Karen Read Trial Day 19 Breakdown - Forensic Showdown As Timeline Survives Resume Attack
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3 • 791 Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
In today’s explosive session of the Karen Read murder trial, the defense launched a full-on assault—not against the timeline, not against the data, but against the man who delivered it: digital forensics expert Shanon Burgess.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson hammered Burgess over old versions of his résumé, which falsely listed a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Under oath, Burgess admitted he never earned the degree—fueling the defense’s claim that his testimony shouldn’t be trusted. But did the argument land?
Not according to the Commonwealth. Prosecutor Hank Brennan struck back hard in redirect, pointing out that Burgess had updated his CV in 2024 to say he was “currently pursuing” the degree, and that the flawed version in question was submitted by a staffer in a completely unrelated case. More importantly, Brennan reminded the court: Burgess’s credentials were not the reason he was called to testify—his evidence was.
And that evidence still stands: forensic data that places Karen Read’s Lexus reversing at the exact moment John O’Keefe’s iPhone stopped moving. That timeline didn’t change, even when the résumé drama played out.
The jury also heard from Christina Hanley, a forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab. Hanley walked them through physical evidence collected from the scene and Read’s SUV—glass shards, taillight fragments, and a clear drinking cup. The defense tried to poke holes by highlighting a date misstatement, but the impact was minimal. The evidence, like the timeline, was intact.
This episode unpacks the resume attack, the prosecution’s defense, and why, at the end of the day, you can question a man’s degree—but not the truth in the data.
#KarenRead #JohnOKeefe #KarenReadTrial #ShanonBurgess #ForensicEvidence #TrueCrimeCourtroom #ProsecutionStrategy #FakeDegree #CrimeSceneAnalysis #ChristinaHanley
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Hidden Killers podcast with Tony Bruske and continuing coverage of the case against Karen Reid. |
| 0:07.6 | You know that moment in a courtroom when everything just kind of seems to click, like the gears of the lock falling into place one after another until you hear that final. |
| 0:23.6 | The door swings open. |
| 0:27.2 | That was today in the trial of Karen Reid. |
| 0:31.6 | And a trial that's had more twists than a corkscrew. |
| 0:35.9 | Today might have been the day things actually started to align. |
| 0:39.4 | And not in a speculative what-if kind of way. We're talking data, cold, unblinking, time-stamped data. Straight from Karen reads Lexus and John O'Kee's phone. |
| 0:47.2 | Two digital witnesses who don't forget, don't embellish, and don't take sides. |
| 0:53.4 | Let me know what you think about the testimony today in the comment section. |
| 0:57.1 | If you're watching us on YouTube or Twitter X, wherever it may be, love to hear your thoughts. |
| 1:02.1 | Be sure to press subscribe if you're listening on the podcast platforms wherever it is. |
| 1:05.6 | And do check out YouTube and vice versa. |
| 1:07.9 | Press subscribe wherever you're at. |
| 1:09.5 | So you don't miss any of our coverage on this case and the many cases that we're |
| 1:12.6 | covering for you right here at True Crime Today and the Hitting Killers podcast. |
| 1:16.9 | Okay, on with this story. |
| 1:18.7 | The star of the day was a guy named Shannon Burgess, okay? |
| 1:23.0 | Now, Burgess isn't a household name, but he's a digital forensic expert, the kind of guy who speaks |
| 1:28.0 | fluent data and can pull breadcrumbs out of the tech most people never even realize is tracking |
| 1:34.6 | them. And while we'll get to some colorful questions about his resume later, what mattered |
| 1:40.8 | today was what he found, because what he uncovered may be the single most damning |
| 1:47.3 | piece of evidence we've seen thus far. Burgess took the stand and held it out, laid it all |
... |
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