Chris and Julie Albert testified in Karen Read’s murder trial. Here’s what they said.

As Chris and Julie Albert took the stand Thursday, Read’s lawyers sought to highlight the Albert family’s extensive connections in Canton.

On the stand Thursday:

Judge Beverly Cannone ended Thursday’s half-day court session with Julie Albert still under cross-examination from defense attorney David Yanetti. The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Friday with a full day scheduled.

12:30 p.m. update: Defense focuses on Julie Albert’s friendship with Trooper Michael Proctor’s sister

Arriving at 34 Fairview Road the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, Julie Albert said she sought only to drop off a birthday treat for her nephew. Instead, she found several shell-shocked witnesses.

Albert said she stopped by Dunkin’ that morning as part of a longstanding tradition with nephew Brian Albert Jr.

“Every year on his birthday, I go to Dunkin’ Donuts,” she explained. “I get him six doughnuts, and I bring them to the house, and I leave them there with a card before he gets up, so when he wakes up, they’re there. I’ve been doing it for years.”

But when she pulled up to 34 Fairview Road that morning, her brother-in-law — the elder Brian Albert — met her at the door and asked her to come inside. Brian Albert’s wife Nicole, Nicole’s sister and brother-in-law Jennifer and Matt McCabe, and their friend Brian Higgins were all in the kitchen.

“Everyone was just sitting there, and I was looking around,” Julie Albert recalled. “Everyone was visibly upset. And I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ And another maybe 30 seconds went by, and Jen said, ‘Something’s happened to John.’”

They had all gone out drinking with John O’Keefe and Karen Read the night before at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, and Albert said she hadn’t noticed any arguments or disagreements among the group. She also denied seeing any injuries on Brian Albert or Brian Higgins the next morning.

Albert left the bar early because of a headache, but some members of the group continued on to 34 Fairview Road for an afterparty that stretched into the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022. O’Keefe was found unresponsive on the home’s front lawn later that morning.

On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti grilled Albert on her friendship with Courtney Proctor, whose brother Michael Proctor is the Massachusetts State Police trooper who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death. Albert acknowledged that she’s close friends with Courtney Proctor and has provided child care for her in the past.

“Were you using Courtney Proctor as an intermediary to communicate with Michael Proctor about this case?” Yannetti asked.

“No, I was not,” Albert replied.

She testified that she usually texts with Courtney Proctor and speaks with her by phone “very rarely.”

“Are you aware that between Feb. 1 of 2022 and Sept. 6 of 2022, you and Courtney Proctor spoke by phone 67 times?” Yannetti asked.

Albert said she didn’t recall the specific number of times she’d spoken with Proctor over the phone.

11:30 update: As the first Albert takes the stand, attention turns to family’s local ties

As Chris Albert took the stand Thursday to discuss his relationship with John O’Keefe, defense attorneys attempted to uncover any evidence of discord between the former neighbors.

Karen Read’s lawyers focused several questions on Albert’s son Colin, whom they’ve previously sought to implicate in their third-party culprit defense. They allege O’Keefe died after he was beaten inside the home of Brian Albert — Chris Albert’s brother — and that Read was framed in a massive coverup meant to protect the well-connected Canton family.

On the stand, Chris Albert testified that he and O’Keefe used to live on the same street in Canton and considered each other friends.

“He was friendly with some other folks that I was friends with, so we’d maybe be out occasionally and bump into him,” Albert said. “But he would also come to my pizza shop a lot.”

Albert said he was working at his restaurant, D&E Pizza & Subs, on Jan. 28, 2022, when O’Keefe stopped by for a couple slices. O’Keefe asked Albert whether he had any plans for that night, and Albert said he mentioned that a group of people planned to go out to celebrate his nephew Brian Albert Jr.’s birthday.

“I said to him, ‘I’ll shoot you a text later if you’re around. Maybe we can hook up,’” Albert recalled.

That night, O’Keefe and Read met up with Chris Albert and several others at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton.

“At one point when they first came over, the defendant came in with a glass beneath her jacket,” Albert testified. “I thought that was kind of funny, and I laughed about it and made a comment about it.”

As their time at the bar wound down, the group talked about continuing on to either D&E Pizza & Subs or Brian Albert’s home at 34 Fairview Road.

“We have this little ritual that when one of my nieces or nephews turn 21, we go back to the pizza shop after-hours and turn on the oven and make pizzas and stuff,” Chris Albert explained. “And there was talk about going back there. Ms. Read asked if we could go back and make pizzas up at my pizza shop a couple times.”

However, he said he rejected the idea because he was entered into a weight loss competition and didn’t want to eat pizza so close to the weigh-in. Albert ultimately returned home as several other members of the group continued on to 34 Fairview Road.

He said Colin Albert — who was celebrating his cousin’s birthday over at Brian Albert’s house — returned home sometime after him and “opened our bedroom door and said, ‘Good night guys, I love you, I’m home.’”

He testified that he didn’t see any injuries on his son when Colin Albert returned home that night, nor at any point the next day.

Soon after he awoke on Jan. 29, 2022, Chris Albert said his wife entered their bedroom and told him something had happened to O’Keefe.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Like, what do you mean?’”

They headed over to 34 Fairview Road and found Brian and Nicole Albert, Brian Higgins, and Jennifer and Matt McCabe sitting around the kitchen table. Albert testified that he did not see any injuries on either Brian Albert or Brian Higgins.

On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti highlighted Albert’s ties to his hometown, noting that Albert raised his kids in Canton, serves on the town’s Select Board, and operates a business there.

“You would agree that your entire family has deep roots in the town of Canton?” Yannetti asked.

“I guess,” Albert answered.

“You would agree with me that the Albert family is well-known in the town of Canton?” Yannetti continued.

“We have a big family,” Albert replied.

“And you would agree with me that the Albert family is a powerful family in the town of Canton?” Yannetti asked, prompting an objection from prosecutors. Judge Beverly Cannone sustained the objection.

Later, Albert acknowledged that he has some close friends in the Canton Police Department and knows Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death.

Turning his attention to the Alberts themselves, Yannetti asked, “And you’re protective of each other, correct?”

“Like most families,” Albert replied.

“Your son Colin is particularly close to your brother Brian, is he not?” Yannetti continued.

“Yes,” Albert said.

Yannetti also asked about “Nebbercracker,” a character from the movie “Monster House” known for yelling at others to get off his lawn. Albert confirmed that “Nebbercracker” was the nickname he and his wife used for O’Keefe but said it had nothing to do with a conflict between O’Keefe and Colin Albert. He further denied that O’Keefe had ever complained to him about Colin or mentioned Colin throwing beer cans into his bushes.

Instead, he explained, the nickname was inspired by a time when O’Keefe jokingly yelled, “Hey kid, get off my lawn,” as Albert’s youngest son cut across the grass. When O’Keefe learned that he’d upset Albert’s son, he brought the boy a bag of candy as an apology, Albert testified.

Livestream via NBC10 Boston.

It’s another half-day of testimony in the

murder trial, which continues Thursday in Norfolk Superior Court.

Friends of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe took the stand Wednesday and spoke of O’Keefe’s role as a guardian to his young niece and nephew, his relationship with Read, and the couple’s time at two local bars the night before O’Keefe died.

“They were affectionate toward each other, loving toward each other, to the point where my wife even made a comment, ‘Why are you not like that with me?’” recalled Nicholas Kolokithas, who was with O’Keefe, Read, and others at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton on Jan. 28, 2022.

Karina Kolokithas, his wife, later testified that Read and O’Keefe appeared “quite lovey-dovey.”

While witnesses denied seeing any arguments or tension between Read and O’Keefe that night, prosecutors allege the couple’s mood soured at some point.

Read, they say, backed her SUV into O’Keefe — her boyfriend of two years — while dropping him off at an afterparty on Fairview Road in Canton. The 44-year-old is accused of leaving O’Keefe to die in the snow outside a fellow Boston officer’s home.

After finding O’Keefe’s body later that morning, Read allegedly told first responders she and O’Keefe had had a spat, a Canton firefighter and paramedic testified last week.

“She had said that they had gotten into an argument,” Jason Becker said. “She was sad because that was the last thing she had said to him, was the argument. But she didn’t go into detail about what the argument was about or what was said.”

Lawyers for the Mansfield woman have argued O’Keefe was actually beaten inside 34 Fairview Road and possibly attacked by the family’s German shepherd. They say Read was framed in a widespread coverup meant to protect a well-known and well-connected local family.

One member of that family, homeowner Brian Albert’s brother Chris, is expected to take the stand Thursday, according to WBZ. A Canton police lieutenant who investigated O’Keefe’s death early on in the case testified Tuesday that he was once “pretty good friends” with Chris Albert and intervened on Albert’s behalf in a 2002 bar fight.

Chris Albert sits on Canton’s Select Board.