Verdict reached in Aaron Hernandez case...

[joeybee12]

No link yet.

Does this mean Chris Griffin needs to finally take his poster down?

[joeybee12]

1. Guilty of first degree murder...nt

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Case Must Have Been Even Stronger Than I Thought

In following the new reports, it seemed pretty strong. But, for a verdict after this amount of deliberation on a 1st degree murder case suggest an almost airtight prosecution.

[joeybee12]

3. I don't quite understand it...but apparently the prosecution

didn't have to prove he pulled the trigger...just that he intended to even if someone else did...kind of strange.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I Heard Ford (Lawyer, don't remember first name) on ESPN Radio

He made a good analogy of how the circumstantial evidence was enough. "You go to bed and you wake up and there is 6 inches of snow on the ground. You didn't see it snow, but it's completely obvious it did."
That's how the prosecution approached the case, and apparently were able to convince the jury beyond reasonable doubt.

[joeybee12]

7. That is a good analogy...

And of course he admitted he was there...probably a mistake on the defense's side

[JonLP24]

12. I haven't checked for an update since February

I was fairly certain his fiancee or the one who opted for immunity was going to testify and from what I gather from experts they're saying it was damning. Also the circumstantial evidence kept getting stronger, they had a video of Hernandez vehicle (iirc Hernandez himself) either leaving or entering the murder scene within 5-10 minutes. From what I understand there was a group of people so no way to tell who was the one to actually perform the kill, a group makes it easier to get it done. I'll look for that piece of info but it puts him at the scene when the murder occurred (or his vehicle).

This article seems to touch on it.

1. Surveillance footage.

The video taken from Hernandez’s North Attleborough home was crucial to prosecutors. It not only showed Hernandez holding what looked like a firearm minutes after the shooting, it also showed him looking relaxed in his basement with his alleged accomplices, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, several hours after the killing.

<snip>

2. A defense admission that Hernandez was at the crime scene.

The prosecution wanted the jury to believe Hernandez was part of a joint venture to kill Lloyd — that Hernandez acted with Ortiz and Wallace to commit a murder. When the defense acknowledged there was enough evidence to place Hernandez at the crime scene, it may have made it easier for the jury to believe he acted with others to kill Lloyd, said Michael Doolin, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.

<snip>

3. The testimony of Shayanna Jenkins .

Hernandez’s fiancée told jurors that he asked her to remove a box from the house and give Wallace money to flee from Massachusetts. That suggests he had something to hide, Doolin said. It also helped the prosecutors’ case that Jenkins was evasive at times. “That ties her into Hernandez in a bad way,” Doolin said. “It tells the jury she’s trying to cover for him in some way.”

(this one highlights the defense argument which was the question the video left out it puts Hernandez there but no idea who actually performed the kill)

Defense attorney James Sultan held up a photo of Hernandez friend Ernest Wallace during closing arguments.

Surprisingly, what helped the prosecution might have also helped the defense, Doolin said. The admission gave the defense credibility with the jury and could help jurors consider alternative defense theories about what might have happened at that industrial yard.

“It makes the jury more likely to believe their other arguments and shows that they’re not living in a fantasy world,” Doolin said. The jury is more likely to consider that Hernandez was there, but “he didn’t participate,” Doolin said.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/09/key-points-for-prosecution-defense-aaron-hernandez-trial/PcGXtJQVGEQ42VU2dajLwI/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article_More#

Jurors ‘shocked’ by defense tactic in Hernandez trial (when defense admitted Hernandez was at the crime scene)

FALL RIVER — After 10 weeks of testimony, more than 130 witnesses, and hundreds of pieces of evidence, the jurors in the trial of Aaron Hernandez on Wednesday revealed that one of the key factors that helped them convict the former NFL star of murder came in an admission made during the defense team’s closing argument.

“We were all shocked,” one juror said of the defense’s acknowledgment that Hernandez was in the North Attleborough industrial yard at the same time that Lloyd, 27, was shot to death.

<snip>

But during final statements, just before jurors began deliberations, the defense admitted that Hernandez was present at the crime scene — a strategy that legal specialists said could cut either way. If the defense lawyers were willing to acknowledge there was enough evidence to put Hernandez at the scene, the jurors might be open to the alternative theory that someone else had committed the murder.

<snip>

But they said they were not swayed by the defense argument that it was Hernandez’s former friends and alleged coconspirators, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, who killed Lloyd in a drug-fueled rage. Defense attorneys said Ortiz and Wallace, who were also charged with murder but will be tried separately, were PCP users.

Jurors said surveillance footage taken at the athlete’s North Attleborough home that showed him relaxing with Ortiz and Wallace in the hours after the murder made them skeptical of the defense theory.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/15/relieved-aaron-hernandez-trial-jurors-said-they-were-shocked-defense-admission-was-murder-scene/yNepbRcXeyHpPjrzmCsKjK/story.html

[hughee99]

4. If I understand correctly, the prison he's going to is close enough to Gillette Stadium to hear the

crowd on game day.

[bluedigger]

10. The wheels of justice are slow, but grind exceedingly fine.

[Scurrilous]

5. PCP is a helluva drug...

[TBF]

8. I think it finally all caught up w/him -

he obviously fell in with a bad crowd and I'm not sure whether you actually ever get out of those gangs (especially if he was pretty vicious when he was younger). Whether he actually pulled the trigger on Odin there were likely others ...

Did the other 2 actually testify against him? I read some of the stories but it didn't seem like the case was that strong. Sure he was there but was he actually the one of the three who did it?

[bluedigger]

9. It seems reasonable to assume the rich guy was calling the shots.

He rented the car, admitted being present, his saliva was on a roach with the victim's next to the body. Even if all three perps were social equals, which they weren't, he would have been guilty as an accessory to murder. Good verdict.

[JonLP24]

13. Aaron Hernandez hits a lot of the red flags that indicates a sociopath

jmho, one thing there was video of him & the other 2 chilling several hours of the murder. Lloyd was Hernandez in-law so if this happened without him expecting it, he doesn't seem surprised -- I think it was obvious he was in on it & while I'm not sure what reason him or the other 2 would want him dead, Hernandez is the main one to either want it to happen or stop it from happening

June 14, 2013 - Lloyd and Hernandez go out to Rumor Nightclub in Boston. A witness claims that Aaron appeared to be upset at Odin in the club that night and ended up storming out. Prosecutors later imply that Hernandez may have been upset at Lloyd for speaking to patrons associated with the victims in the 2012 shootings.
June 16, 2013 - At approximately 9:30 p.m. Hernandez texts his friend, Ernest Wallace, asking him to drive up to North Attleboro, along with Carlos Ortiz, from his home in Bristol, CT.
June 17, 2013 - At 2:33 a.m., surveillance footage shows Odin Lloyd leaving his house and getting into a silver Nissan Altima with Hernandez, Wallace, and Ortiz.
June 17, 2013 - From 3:07 a.m. to 3:23 a.m. Odin sends out his last ever texts to his sister Thibou- "U saw who I'm with." "Nfl." "just so you know."
June 17, 2013 - Around 3:25 a.m. surveillance camera footage shows a car driving toward a secluded gravel pit in an industrial area on John Dietsch Blvd in North Attleboro, MA. Approximately 4 minutes later, a car is shown driving back, Lloyd having been fatally shot during that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Odin_Lloyd

Now, his other murder trial is very interesting -- the evidence much stronger but points to his behavior

<snip>

De Abreu and Furtado were close friends, and both attended school and served in the military in Cape Verde before coming to the United States. Furtado worked as a tour guide in Cape Verde before arriving in Dorchester five months prior to the shooting to reconnect with his mother and sister. De Abreu was a police officer in the island country located in the central Atlantic Ocean about 350 miles off the coast of West Aftrica, and arrived in Dorchester around 2008. They became friends while working for a local cleaning company. Their families are also each suing Hernandez in a civil suit for $6 million. In May of 2014, a spokesman for the family told the Boston Herald that the pair had come to America “to make a better life for themselves,” and that they were not gang members, drug dealers or troublemakers.

A third man, Aquilino Freire, was shot in the car but survived the attack.

<snip>

Another player in this case is Hernandez’s friend, Alexander Bradley, who was with the former Patriot the night of the double shooting. In addition to his connection to this case, Bradley has filed a civil lawsuit against Hernandez for allegedly shooting him in the face during an argument outside of a Miami club in February of 2013. Bradley, from Connecticut, is a convicted felon who served time for cocaine distribution, and was arrested on a charge of felony burglary two months after the Florida shooting incident with Hernandez. He also faces gun charges for firing a stolen gun outside of a Hartford, Connecticut bar.

Lastly, we have Sharif Hashem, a security supervisor at Boston’s Rumor nightclub. He called North Attleboro Police on June 22, 2013—five days after the murder of Lloyd—claiming to have information that connected the murder of Lloyd to a double homicide in Boston, stating that a bar patron “accidentally spilled the beans” in front of him.

<snip>

Hernandez and Bradley are seen on surveillance tapes entering Cure, a Boston nightclub, around 12:30 a.m. The victims were already inside the nightclub. According to prosecutors at Hernandez’s arraignment, Hernandez and Bradley—who had driven from Connecticut—were standing at the edge of the dance floor when De Abreu unintentionally bumped into Hernandez, smiled, and failed to apologize.

<snip>

Hernandez told an associate that De Abreu had bumped him on purpose and “was trying him,” according to Haggan. Hernandez and Bradley then left Cure approximately 10 minutes later, and surveillance footage shows Hernandez leaving a parking garage in a Toyota 4Runner with Rhode Island plates around 1:15 a.m.

<snip>

The current Hernandez trial has showcased a lot of circumstantial evidence and no murder weapon has surfaced. That is in stark contrast to the forthcoming trial, which has surveillance video placing Hernandez near the crime scene, eyewitness accounts, and an alleged murder weapon.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/03/25/closer-look-the-next-aaron-hernandez-murder-trial/LJr7yW9Y06Gys7Y7ejNjZP/story.html

<snip>

After Hernandez was arrested on murder charges in Lloyd's slaying, a security supervisor at Rumor phoned in an anonymous tip to police that the shooting was related to a 2012 Boston double homicide. The security supervisor told authorities that someone "accidentally spilled the beans" in front of him.

Last year, Hernandez was indicted in the double murder. Prosecutors in Bristol County are prohibited from mentioning those charges to the jury seated for the Lloyd homicide trial.

<snip>
Bradley is expected to testify against Hernandez, but he will not be able to tell jurors that the former Patriots player shot him in the face after an argument at a strip club in Florida. Hernandez does not face criminal charges in Florida, but he is named as the gunman in a civil lawsuit that Bradley filed in federal court seeking at least $100,000 in damages for the shooting.
lRelated Jurors Hear Nanny Recount Her Rejection Of Hernandez's Advances

Prosecutors had filed the petition with the Supreme Judicial Court earlier this week, arguing that they should be allowed to introduce evidence related to the Bradley shooting to counter defense claims that Hernandez could not have shot Lloyd because they were friends. Bradley, a cooperating government witness in the Boston double homicide case, formerly was a close friend of Hernandez.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-aaron-hernandez-murder-trial-day-27-20150313-story.html#page=1

As far as the bad crowd goes, this is the worst kind of bad guy as he acts like a choir boy -- knows how to appear like an upstanding citizen. Generally, the "bad crowd" has a leader that manipulates & dominates others. A sociopath, if he chooses to kill or become violent doesn't have a conscious holding him back so whatever lives are ruined doesn't shame or cause him to feel guilt. Most of the bad crowd is trapped because of their upbringing or their environment but a top guy is like Gus of Breaking Bad but probably more like Marlo Stanfield from The Wire which was the greatest portrayal of a sociopath I ever seen. Ruthlessly violent over trivial things, has people going after each other & already has 5 more tricks put into motion before a few even wised up to a particular action.

It is hard to explain what I mean in so many words--this Sheriff describes Hernandez behavior the way I see him.'

Hodgson also said Hernandez seems to have “sociopathic issues,” that could be tied to his father’s death, while adding he’s “the best I’ve ever seen at manipulation.”

“Over the course of time I’ve had a lot of opportunities to speak with him and one of the things that I learned was that he is the best I’ve ever seen at manipulation. He is the best I’ve ever seen at compartmentalizing things so that he doesn’t have to deal with the here and now,” Hodgson said. “He is a master at using his charm to position himself and get what he needs. I’ve never seen anybody better at it.

“I don’t think he’ll ever admit to himself or anyone else that he was involved in (Lloyd’s murder) or maybe he was responsible for it and that’s part of his defense mechanism,” Hodgson told the Herald.

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/04/sheriff-aaron-hernandez-told-jail-guards-jury-got-it-wrong

[TBF]

14. Sure, and the multiple cases especially

make me think the jurors probably got it right. I have to admit though if I were sitting there I'd want to hear one of the other guys testify against him. They were there - why wouldn't they testify?

[JonLP24]

15. Oh shit - I forgot to answer that question

I meant to do so but forget to at the end. I'm not sure if they testified, I know they are being tried for murder individually (different case numbers if MA is like AZ) so there were probably some 5th amendment issues & probably the lawyer is going to do all the talking to him. You never know though, the state could bring in Aaron Hernandez to testify in their trials but that would strike me as unlikely.

[TBF]

16. I think I read 6 shots which seemed insane -

all 3 could be involved/culpable. Glad Hernandez especially is off the streets. As many of you noted he has the means/opportunity to wreak a lot of havoc.

[El Supremo]

11. I just want to quit seeing photos of that

foreheadless cretin.