DEDHAM — Brian and Nicole Albert, who owned the Canton home where John O’Keefe was left outside in a blizzard in January 2022, testified Friday that O’Keefe had never come inside the house and that they only learned he had died when Nicole’s sister burst through their bedroom door with the news.
“She was very upset,” Brian Albert, a former Boston police officer, said of his sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe. “Almost hysterical. She said something to the effect [of], ‘John is dead.’”
As the second week of the murder trial of Karen Read concluded in Norfolk Superior Court, the Alberts testified that while many friends and family members came back to their home on Fairview Road after gathering at a local bar, O’Keefe and Read did not, contradicting a central claim by Read’s defense team.
“They never came into my home,” Nicole Albert said.
Prosecutors allege that Read dropped O’Keefe, her boyfriend and a Boston police officer, off at the house and then intentionally and drunkenly backed her SUV into him at high speed, knocking him to the ground before driving away and leaving him for dead. But Read’s lawyers contend that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home after Read left before his body was dumped at the edge of the road.
On Friday, the Alberts told jurors they had gathered with friends and family at the Waterfall Bar & Grille on the night of Jan. 28, 2022.
Brian Albert testified that he and a friend, Brian Higgins, met earlier at a Canton bar called the Hillside, where they “had a drink and hung out” for a while before Nicole Albert told him that a group was at the Waterfall and invited him to come by.
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. Albert has since retired from the department.
“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.”
At the bar, Albert said 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.”
Brian Albert said he did not recall speaking to Read at the bar, where “everybody was in a great mood.” He said he had met her for the first time about a week before with O’Keefe.
Brian Albert said there was some talk at the bar about going to his brother’s pizza shop, but “for whatever reason, that didn’t happen.” His wife, Nicole, noted that their son, Brian Jr., was turning 23 at midnight and mentioned to her sister and her brother-in-law that people could come by the house to wish him happy birthday, he said.
When he got to his home on Fairview Road, Brian Albert said he let their family dog, Chloe, outside in the backyard and then brought her upstairs. He said he then returned downstairs and gathered with everyone in the kitchen area.
“People were just sitting around having drinks,” listening to music, and “just talking, hanging out.”
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 might be coming.
“John O’Keefe and Karen Read never entered my house,” he said.
Albert is slated to face questioning from Read’s lawyers on Monday as the trial proceeds.
Earlier on Thursday, Nicole Albert testified under cross-examination. One of Read’s attorneys, Elizabeth Little, asked her if she noticed any tension between O’Keefe and Read. Prosecutors have said their relationship was rocky.
“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.
Little later pressed Nicole Albert on why they did not go outside to help O’Keefe.
“We were sound asleep,” Nicole Albert said.
Sean Cotter of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.