Aaron Hernandez Murder Case

On June 17, 2013, Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player, was found shot to death in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, approximately one mile from the home of Aaron Hernandez, a star tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. The investigation into Lloyd's murder led to the arrest and conviction of Hernandez, whose fall from professional sports stardom to convicted murderer became one of the most dramatic stories in American sports and criminal justice history.

Aaron Josef Hernandez was born on November 6, 1989, in Bristol, Connecticut. A gifted athlete, he played football at the University of Florida, where he won a national championship in 2008 as a sophomore, and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. By 2012, Hernandez had signed a five-year, 40-million-dollar contract extension and was considered one of the most talented tight ends in the league.

Odin Lloyd was dating Shaneah Jenkins, the sister of Hernandez's fiancée Shayanna Jenkins. According to prosecutors, on the night of June 16-17, 2013, Hernandez and two associates — Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz — picked up Lloyd from his home in Boston and drove him to the industrial park, where Lloyd was shot multiple times with a .45-caliber Glock pistol. Surveillance cameras captured Hernandez with what appeared to be a firearm inside his home shortly before and after the time of the murder. The murder weapon was never recovered.

[Hernandez was arrested on June 26, 2013, and charged with first-degree murder.](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/12679323/aaron-hernandez-convicted-murder-sentenced-life-prison) The New England Patriots released him from the team within hours of his arrest. The case generated enormous media attention, with coverage focusing on the contrast between Hernandez's multimillion-dollar NFL career and the violent criminal activity alleged by prosecutors.

The investigation revealed a pattern of violent behavior. While the Lloyd murder case was pending, a grand jury in Suffolk County indicted Hernandez in May 2014 for the July 16, 2012, double murder of Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, who were shot and killed while sitting in their car outside a Boston nightclub. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez opened fire on the men's BMW after an encounter at the Cure Lounge, reportedly triggered when one of the men accidentally spilled a drink on Hernandez.

The case also brought attention to the culture of violence that had surrounded Hernandez throughout his life. His father, Dennis Hernandez, was described as both supportive and physically abusive. After Dennis died unexpectedly in 2006, when Aaron was sixteen, multiple accounts described Aaron spiraling into increasingly reckless and violent behavior. Former teammates and associates later described incidents of aggressive behavior and Hernandez's association with individuals involved in criminal activity, though many of these accounts were contested.

Hernandez's associates Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz were also charged in connection with Lloyd's death. Wallace was convicted of accessory after the fact of murder in May 2019 and sentenced to four and a half to seven years in state prison. Ortiz pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and was sentenced to four and a half to seven years as well.

Aaron Hernandez's trial for the murder of Odin Lloyd began on January 29, 2015, in Fall River Superior Court before Judge E. Susan Garsh. The prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorneys William McCauley and Patrick Bomberg, presented extensive circumstantial evidence including surveillance footage, cell phone location data, and testimony from witnesses and associates.

[On April 15, 2015, the jury found Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder.](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/12679323/aaron-hernandez-convicted-murder-sentenced-life-prison) He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder under Massachusetts law.

In April 2017, Hernandez stood trial for the 2012 double murder of de Abreu and Furtado. [On April 14, 2017, a jury acquitted Hernandez of both murder charges](https://apnews.com/article/aaron-hernandez-acquitted-double-murder-case-e08ef8f65ee74a0e987f7e87add69dc1), finding the prosecution's evidence insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Five days after his acquittal, [on April 19, 2017, Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center](https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2017/04/19/aaron-hernandez-found-dead-prison-cell/rF9DY36Y7iK2PxROUGOLBI/story.html) in Shirley, Massachusetts. He had died by suicide at age 27.

Following Hernandez's death, his attorneys invoked the legal doctrine of abatement ab initio, which in Massachusetts law dictates that if a defendant dies while an appeal of a conviction is pending, the conviction is vacated. Because Hernandez had an active appeal of his Lloyd murder conviction at the time of his death, the conviction was initially vacated in May 2017. However, [in March 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court abolished the abatement doctrine](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/12/592975440/massachusetts-high-court-abolishes-abatement-law-that-had-wiped-hernandez-convic), retroactively reinstating Hernandez's conviction.

[A posthumous examination of Hernandez's brain by researchers at Boston University revealed severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/aaron-hernandez-had-most-severe-cte-ever-found-in-person-his-age/2017/09/21/27b1a226-9f0a-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html) — the most advanced case ever found in a person his age. The CTE findings prompted broader discussions about the relationship between brain injury, football, and violent behavior.