no surprise), so the missing pieces were likely the ones that connected the other shards together like a puzzle.
If you want a good explanation of this glass analysis broken down further (no pun intended😬), the X account Furious George did a fantastic job.
Defense Attorney Jackson points out that the one glass shard found at the crime scene that matched the pieces on the bumper was collected by Investigator Proctor.
Defense suggests that the plastic shards scraped from John’s clothing (that the scientist said is consistent in color and instrumental properties to the taillight) is not a definitive conclusion. He suggests it’s possible that it could be from another source with those properties. She says that’s possible.
Court ended a tad early today, and won’t resume until Tuesday next week!
PS - I’m thinking about hosting a YouTube live soon to chat about the wild conspiracies that keep evolving in this case. It will be light-hearted. I will keep you guys posted.
Have a wonderful rest of the week!