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| Former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez listens as the guilty verdict is read during his murder trial, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd in June 2013. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. |
FALL RIVER, Mass.
(AP) -- Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was
convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison
Wednesday for a deadly late-night shooting, sealing the downfall of an
athlete who once had a $40 million contract and a standout career ahead
of him.
Hernandez, 25, who had been considered
one of the top tight ends in professional football, shook his head,
pursed his lips and sat down after the jury forewoman pronounced him
guilty in the slaying of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old landscaper and
amateur weekend football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez's
fiancee.
Hernandez's mother, Terri, and his
fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, cried and gasped when they heard the verdict.
Hernandez, his eyes red, mouthed to them: "Be strong. Be strong."
Lloyd's mother also cried.
Jurors deliberated
for 36 hours over seven days before rendering their decision, which also
included convictions on weapons charges.
"The
jury found that he was just a man who committed a brutal murder,"
District Attorney Thomas Quinn said after the verdict. "The fact that he
was a professional athlete meant nothing in the end."
Lloyd
was shot six times early on June 17, 2013, in a deserted industrial
park near Hernandez's home in North Attleborough. The motive has never
been explained.
Police almost immediately
zeroed in on the former Pro Bowl athlete 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 him from the team. The team
declined to comment on the verdict.
Prosecutors
presented a wealth of evidence that Hernandez was with Lloyd at the
time he was killed, including home security video from Hernandez's
mansion, 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.
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 did not 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 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston
that killed two. But they were not allowed to tell the jury that because
the judge said it was speculation.
As a
result, they never offered jurors a motive beyond saying Hernandez
appeared angry with Lloyd at a nightclub two nights before the killing.
In the 2012 case, Hernandez is accused of gunning down a pair of men over a spilled drink at a nightclub.
All
12 jurors and three alternates spoke to reporters Wednesday, saying
they were shocked by the defense admission that Hernandez was at the
scene of the killing - an acknowledgement that they said helped confirm
that he was guilty.
They also described how
the judge talked to them privately after they reached their decision and
told them about other allegations and evidence not presented in the
case, including the 2012 slayings and the last texts
Lloyd sent minutes
before he died saying that said he was with "NFL."
The jurors said that information reaffirmed their feeling that they had 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.
The
conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole and
automatically triggers an appeal to Massachusetts' highest court.
Hernandez
was initially taken to the state's Cedar Junction prison, a
maximum-security facility less than a 4-mile drive from Gillette
Stadium, where he once caught touchdown passes from Tom Brady in front
of tens of thousands of fans.
He was to
processed there and eventually taken to Souza Baranowski prison in
Shirley, another maximum-security institution, according to Darren
Duarte, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
Lloyd's
sister, Olivia Thibou, said Wednesday that prosecutors in the trial
were her "dream team." Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, told the judge she
forgave Hernandez and everyone else "who had a hand in my son's murder,
either before or after."
Defense lawyers left the courthouse without commenting.
Hernandez,
who grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, was an All-American from the
University of Florida who was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth
round in 2010.
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