Serialously with Annie Elise
279: I Sat Inside The Courtroom This Week, Here's Everything That Happened | Karen Read Trial Recap & Diddy's Smelly Hotel Room
Fri, 23 May 2025
This week, I sat inside the courtroom for the Karen Read trial—and trust me, it was tense. In this episode, I’m breaking down everything that happened: the key witness testimony, the major inconsistencies, and the behind-the-scenes dynamics that you didn’t see on the livestream. From shifting alliances to bombshell cross-examinations, there’s a lot to unpack. Plus, I’m diving into the latest updates in the Diddy case, including new witness revelations and what they could mean for the investigation. If you’ve been following either of these cases, this is the episode you don’t want to miss. 🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎 Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise 🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164 Follow Annie on Socials 📸 🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise 💜TikTok: @_annieelise 🗞️ Substack: @annieelise 💙Facebook: @10tolife Shop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗 Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0Rb ShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieelise Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_US Disclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qU All Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-elise Get Involved or Recommend the Case 💬 About Annie: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [email protected] . *Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Karen Reid trial this week?
Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise, fresh back from Boston and ready to break down everything that went down this week in the Karen Reid trial. I attended in person, which definitely gave me a little bit of a different vibe.
Chapter 2: What are the key points of witness testimony?
view into things because I was able to see the jury's reactions, kind of feel the vibes in the courtroom, see the energy, see the infamous fan in person up close and center. But no, so there's a lot we have to go over about what went on this week in the trial. I also want to just talk a little bit about my time there, who I met with, what some of the conversations were like, and things like that.
And then rather than split the episode, in this episode. So whether you're here for both updates, Karen Reid and Diddy, or just Diddy or just Karen, I'm going to start with all the Karen Reid updates and then we'll finish off with all of the Diddy stuff that went down, which is pretty interesting. Like Kid Cudi testified, crazy new allegations. I mean, we have a lot to go over either way.
Chapter 3: What is the latest on the Diddy case?
But let's start with Karen Reid. Now, I'm going to also just say this one more time. And I'm sure you guys are probably like, give it up, Annie. We've heard this a million times. But apparently, there are still people out there who need to hear this. I don't know what happened that night at 34 Fairview Road. I don't know if Karen hit John with her car.
I don't know if somebody fought him in the basement of the house. I don't know if he just fell over wasted when he was trying to get into the house and hit his head. I don't know what happened. But what I do know is that there is, in my opinion, that at this moment in the trial, there is too much reasonable doubt to convict her. Now, I'm keeping an open mind. I'll just be honest.
And there were a couple times this week during the trial where there were some things that gave me pause and made me scratch my head and kind of wonder like, well, that doesn't really look very good for the defense. How can you explain this away? This does look pretty compelling. So I am still keeping a very open mind.
I'm not going into this with some sort of confirmation bias just because I sat with
karen's team and met with them and met with karen i'm keeping an open mind and my mind can change at any point but at this given moment i do think that there is too much reasonable doubt to convict her but as i've also said all along with that it's really it's a struggle because who wins in the end of this with that there still is no justice for john right if karen's not convicted which she only should be convicted if it is true just and believed without you know beyond a reasonable doubt
If she is not convicted, and if there are no other charges brought against anybody else, which at this point, let's be honest, it doesn't really look likely that that will be the case, in terms of other charges being filed is what I mean, then where's the justice for John? Where's the justice for his family? Being there in person, too, seeing his family, it is emotional.
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Chapter 4: What doubts exist about the evidence against Karen Reid?
This is a real person who lost his life, and regardless of getting swept up in all the chaos or the sides or the fighting and all of that, you can see the devastation and the heartbreak on their face, and there were a couple times where they had to leave the courtroom because they didn't want to see the images. So, again, I just want to remind everybody, that's the root of this whole case.
Somebody lost their life, and we're trying to figure out what really happened and get justice for him, and It's my opinion that if the trial continues the way that it's going or when the defense comes up and if they put on a very, very compelling argument and case, then I don't know that John will ever get justice.
And that's not, you know, that's tough because those are the kinds of cases that we hate to talk about and hate to think about because there's just no resolution. There's no... I don't even want to say closure because I don't really believe in closure, but there's no peace, if that makes sense.
So anyways, I do think that there is a possibility that public opinion shifted this week based on some of the testimony, and it was a pretty interesting week. I saw some people out there saying that they thought that it was boring or that it wasn't really that interesting.
I found it really compelling, and again, I kind of think that there might have been some shift in public opinion, but I am curious to know your thoughts as we get into it. So... The week started off, I got into Boston late Sunday night and met with the team when court started early in the week. So met the free Karen Reed supporters out front of the courthouse as I was walking in.
They were all very gracious, very kind. Met Karen's parents who were very, very warm, very welcoming, very down to earth and just good people. Not that that, I guess, matters in the grand scheme of things of what the issue at hand is, but still just trying to give a whole picture of what it was like.
and met with the attorneys, met with Karen herself, spoke with her quite a bit during one of the recesses, and You it's just everybody again, not that it necessarily matters in this situation, but I just trying to paint the picture. Everybody was very nice, very welcoming and very warm.
So then let's talk about the jury a little bit, too, because that was one of the main focuses that I had going into this week. I wanted to see the reactions on the jury's face. I wanted to see were they paying attention closely? Were they taking notes? Were they reactionary? And I have to say that. Overall, as a group, they skewed much younger than I would have anticipated.
Not super young, but if I had to guess, I don't know, maybe 70% of them are under 40, maybe? And I think that what's interesting about that to me is, first of all, you hope that they are not looking at social media or talking to friends or family, which don't worry, we'll get to the whole individual juror questioning that happened this week too.
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Chapter 5: How is the jury reacting during the trial?
And so I also, given how flat the yard is, pitch black or not, I don't see how anyone who was leaving the house that night could not have seen John there at I truly don't. That's my opinion. Again, sometimes I get it. You're walking out of the house. You're just looking ahead. You're not like bird's eye viewing everything around you. But there was a video. I don't know if you've seen it or not.
There was a video that somebody took and posted on TikTok where it was... I don't know if it was the middle of the night, but it was dark out. And they reversed out of the driveway and pulled off the same direction the majority of these partygoers went when they drove off that night, where it shows the headlights pointing directly at... the flagpole directly at where John's body was found.
And at that point, there wasn't a lot of snow on the ground. Remember, they said that they could still even see grass. So I just do not understand truly how nobody heard anything. Nobody saw anything. Whatever. It's beyond me. So let's get into the trial itself and a recap with all that. And Elena did an amazing recap this week. She was also, of course, in Boston.
She's been following this closely. But because I was there in person, I figured I might as well just give you my take on it and walk you through it. So I might not be as eloquent as Elena is and well-spoken, but hopefully I'm still... getting you the gist. And she'll be back, of course, next week and give you the breakdown.
So first, let's talk about Karen's taillight, because one of the big pieces of conversation at the end of last week was the taillight and the cup having three different DNA profiles, one of which being John. But they didn't know who the other DNA profiles belonged to. They didn't test anybody else to confirm or rule them out. But we know that there were multiple DNA profile samples.
Now, as for the DNA on the exterior of the taillight, I think that there could be a variety of reasons why Johns was on there. Maybe he was brushing against it. Maybe he was holding onto it at one point, like when he got out of the car, like bracing his arm and leaning against the car. Maybe he was closing the trunk.
There's multiple different ways that that could have been on the exterior of the taillight housing unit. I think that that's also indicative of the fact that there's two other DNA profiles. Like, obviously people's DNA is getting on that taillight, right? It doesn't mean that you had to have been hit.
So I don't think that that necessarily was like this big revelation or this big, huge success in the prosecutor's case. Now, there's two big pieces, three actually, that went down this week that I want to talk about. The timeline of the phone, the car and synchronizing those events, the head injury, and then also the glass that was found at the scene and on the bumper.
So let's start with the timeline because that has been one of the biggest questions in all of this, right? When did Karen leave? When did John's phone activity stop? When did he walk and make those steps? What really happened here? What's lining up?
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Chapter 6: What were the major moments during cross-examination?
So, Alessi, when he was crossing him, not only got him on the education, but also got him on this, like, massive error with the timeline and that it was actually showing as happening a full day later than when it really happened. However, that being said, back to what I was saying, he wasn't necessarily disputing the way that he came to the conclusion of synchronizing the events.
So, what I was seeing a lot after that day out there from... you know, not Karen Reid supporters necessarily, was that who cares if the timeline was off 24 hours, it matters that he was able to synchronize the clocks and show that John's last phone activity aligns with that car event. Who cares that he just typed in the wrong date and that it was a day later, a full 24 hours? That was a typo.
It wasn't like he got certain timestamps wrong by the minute or the second. It was a full, again, 24 hours. So people were saying, that doesn't matter. It's a typo. You're missing the point. He synchronized the data. He showed that these timelines really do sync up and that John could have been hit. Meanwhile, Alessi's focusing on his education on the typo or which I'm just saying typo.
It's not bad. He put it on every slide, but you get what I mean, like entering the wrong day. And so there was a lot of division. Some people felt like this was great because it disproved him as a witness. It showed that he had credibility issues, that he lied about his education, that he tried to misrepresent himself. And like now because of that, nothing can be believed of what he said. But then
A lot of other people are like, I'm not going to get lost by all the smoke and mirrors. I'm looking at the data. I don't care that he accidentally typed the wrong date or was confused on that or entered something in wrong. I'm looking at the data that he synced up from the clocks. And that is more compelling to me than him not putting in pursuant on his resume or him accidentally putting 24 hours.
So then I started thinking, I was like, let me put another poll out there and let me see what people are thinking in the public. Because I've been putting polls out every day of this trial trying to gauge where the public's at. And the poll has three buckets, right? If you've been in the live stream, you know. One, Karen Reid is guilty. Two, Karen Reid is innocent or being framed.
And three, I don't know, but there is too much doubt to convict. So for the last several weeks, guilty has been hovering between 4% to 6%. At one point, it went down to 2%. Then it teetered back up to 4%. But let's just call it that. Around 5% is the average of guilty. The balance is split between innocent and framed and the too much reasonable doubt to convict bucket.
Then I put up a new poll and it was after this timeline was introduced, after Burgess testified. And I gave some context on there and you can go see the poll. It's on my community tab right now on YouTube. But I put this back up and let's see where it's actually at today because I looked at it last night.
But I put a little context and I actually, you know, let me just read to you what I wrote with the poll as well, because I think that I want, you know, it gives a little bit of clarity. So I wrote, So I'm curious. Is your opinion shifting at all based on this new timeline? Or does the fact that his education was discredited make you question everything that he said?
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Chapter 7: How does public opinion shift in high-profile trials?
So... It just it's creating that seed of doubt. And again, if it doesn't match any other glass, why would that be? What is this third party glass? Where did it come from? What is it? There weren't any windows that were shattered. There were there weren't multiple glasses. There was only one. There weren't reading glasses that had lenses. Where did this glass come from? Where does it belong?
And how did it get on the bumper and also, coincidentally, at 34 Fairview? How does that make sense? How does that track, right? So I talked about it a little bit earlier where I put in my poll, like, is the jury's view being skewed? What's going on? What are people thinking? And it definitely looks like more people are voting guilty, although still only 9%. But my question with that, too, is,
Is it because they don't have the full... Let me see. How do I want to say this where I'm not going to lose you? Because I know I'm going off on the rails a little bit during this episode. I haven't slept much this week, guys, okay? I couldn't quite get on East Coast time, so I couldn't fall asleep until like 1 or 2 a.m. Then I was up at 5 to get ready for court. So just roll with me, okay? But
Everyone who's voting on these polls, okay, although we are seeing an uptick with guilty going up to 9%, everybody who's voting...
Primarily, I would say it's a safe argument that it's people who have been following this case closely, who watched the first trial, who are watching the live chats, engaging with other commenters, who have heard other theories, heard other information that has not yet been brought into the second trial, have heard all about Colin Albert, about his past, about Brian Albert, about shady things with his past, about connections with Judge Beverly Canone, all of these things and all of these other variables.
that people who are very invested in the case know about, that's who's voting. The jury, They only know what has been introduced this second trial, not even the first trial. And we know that the witness list for the state has been very abbreviated, right? Intently so, because they don't want to call Proctor, obviously. They don't want to call Higgins. They're trying not to screw up their case.
Now, if the defense calls them, we'll see. I have my own opinions and theories on that, which I can't share, but... They're only getting a certain view. They don't have the full broad scope that all of us have that we've been voting on these polls. So even if my point in saying that is even if guilty is now starting to get an uptick, is that a true representation?
Could the guilty percentage really be more for people who don't know all of those outside variables? So I was thinking through that while I was in the trial this week. I'm like, there's a lot of reasonable doubt, but a lot of the things that are in my mind, entering my mind as a reasonable doubt and components and variables of that are things that haven't even been talked about in this trial.
So it's not really a fair assumption or indication of what the jury could be thinking right now. Now, you have to hope that they're paying close attention to the, if you're, you know, hoping for a not guilty verdict or an acquittal, you'd have to hope that they're paying very close attention to the witnesses being discredited, the seeds of reasonable doubt being planted and things like that.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of expert witness credibility?
So we'll be following that all next week again, still doing the live streams and still doing the Friday recaps. But today I want to jump in to the Diddy updates from just the tail end of this week so that you can get fully caught up with that because there was a lot going on. So let me pull that up because we talked about, let me think, let me go back.
I have all my notes here because all these different documents going with all my notes from all these cases. So we are going to talk through, yes, okay, here. The eighth day of trial began with Special Agent Gerard Gannon back on the stand under direct examination by the prosecution.
And his testimony continued touching on things that were found during that March 2024 raid of Diddy's Miami Beach home.
And some of the examples of things that he testified to were being found were 18 pair of platform high heels, which I would imagine are like stripper heels, three cell phones inside a Balenciaga boot in one of the closets, a Gucci bag that was described as an assortment of pills, white powder, and crystal rock-like substance. I don't know what that could be. Crystal meth, maybe.
I don't know much about drugs other than, like, I know weed, I know cocaine, I know... I think I know what heroin looks like. I don't know. So, I'm guessing the crystal rock substance could be meth. Who knows? But something I found to be really interesting about these specific details was that he testified that some of the pills were stamped with a Tesla label on them. Now...
I don't know that that means anything. I'm not, you know, I'm not huge into conspiracies. I've seen some conspiracies out there about this, but I did think it's interesting that they were stamped with a Tesla label.
And just for those of you who aren't like in the drug world, not that I am in the drug world, a lot of dealers usually will brand their assortment with something, whether it's a star, a sticker, a this, a that, so that like when you're on the street and you're getting street drugs and you know whose is whose, like it's easy to identify. So maybe this means nothing.
Maybe it's just a dealer or a manufacturer stamp, but whatever. So also inside of the Gucci bag was a plastic straw that was tested and it came back positive for both ketamine and MDMA. Then next on the stand was a woman named Dawn Hughes. She's a board certified clinical and forensic psychologist.
And interestingly enough, this isn't Dawn's first rodeo when it comes to big-name celebrity trials, because she also testified during the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial back in 2022.
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