The fate of Aaron Hernandez is now in the hands of the jury. The prosecution and defense both gave their closing arguments on Tuesday and it included one jaw-dropping admission on from Hernandez’s lawyer.
For the first time since Hernandez was arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd, the defense acknowledged that the former New England Patriots tight end was indeed at the scene of the crime on that tragic night. Hernandez’s lawyer James Sultan told the jury on Tuesday that his client witnessed the murder and pinned it on Hernandez’s friends Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz.
“He was a 23-year-old kid who witnessed something, a shocking killing, committed by somebody he knew,” said Sultan during his closing arguments. “He really didn’t know what to do, so he just put one foot in front of the other. Did he make the all the right decisions? No.”
So there you have it, Hernandez was just an innocent bystander who watched his villainous friends brutally murder Lloyd. We for one are not buying it, but the defense’s strategy could work and Hernandez could be set free.
Working for the defense is the fact that Wallace and Ortiz, Hernandez’s co-defendants have not been tried yet, and won’t be until later in the year. By pinning the murder on them, Hernandez could be found not guilty and by virtue of double jeopardy, would go free, even if Wallace and Ortiz state that it was Hernandez who pulled the trigger.
However, under Massachusetts’ “joint-venture” law, Hernandez could still be found guilty.
“The Commonweatlh does not require proof that the defendant himself performed an act that caused Odin Lloyd’s death to establish that the defendant is guilty of murder,” said Judge E. Susan Garsh. “The Commonwealth requires two things, first the defendant knowingly participated in the commission of this crime and second, he did so with the intent required to commit the crime.”
If the jury is reminded of this “joint-venture” law, than Hernandez could be found guilty. We know that Hernandez was driving the vehicle that turned off into an undeveloped industrial park near his North Attleborough home. We know that a joint with his DNA was found at the scene of the crime. Cell phone tower pings put both Hernandez and Lloyd there at the time of the murder.
Surveillance footage shows Hernandez driving down the road to the industrial park, leaving the vehicle with Lloyd and Wallace, and walking behind a building into a dark clearing. We know that only Wallace and Hernandez returned to the vehicle.
Ten minutes later, surveillance footage inside Hernandez’s home shows the defendant carrying what appears to be a Glock handgun, but what Sultan wants you to believe is an iPad. Further evidence shows that Hernandez rented a car for Wallace and told his fiancé to give his friends $500 to flee.
What the prosecution’s case does not have is a motive or a murder weapon and those could prove to be damaging for the state’s case.
“No confession, no eyewitness, no murder weapon and no motive,” said Christopher Dearborn, a professor at Suffolk University Law School. “They tried to manufacture a really vague motive that doesn’t really ring true. They tried to make it about his general volatility.”
Jurors will recommence on Wednesday to continue deliberations. A verdict could be announced as early as the end of the week, or they could deliberate into next week. Regardless, we should all know shortly the fate of the former NFL star.
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