Dolapoo's Blog
FALL RIVER, Mass. – A jury found
Aaron Hernandez guilty of murder in the first degree for the 2013
shooting death of Odin Lloyd, ending forever his life of NFL fame and
fortune.
A Bristol County jury of seven
women and five men deliberated for 36 hours over seven days before
reaching a unanimous verdict on the former New England Patriots star.
They said the murder rose to first degree due to Hernandez acting with
extreme atrocity or cruelty. The conviction carries a sentence of
automatic life in prison without the possibility of parole.
View galleryHernandez, 25, stood stone-faced as the verdict was read, only to
collapse into a chair as the guilty charges piled on. Behind him, his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins wept uncontrollably on
the shoulder of Teri Hernandez, Aaron's mother. Lloyd's family, who
during the trial made a daily pilgrimage to this old mill town 50 miles
south of Boston, wept and embraced as the verdict was read.
"Stay strong, stay strong," Hernandez mouthed to his mother and Jenkins. Moments later, he was placed in handcuffs.
Formal sentencing took place about 30 minutes later. Before the
sentence was handed down, Ursula Ward, Lloyd's mother, stood before the
court.
"The day I laid my
son Odin to rest, I felt my heart stop beating for a moment," she said,
fighting back tears. "I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my
son, Odin.
"... I forgive the hands of the people who had a hand in my son's
murder, even before or after, and I pray and hope that someday everyone
out there will forgive them also."
After four of Lloyd's family members spoke of their son, brother,
nephew and cousin, the sentence came down: Aaron Hernandez will spend
the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As his sentence was read, Hernandez again stood stone-faced, pursing
his lips, but otherwise showing no emotion. He was then led out of court
and on his way to prison.
Hernandez will eventually be taken to the Massachusetts
Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction, about a mile from Gillette
Stadium, where the Patriots play, before likely being transferred to
another facility where he will serve his life sentence.
Lloyd was found shot to death in the early morning hours of June 17,
2013, after Hernandez and two co-conspirators picked up the 27-year-old
at his Boston home, and then proceeded to an undeveloped piece of land
behind an industrial park in North Attleboro – just a few minutes from
Hernandez's home.
"The perfect spot to kill somebody," prosecutor William McCauley said
in closing arguments of the dark, out-of-the-way area called Corliss
Landing. "No witnesses, other than the killers."
The prosecution overcame the lack of testifying eye witnesses by
painstakingly piecing together a mountain of circumstantial, forensic
evidence and so-called "electronic witnesses" that was so convincing it
forced the defense during closing arguments to change tactics and
concede that Hernandez was at the murder site. It just claimed he didn't
do it, but rather witnessed a possible PCP-rage killing by either
Ernest Wallace or Carlos Ortiz, friends of Hernandez and alleged
low-level drug dealers in Connecticut.
The jury explained afterwards they did not buy the PCP theory, nor anything the defense put forth.
"The evidence was compelling," one juror said.
Much of the most powerful evidence against Hernandez was taken from
his own home security system. Jurors were able to see Hernandez, Wallace
and Ortiz arrive at the house minutes after the murder, cementing the
prosecution timeline. Hernandez was soon after seen inside his home
carrying what an expert identified as a Glock .45 semiautomatic pistol that prosecutors say was the murder weapon.
Later that same day all three men lounged around the home and the
outdoor pool, drinking smoothies made by Hernandez's fiancée, Shayanna
Jenkins. She said,
to a nearby dumpster, although she couldn't recall where.
Under Massachusetts' "Joint Venture" law, the prosecution was not
required to prove Hernandez pulled the trigger, although it cited the
location of shell casings and various fingerprints to allege that. A
guilty verdict could be found by proving Hernandez "intentionally
participated in some fashion and that he had or shared the intent" to
commit the crime, Bristol County Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh
instructed the jury.
In the end, the prosecution's
evidence was strong enough to overcome the lack of a murder weapon and a
clear motive of why Hernandez would kill what appeared to be a friend.
Lloyd, a landscaper from Boston, was dating Shaneah Jenkins, the younger
sister of Hernandez's fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins.
The two sisters occasionally spent days at the trial seated on
opposite sides of the tense courtroom. On the stand, Shayanna described
their once close relationship as "estranged."
The trial took 41 days and
featured 135 witnesses stretched over parts of 10 weeks. It was
repeatedly delayed by harsh winter weather. It started days before the
local Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl and included testimony from
team owner Robert Kraft, whose testimony showed that Hernandez originally lied to him about his whereabouts at the time of the murder.
Kraft testified that Hernandez "hoped that the time of the murder came
out because I believe he said he was in a club." Hernandez was not at a
club that night.
The 12 jurors indicated they did not know who Kraft was, but that his
testimony was "compelling," with one juror noting that two years later
he still doesn't know exactly what time Lloyd was murdered. If he still
doesn't know now after 41 days of testimony, the juror wondered, how
could Hernandez have known then?
Hernandez, originally from Bristol, Conn., was a decorated player at
the University of Florida before being drafted by the Patriots in the
fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft. He played three seasons as a tight
end, serving as one of quarterback Tom Brady's preferred targets and
catching a touchdown pass in Super Bowl XLVI.
In 2012, the Patriots rewarded him with a $40 million contract, only a
portion of which he eventually earned before being arrested for this
murder.
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