“I‘m confident that we did the right thing,” said Prado, who lives in Walpole. “The OUI was the only thing that the Commonwealth actually proved, really.”
On Wednesday, a jury cleared Read of three serious charges: second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death. The jury found her guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.
She will serve one year of probation as a first-time offender.
The decision marked the end of a years-long criminal case in which prosecutors alleged that Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, and left him to die in the snow. Read’s lawyers said she was framed.
Prado, a native of Brazil and former lawyer, is a true crime fan, but before the case only listened to stories in her native Portuguese and mainly followed national news. She had never heard of Read beyond the billboards she saw on Route 1 and at the grocery store that read “Free Karen Read.”
But after the verdict and the cheers it drew from the crowd outside the courthouse, Prado downloaded X, immediately followed journalists and influencers who covered the case, and vowed to follow trials in America from now on.
As an immigrant, she believed the United States was the most “perfect place on the planet” in terms of its criminal justice system, Prado said. But after serving on the Read jury, she has a more measured view.
“I’m not saying it’s fully bad … but there are flaws too, and I wasn’t aware of that.”
Throughout her time on the jury, Prado said she felt “pressure” and by the end, “claustrophobic.”
“The deliberation was the most emotional moment for me because it’s the moment you have someone’s life in your hands,” Prado said.
Prado said jurors used large pieces of paper which they put on the walls of the small deliberation room. The papers had the charges written down and other pieces of evidences so all 12 people could visualize the case.
At the beginning of deliberations, the jurors decided not to vote, per instruction from Judge Beverly J. Cannone, and instead went through the testimony, videos, and witnesses, Prado said.
The group never got angry, but the discussion was “heavy” and “overwhelming” at times, she said. The group dug into the evidence, raised questions to each other, and then discussed the charges one by one, eliminating the ones they didn’t agree with, until they reached a verdict, she said.
Prado said she felt luck to be with “intelligent, bright, respectful people.”
“If there was one person who had more questions, we would stay longer to answer,” Prado said. “12 of us, we felt comfortable with the decision.”
Prado said she is “convinced” Read is not responsible for O’Keefe’s death and “happy” for Read and her family.
“There’s too many holes for us to fill, and it wasn’t our job to fill those holes,” Prado said. “We needed to have the reasonable doubt, and we had [it] over all the aspects of the investigation.”
The final crash reconstruction expert the defense called made a not guilty decision “clear,” she said, along with a report from a forensic pathologist who testified for the defense that was “easy to understand.”
“They did a great job,” Prado said of the expert witnesses. She also said the prosecution’s argument that the injuries to O’Keefe’s arm came from the taillight of Read’s SUV was “impossible” after reviewing autopsy photos and seeing the broken taillight.
“If a car at that speed hit someone, we would see more injuries on his body,” Prado said. “I don’t think the car killed John O’Keefe.”
On Read reversing her car at a high speed, Prado said that “didn’t shock [her] at all.” That, along with the “nasty voicemails” Read left O’Keefe, “didn’t make a difference,” she said.
“She was angry,” Prado said. “As a woman, as a human, as a married woman, I can tell that sometimes when we are angry, we say things we not supposed to say, we act out in a way we’re not supposed to act.”
Prado said she thought there was a “50-50″ chance that she hit O’Keefe with her car, but that “he didn’t die outside.”
“He did walk inside that house, and something happened inside the house,” Prado said.
Prado said her “theoretical” guess is that Read might have “touched him [with her car], he lost his shoes in the process, she left angry, and his phone maybe dropped when he lost” his balance. She said she “can’t say” for sure whether Read was framed but believes more investigation is needed.
In terms of the OUI conviction, Prado said it was the “only thing” the jurors could find Read guilty of because she said in a video played in court that she was drinking and video footage from the bars showed the same.
“We couldn’t let that pass,” Prado said.
Prado said the jury knew the case was a retrial and that members were “positive” they would discuss all the evidence to reach a decision. They also noticed the amount of money being spent on the case, she said.
“We definitely didn’t want to hang this jury,” Prado said. “It messed up so many lives, not just Karen Read and John O’Keefe’s family’s lives, and we want this to be over for the sake of our county.”
Prado said she was initially surprised that Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, did not testify, but understood when Read attorney Alan Jackson mentioned he had been fired.
But she did “find it strange” not to hear from Brian Albert, a now-retired Boston police officer who owned the house on Fairview Road, or Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who attended the afterparty at the Canton home and exchanged flirtatious text messages with Read.
“We all want to know what Brian Higgins was doing at 2 a.m.,” Prado said of video footage that showed him at the Canton police station. “And why the Alberts didn’t come out of the house with all that movement.”
Prado also has questions about the family dog, who now lives in Vermont.
Prado said decided to speak publicly so the O’Keefe family knows the jurors cared.
“We didn’t take his death lightly,” Prado said. “I want John O’Keefe’s family to know that we care … that was my main goal.”
Prado said she and other jurors also felt “frustrated” at times. While they were “confident” Read did not kill O’Keefe, they don’t know who did.
“We are serving justice to Karen Read, but the family of John O’Keefe, they didn’t receive the justice they deserve,” Prado said. “It’s a loss for society not having him as a police [officer] and as an uncle, as a friend, as a son, I’m sure.”
Prado said she wants the case to be “reopened.”
“I want them to go through other people who are involved in this case,” Prado said. “As a society, we need to continue pushing for answers for this case and many others.”
Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_.