The jury foreman in the Karen Read trial spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday on "TODAY" in his first broadcast interview.
The jury foreman, who asked that his name be kept private for confidentiality reasons, spoke about the controversial case, the four days of deliberation and how the jury reached its verdict.
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SIGN UP "Collectively, together, we looked at all the evidence that was presented and we made our decision off of that," he said. "At first some had their own personal opinions on what the case should be or whatever, and was trying to go down like personal feelings and stuff like that, and we had to stick to what evidence we had in front of us and go with that. So it was more or less just trying to figure out that part.
"It took us a couple days to really get the gears going, but when we did it was smooth trails after that."
Asked if there was one piece of evidence that ultimately convinced the jurors, the jury foreman said it was more the overall evidence.
"It was the whole case all together, all the pieces -- the testimony, witnesses and just a lot of it together. People had questions, and we used the evidence to answer their questions and we didn't try to go down these rabbit holes where we're just getting lost in all these other things that were thrown at us in court or whatever. We just had to lock down and figure it out through the evidence."
But is Read innocent, or did the prosecutors just not prove her guilt, the jury foreman was asked.
"Karen Read is innocent, and she didn't do this crime," he said. "No one could prove that she did this crime, so I looked at her from Day 1 as an innocent woman that needed to be proven guilty, and I don't think any of that was shown in this process."
So who does he think did kill John O'Keefe?
"That's not my job," the jury foreman said. "Something did happen to Mr. O'Keefe, and it's foul play, or whatever you want to say, but there was no evidence even through multiple witnesses and testimony, by his autopsy and everything, there was still no one who said there was solid evidence that there was a collision or he got hit by a car."
When asked if he thinks Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, the jury foreman said, "No, I don't. Not with the evidence that was put in front of me."
Read, 45, was found not guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly collision but convicted of drunken driving on June 18 following her second trial. Prosecutors said she hit O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV, in January of 2022, leaving him to die in a blizzard.
But her lawyers argued that O'Keefe was beaten, bitten by a dog and then left outside a home in Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by police that included planting evidence against Read.
The jury foreman said he wasn't swayed in any way by the high-profile nature of the case or the large crowds of Read supporters gathered outside the courtroom daily.
"I was just going to go with whatever the evidence showed us, if it was finding her guilty or not guilty, we were just going to go with the evidence," he said. "When I came in on Monday I just wanted everyone to feel like they're heard 100%, and everyone felt at the end of the deliberations, that everyone felt good about the decision that we all collectively came together with."
As for what justice might look like now for the O'Keefe family, the jury foreman said he's not totally sure.
"Someone looking into it further, but looking into it further with the evidence you already have and you finally find a possible person," he said. "There's going to be the same complications of all these other stipulations of the evidence and everything else to go along with it. It's just hard, and to put a mother through that and a father and a brother and a whole family through that again, it's a lot. Even me being there for eight weeks and nine, just sitting and watching the videos and seeing the tape and everything, it's a lot to see your loved one go through that."
