Aaron Hernandez' lawyer says ex-NFL star witnessed killing of Odin Lloyd
FALL RIVER, Mass. - A lawyer for former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that his client was at the scene of a killing and saw it happen, but he described Hernandez to jurors as a kid who simply did not know what to do.
He urged them to find Hernandez not guilty of murder.
"Did he make all the right decisions? No," lawyer James Sultan said during his closing arguments. "He was a 23-year-old kid who witnessed a shocking killing, committed by someone he knew. He didn't know what to do, so he just put one foot in front of the other."
Hernandez is accused in the June 17, 2013, killing of Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. Lloyd was shot six times and died in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez's home. At the time, Hernandez had a $40 million contract with the NFL's Patriots.
Sultan pinned the killing on Hernandez's co-defendants, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz. Both men have pleaded not guilty and will be tried later.
Assistant District Attorney William McCauley told jurors at the beginning of his closing arguments to go through all the evidence.
"If you do that, you'll get to where you need to go, which is to find the defendant guilty for the murder of Odin Lloyd," McCauley said.
Jurors are expected to get the case later Tuesday.
Sultan spent several minutes asking jurors to forget what they have heard about Hernandez in the media and outside the courtroom.
He pointed out that prosecutors never presented a clear motive for why Hernandez would kill Lloyd, saying they were friends and future brothers-in-law and that there was no evidence he would have wanted Lloyd dead.
"You didn't hear because it doesn't exist," Sultan said. "Does the prosecution expect you to fill in that gaping hole in its case with guesswork, speculation?"
Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Hernandez and two friends drove to Boston to pick up Lloyd at his home, then drove him to the industrial park in North Attleborough and killed him. Surveillance video from that night showed Hernandez driving a rented silver Nissan Altima shortly before Lloyd's sister saw him get into a silver car. Soon after, a toll booth camera caught the Nissan leaving Boston. Lloyd's phone pinged several cell towers before stopping in North Attleborough for good.
Surveillance video at Hernandez's home minutes after the shooting showed him holding a black item that prosecutors have suggested was a gun. A marijuana joint found near Lloyd's body had Hernandez's and Lloyd's DNA on it.