Jury Deliberating Fate of Former New England Patriots Star Aaron Hernandez

After testimony from 132 witnesses over nine weeks, the fate of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez sits in the hands of a 12-person jury in Fall River.

Jurors in the case can convict Hernandez of first- or second-degree murder. A first-degree conviction would result in an automatic life sentence without parole while Hernandez would become eligible for parole after 15 years if convicted of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors build a case

During the court case, prosecutors said that Hernandez ended the life of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancée’s sister, after seeing him at a Boston nightclub with individuals Hernandez may have had an issue with during an encounter in June 2013.

According to the testimony, on June 16, Hernandez asked two associates named Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace from Bristol, CT, to come to his North Attleboro home. Hernandez, Ortiz, and Lloyd then left North Attleboro in a rented Nissan at 1:12 a.m. on June 17, heading south on I-95 towards Pawtucket, RI, before turning north towards Boston. Just before 2 a.m., the vehicle stopped at a gas station in Canton where a credit card was used to pay for 18 gallons of gas and cash for a cigar and bubble gum.

At 2:33 a.m., the vehicle arrived at Lloyd’s home where he entered the vehicle. The car proceeded towards I-90, skipping a toll booth at the I-95 interchange west of Boston. By 2:23 a.m., the vehicle entered an industrial park in North Attleboro. Shortly, later, three gunshots and a car door slamming could be heard by an employee of a nearby business. Two other employees also said they heard bangs which they assumed to be fireworks at the time.

At 3:30 a.m., the vehicle returned to Hernandez’s home with the three men.

Surveillance footage from inside Hernandez’s home only minutes after the murder showed him with a gun that appeared to be the same make and model as the one used to kill Lloyd. Prosecutors said that was the gun used for the murder but due to the grainy quality of the video, defense attorneys suggested it could have been a remote control or air soft gun.

The body of Lloyd was found at 5:37 p.m. that day by a jogger.

On June 20, the manager of the North Attleboro Rent-A-Car told police that while cleaning the Nissan rented by Hernandez, several items were thrown away including a Vitamin Water bowl, chewed gum, and a .45-caliber shell casting. The shell casting matched the five shell castings found at the murder scene and came from the same gun.

After the murder, prosecutors alleged that Hernandez disposed of the weapon in a box thrown away by his fiancée Shaneah Jenkins. While testifying, Jenkins said she was told to collect a box that Bristol First Assistant District Attorney William McCauley believed contained the gun and disposed of it in a dumpster. Jenkins said she never asked or checked what was in the box, estimating its weight to be 25 to 30 lbs.

Authorities were unable to recover the box or confirm its contents.

The following week saw investigators at Hernandez’s home collecting evidence before arresting him on the morning of June 26, nine days after the murder. On Aug. 22, Hernandez was indicted by a grand jury with indictments for Ortiz and Wallace coming eight months later.

The defense’s case

Defense attorneys for Hernandez called the investigation during their closing argument “incomplete, biased, and inept.” Arguing for Hernandez’s innocence, they did admit that Hernandez saw the murder but did not know what to do at the time.

Depending who you asked, either Lloyd and Hernandez were good friends or frequent acquaintance. Defense attorney Michael Fee spent much of the trial emphasizing the friendship between the two, saying in his opening statement, “Why would he kill his friend Odin?”

The defense portrayed the two as regular friends who would hang out, go to nightclubs and smoke marijuana, with Lloyd referred to as Hernandez’s, “blunt master” in court.

When brought to the stand by the prosecution, Jenkins testified that the two were cordial and in the beginning of a friendship, meeting only 10 months before the murder at Jenkins’ birthday party.

Ursula Warn, Lloyd’s mother said on the witness stand that she had never met Hernandez and he was never invited to the family’s home by Lloyd.

Hernandez also faces a double murder indictment for allegedly killing two men in Boston’s South End in July 2012. He has pleaded not guilty in the case and the trial is scheduled to start later this year.

Photo Credit: WHDH