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Is Karen Read an angry cop killer or the convenient victim of a comprehensive police cover-up?

That question was posed to a Massachusetts jury on Tuesday in closing arguments in their murder trial, a case that has gripped the Bay State.

The case stems from the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, whose body was found bruised and beaten in the snow outside the home of another Boston police officer in the suburb of Canton on January 29, 2022.

Prosecutors allege that Read and O’Keefe, who were in a relationship, got into an argument that evening, after which she, while drunk, drove into him with a car and fled the scene, leaving him to die in the cold.

“What the constellation of facts and evidence here inevitably shows is that the defendant backed her vehicle 62 feet at 24 miles per hour, struck Mr. O’Keefe and inflicted these catastrophic head injuries, incapacitated him and left him frozen to death,” prosecutor Adam Lally said in his closing argument on Tuesday.

Her defense, however, accused Off-duty police officers at the Canton home allegedly beat O’Keefe to death, dumped his body on the lawn, and then used fabricated evidence and false testimony to plot to incriminate Read.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this case was a cover-up, plain and simple,” said defense attorney Alan Jackson. “I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, ‘I don’t want to believe it, I don’t want to believe that something like this could happen in our community,’ but unfortunately you’ve seen it right before your eyes over the last eight weeks.”

Read, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, intoxicated driving and hit-and-run.

After closing arguments on Tuesday morning, the jury began deliberations around 1:30 p.m., which lasted about three hours. They will reconvene for deliberations on Wednesday morning.

The closing arguments mark the end of a murder trial that has caused a stir both locally and far beyond the country’s borders. He has been accused of witness tampering, a federal investigation has been launched into the investigation and groups of supporters in pink dresses have chanted “Free Karen Read.”

The prosecution was also hampered by a series of missteps and unusual investigative techniques. Most notably, Michael Proctor, a lead investigator on the case, admitted to sending a series of sexist and abusive text messages about Read in a private group chat, calling her a “nutcase,” mocking her health problems and telling colleagues he found “no nude photos” when searching for evidence on her phone, CNN affiliate WCVB reported.

Proctor apologized for the “unprofessional” comments on the witness stand, but the vulgar texts were sharply criticized in and out of court, including by the governor.

“This is completely unprofessional,” Gov. Maura Healey told WCVB of the text messages. “Frankly, it damages the dignity and integrity of the work of the men and women in the state’s police and law enforcement agencies. As a former attorney general and governor, I am disgusted by this.”

In its closing argument, the prosecution condemned the texts as “unprofessional, untenable and inexcusable,” but said they had no impact on the integrity of the investigation.

The defense disagreed. “You can’t get away from the stink he’s creating in this case and this investigation. These secret group chats show the quality and rigor of this investigation,” Jackson said.

The trial centers on the events of a winter evening in Canton over two years ago.

On the night of Jan. 28, 2022, Read and O’Keefe went out drinking with friends at two bars. Shortly after midnight, the couple got into Read’s SUV and drove to O’Keefe’s co-worker’s house on Fairview Road, where an after-party was taking place, court documents show.

Prosecutors allege the couple got into an argument that led to O’Keefe getting out of the vehicle. A drunken Read then hit him with the vehicle and fled. O’Keefe died in the snowy cold, prosecutors say.

However, according to court documents, Read said she dropped O’Keefe off at the house and then drove to his home because she wasn’t feeling well. When she realized he was still not home the next morning, she drove out in a snowstorm to look for him and eventually found his body in the front yard of the Canton home.

Read and her legal team have claimed that O’Keefe was injured in a fight inside the house – including being attacked by Chloe, the homeowners’ German shepherd – and then thrown into the snow. They argued that Read was framed for his death, alleging a vast police conspiracy and a corrupt investigation.

Prosecutors have dismissed that theory. Firefighters who arrived at the scene that morning asked about his injuries, and Read told them, according to her testimony, “I hit him, I hit him.” In addition, Read’s vehicle had a broken taillight, and pieces of the taillight were found outside the Canton home, prosecutors said.

“Of all the people who were in the house that night, none of them at any time saw John O’Keefe enter the house,” Lally said in his opening statement. “They saw the vehicle drive away and just assumed that they (O’Keefe and Read) drove away and no one came.”

The trial began in April and included testimony from several police officers, some as witnesses, others as investigators.

Prosecutors have presented evidence that Read and O’Keefe had a volatile relationship. O’Keefe’s niece and nephew said they heard the couple yelling at each other during arguments before his death, and an ATF agent testified about his romantic kiss and text messages with Read, according to WCVB.

And in the minutes after she hit him with the SUV, according to prosecutors, she called him and left him a voicemail message saying, “John, I fucking hate you!”

The defense has questioned witnesses about whether Read really admitted to hitting him with her vehicle and has criticized investigators about the quality of their work. For example, investigators used red plastic cups to collect evidence from the crime scene and surveillance video of Read’s vehicle was inexplicably mirrored, WCVB reported.

“They lie, they cover up, they manipulate, they distort the truth, and when they get caught, they simply apologize,” Jackson said in his closing argument.

“This is not sloppiness,” he added. “This is evidence tampering.”

Aidan Kearney, a Massachusetts blogger who goes by the nickname Turtleboy, has fueled the ongoing debate with numerous posts accusing law enforcement and local politicians of a cover-up of the murder. In October, Kearney pleaded not guilty to charges of witness intimidation and conspiracy, CNN affiliate WBZ reported, after allegedly calling and messaging witnesses and investigators in the Read case.