Lawyers for former New England Patriots tight end 'extremely disappointed' as probable cause hearing delayed
A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday gave prosecutors more time to present evidence to a grand jury in their case against the former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez was in court for what was supposed to be a probable cause hearing, but prosecutors said the grand jury is still considering the evidence against him.
Judge Daniel O'Shea rescheduled the probable cause hearing for 22 August, after considering defense objections to a delay. Hernandez will be held without bail until then. The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old Boston semi-professional football player whose body was found on 17 June in an industrial park near Hernandez's home. He had been shot five times.
Bristol County assistant district attorney William McCauley said additional evidence includes boxes of ammunition found at a condominium Hernandez leased and a magazine clip for a .45-caliber Glock in a Hummer registered to him. Police say Lloyd was killed with a .45-caliber gun. McCauley said the box had Hernandez's fingerprints on it. One of Hernandez's attorneys, James Sultan, objected to the delay, saying his client has already been jailed for four weeks and that the district attorney could have waited to bring charges, but chose to go ahead last month.
"He made it sound like a slam dunk case," Sultan said.
Outside court, another of Hernandez's attorneys, Charles Rankin, said he was confident Hernandez will be exonerated and added that the former football player's attorneys were "extremely disappointed" that prosecutors were not prepared to present their case. Hernandez's girlfriend, Shayanna Jenkins, was in court for the hearing but said outside the courthouse she had no comment.
Also on Wednesday, O'Shea ruled in favor of media organizations including The Associated Press and ordered the release of two arrest warrants and other search warrants and materials that have been impounded. They are due to be released at 3 pm Thursday if no one appeals.
Prosecutors say Hernandez orchestrated Lloyd's killing because he was upset at him for talking to people Hernandez had problems with at a nightclub a few days earlier. They say Hernandez and two associates, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, drove with Lloyd to the North Attleborough industrial park. Authorities have not said who fired the shots, but documents filed in Florida – and released since Hernandez's last court appearance – paint the former Patriot as the triggerman. According to the records, Ortiz told police that Wallace said Hernandez fired the shots.
Hernandez was kicked off the Patriots team soon after his arrest. The Patriots' coach, Bill Belichick, broke his silence on Wednesday, saying the Patriots would learn from "this terrible experience" and that it was time for them to move forward.
"We'll continue to evaluate the way that we do things, the way that we evaluate our players and we'll do it on a regular basis," Belichick said. "I'm not perfect on that, but I always do what I think is best for the football team."
Wallace and Ortiz also are facing charges. Wallace pleaded not guilty to a charge of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Ortiz has pleaded not guilty to a gun charge. Warrants released on Tuesday in Hernandez's hometown of Bristol, Connecticut show that police found ammunition, a gun box and documents tied to Ortiz and Wallace at Hernandez's uncle's home.
The warrants were used to search that home, where Ortiz said he lived; an apartment also linked to Ortiz; and a rental car that police say was used by Wallace and Ortiz to return to Connecticut the day after the shooting. The items seized from the home included clothes, Correction Department documents linked to Ortiz and Wallace, a plastic gun box and two boxes of .38-caliber ammunition.
Bristol police also have been investigating a possible link to a 2012 fatal shooting in Boston, and earlier said they had seized an SUV wanted in that investigation from the uncle's home.