Source: Boston Globe / Getty
Former New England Patriots tight-end Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty in the killing of 27-year old Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player and the former boyfriend of Hernandez’s fiancee’s sister. Jurors found Hernandez guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole, according to CNN.
The murder took place on June 17, 2013 when Lloyd was shot half a dozen times less than a mile away from the former Patriots star’s home. At the time of the murder, Hernandez boasted a $40 million contract with the Patriots. The team released Hernandez less than two hours after the former tight-end was retrieved from his home in handcuffs by police in late June of the same year.
While the prosecution argued that evidence showed Hernandez was responsible for the attack, Hernandez and his lawyers claim that he was present at the murder but wasn’t responsible for pulling the trigger.
“Did he make all the right decisions? No,” the ex-NFL player’s lawyer James Sultan said, according to Yahoo. “He was a 23-year-old kid who witnessed something, a shocking killing, committed by somebody he knew. He really didn’t know what to do, so he just put one foot in front of the other.”
Hernandez claims that his friends Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz were responsible for the murder. Both Wallace and Ortiz entered not guilty pleas and will be tried in court at a later date.
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