Defense Rests! No Rebuttal? What happens next? | Case Brief

The Emily Show

Baker Media, LLC.

True Crime, Entertainment News, News

4.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Watch the full coverage of the live stream on The Emily D Baker YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/live/9W-28UtY1lY

Day 31 of the Karen Read Retrial happened on June 11, 2025. Neither Karen Read nor Former Trooper Proctor will be called to testify. A charging conference, where jury instructions will be discussed, is scheduled for tomorrow. The Defense is requesting instructions regarding "missing witnesses" and the hoodie, but not a "third-party culprit" instruction.

Dr. Rentschler's testimony focused on the paint transfer test and concluded that the injuries were inconsistent with the Commonwealth's theory, stating that the abrasions on O'Keefe's arm do not correspond to how an arm would interact with the vehicle if struck at a right angle. The Defense effectively used visuals from his Power Point to support Dr. Rentschler's testimony.

During cross-examination, Special Prosecutor, Hank Brennan, largely avoided questions about Dr. Rentschler's testing, instead focusing on his independence and expenses. Rentschler maintained his opinions were unchanged by these factors. Brennan's cross-examination strategy undermined the Commonwealth's position, especially given the high payment to their own experts.

A significant development is that the Commonwealth will not call any rebuttal witnesses once the defense rests, a surprising move given their prior legal battles over testimony. The introduction of X-rays by the defense, which many believed didn't exist due to Dr. Welcher's testimony, may have influenced this decision.

With the evidence phase concluding, the next steps are the charging conference, where jury instructions and lesser-included crimes will be debated, and then closing arguments on Friday. The jury will then deliberate, with the complexity of Count Two (involuntary manslaughter) expected to be a key focus, as it was in the previous trial.

RESOURCES

What You Need to Know About the Retrial - https://youtu.be/89Jpa8vz1RQ

Karen Read Retrial Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbUyvZas7gKOJlfL__9F027hlETVU-vo

Karen Read Trial - 2024 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbUyvZas7gKUeCUzApgsEuQRXu5IXeTS

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back. It's time for a case brief, keeping you in the loop with the cases you care about most,
0:04.0	just more briefly. If you want the full coverage, it's linked in the description below. But for now,
0:08.6	let's get into it. It's day 31. We are in week eight of the retrial of Karen Reid. And what we
0:16.2	learned in court yesterday is that we are very close to being done. The defense is on their last witness. What does that
0:22.8	mean? Well, they're not going to call Karen Reed to testify. We kind of knew that. They're not going to
0:27.4	call Trooper Proctor to testify, and we had heard that, but seeing is believing. And it looks like
0:34.7	no one is going to call trooper proctor to testify.
0:37.8	So we will be done with Dr. Renshler today.
0:40.9	That's where we're at with this case.
0:43.4	And then there needs to be a charging conference.
0:45.4	That is the jury instruction conference between the jury is charged with the duty of rendering a verdict.
0:52.4	So that will be instructive. I hope that it is also streamed
0:58.3	so we can see what they are arguing over the different jury instructions. At that time,
1:04.1	we will hear more discussion about the jury instructions. The defense is asking for,
1:08.0	like the instruction regarding necessary witnesses, sometimes called
1:12.1	missing witnesses, like the instruction regarding the hoodie. And what was asked of Dr. Wolf
1:19.4	before the jury about that, some of those things we will hear in the charging conference and
1:26.6	see what the final set of jury instructions will look like.
1:30.2	The defense is not asking for a third party culprit instruction.
1:33.1	They didn't ask for that last trial either.
1:36.2	So that's not new.
1:37.1	The evidence hasn't been developed that way in this case at all.
	...

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