It was an unusual day in the case of Karen Read: a more subdued motions hearing as the nearly 2-year-old case moves closer toward trial.

“I don’t want to change the trial date for this,” Judge Beverly Cannone said from the Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham Friday. “This case will go to trial March 12th.”

The case of Read, a Mansfield woman indicted for the murder of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe — her boyfriend of two years at the time — in late January 2022, has ignited passionate followers who have treated the proceedings almost like sporting events.

Waves of people, most of whom seem to be on the defense’s side, attend every hearing. Most of them stay outside around the courthouse steps with signs calling for Read’s case to be dismissed or blaring defense theory tropes that point toward the culpability at two others for O’Keefe’s death. Other followers pack the courtroom gallery.

Another 125 or more people signed on to Zoom to follow the hearing remotely. At one point a man could be heard saying “Free Karen Read, free Turtleboy” from Zoom. The court clerk quickly muted him.

Friday’s hearing took place on the last day for evidentiary motions to be filed before the trial takes place — tentatively scheduled for March 12, a date Judge Cannone seems determined to keep.

Prosecutor Adam Lally and defense attorneys David Yannetti, Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little argued over a series of motions, which Cannone took under advisement but did not immediately rule on.

The first was a defense motion requesting access to communications involving Jennifer McCabe and Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and his wife Elizabeth Proctor. The defense has argued that there is a “personal relationship” between McCabe and Proctor, who is an MSP detective assigned to investigate the Read case.

The defense has leveled a third-party culpability theory to exculpate Read for O’Keefe’s murder and have fingered McCabe and Boston Police Officer Brian Albert, the owner of the home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, where O’Keefe’s body would be found in heavy snow in the front yard, as those ultimately responsible for O’Keefe’s death.

Kevin Reddington, a lawyer for McCabe, argued against the defense having access to these records. He said it was not only a violation of his client’s privacy but he also disparaged the reasoning behind the motion, stating that the relationship between McCabe and Trooper Proctor was distant at best.

This is a developing story.