Former New England Patriotsstar Aaron Hernandez was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in a deadly late-night shooting and was sentenced to life in prison, sealing the downfall of an athlete who once had a $40 million contract and a standout career ahead of him.
Hernandez, 25, looked to his right, pursed his lips and sat down after the jury forewoman announced him guilty in the slaying of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old landscaper and semipro football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. The conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life without parole and automatically triggers an appeal to Massachusetts’ highest court.
No date for that appeal has been set.
Hernandez’s mother, Terri, and his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, cried and gasped when they heard the verdict, and Lloyd’s mother also cried. Shayanna Jenkins wept on his mother’s shoulder. Hernandez, his eyes red, mouthed to them: “Be strong. Be strong.”
The former football pro was also found guilty on firearms and ammunition charges. The jury deliberated for 36 hours over seven days before rendering its verdict.
Hernandez was ordered to serve his life sentence at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, Massachusetts. That prison is approximately 1.5 miles from Gillette Stadium, where Hernandez played three seasons for the Patriots.
Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, was one of six who gave victim impact statements after Hernandez was convicted, saying she forgives anyone who had a hand in her son’s death.
She said she felt her heart stop beating for a moment on the day she laid Lloyd to rest.
“I felt like I wanted to go into the hole with my son,” she said.
Olivia Thibou, Lloyd’s younger sister, called Wednesday a great day but also “an awful painful day.”
“At the age of 25, I was asked to write my brother’s eulogy, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
For reasons that were never made clear to the jury, Lloyd was shot six times in the middle of the night on June 17, 2013, in a deserted industrial park near Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough.
Police almost immediately zeroed in on Hernandez because they found in Lloyd’s pocket the key to a car the NFL player had rented. Within hours of Hernandez’s arrest, the Patriots cut the former Pro Bowl athlete, who was considered one of the top tight ends in the game.
Prosecutors presented a wealth of evidence that Hernandez was with Lloyd at the time he was killed, including home security video from Hernandez’s house, witness testimony and cellphone records that tracked Lloyd’s movements.
Hernandez’s lawyer, James Sultan, acknowledged for the first time during closing arguments that Hernandez was there when Lloyd was killed, something jurors later said they were shocked to hear.
But the attorney pinned the shooting on two of Hernandez’s friends, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, saying his client was a “23-year-old kid” who witnessed a shocking crime and didn’t know what to do. Wallace and Ortiz will stand trial later.
Prosecutors have suggested Lloyd may have been killed because he knew too much about Hernandez’s alleged involvement in a deadly 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. But they were not allowed to tell the jury that because the judge said it was speculation.
As a result, they never offered a motive beyond saying Hernandez appeared angry with Lloyd at a nightclub two nights before the killing.
Hernandez faces further legal trouble: He is awaiting trial on murder charges in the drive-by shooting. He is accused of gunning down two men over a spilled drink at a nightclub. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder in that case. No date in that trial has been set.
The jurors who convicted Hernandez say the judge spoke to them privately after they rendered their verdict and told them other allegations against him. The jurors said the information reaffirmed their feeling that they’d made the right decision.
In the Lloyd killing, the defense argued that investigators fixated on Hernandez because of his celebrity and conducted a shoddy investigation in their zeal to confirm their suspicions.
Prosecutors said Hernandez organized the killing, summoned his two friends to help carry it out, and drove Lloyd and the others to the secluded spot in the industrial park. During closing arguments, prosecutors also accused Hernandez of pulling the trigger, though under the law it was not necessary to prove who fired the shots to convict him.
Security video from inside Hernandez’s home showed him holding what appeared to be a gun less than 10 minutes after Lloyd was killed. The surveillance system also captured Hernandez, Wallace and Ortiz relaxing at his home hours after Lloyd was shot, hanging out in the basement “man cave,” lounging by the pool and cuddling Hernandez’s baby daughter.
Hernandez was an All-American out of the University of Florida who was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round in 2010.
Marion “Suge” Knight will stand trial on murder and attempted-murder charges after the former rap music mogul struck two men with his pickup truck in January, killing one and seriously injuring the other.
Suge Knight Collapses in Court at Hearing
Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen made the ruling Thursday after concluding a hearing that focused heavily on testimony from Cle “Bone” Sloan, who was hit outside a Compton burger stand. The judge also reduced bail from $25 million to $10 million.
Sloan told detectives that he attacked Knight but testified Monday that he didn’t remember the fight and did not want to be a “snitch.” Prosecutors played Sloan’s statement to police, which offered a lucid, detailed account of the events Jan. 29 that led up to the deadly encounter.
Authorities contend Knight intentionally hit the men, killing Terry Carter, 55. Knight’s attorney, Matt Fletcher, says his client was ambushed and was trying to escape Sloan’s attack when he ran over the men.
Suge Knight: A Timeline of His Legal Troubles
Sloan’s testimony demonstrated the difficulty in prosecuting Knight, who has gang ties and a reputation for intimidating witnesses.
“I will not be used to send Suge Knight to prison,” Sloan testified, adding that he was only on the stand because he was subpoenaed.
Prosecutors granted Sloan, a former gang member who’s known Knight for decades, limited immunity after he said he intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
Knight, 49, was a key player in the gangster rap scene that flourished in the 1990s, and his label once listed Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg among its artists. Knight lost control of the company after it was forced into bankruptcy.
Sloan, an adviser on the upcoming film Straight Outta Compton, said he was trying to forget details of the crash, in which he suffered two fractured ankles, a serious cut to his head, two torn knee ligaments and a shoulder injury.
“Every day, I try to forget it,” Sloan said. “I just know, I screwed up, and Terry’s dead.”
Sloan’s memory troubles prompted the judge to comment on his testimony: “I find that this witness is being deceptive.”
The judge also heard from the lead detective investigating the case and watched security camera footage of the crash. The camera caught a limited view of the parking lot but shows Knight struggling with Sloan through the window of his truck before putting the vehicle in reverse, striking Sloan, then hitting him again and running over Carter while fleeing the scene.
Fletcher, Knight’s attorney, pressed Sloan on his feelings toward Knight and whether he was “enraged” at him on the day of the crash. Sloan said he was mad but disputed that he told detectives he was enraged.
Fletcher also painted Sloan as the aggressor, saying Knight “hadn’t attacked you in any form, fashion or manner. You agree?”
“Yes,” Sloan said.
Knight faces up to life in prison if convicted in the case. He has prior felony convictions for armed robbery and assault with a gun. Knight pleaded no contest in 1995 and was sentenced to five years’ probation in an assault on two rap entertainers at a Hollywood recording studio in 1992.
The rap figure was sentenced to prison in February 1997 for violating terms of that probation by taking part in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by attack as he rode in Knight’s car near the Strip. Shakur’s slaying remains unsolved.
Prosecutors only had to present a fraction of their evidence against Knight during the preliminary hearing that began Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment