Other Aaron Hernandez - Beat the Rap Sheet but not the Bed Sheet

[Exe Gesis]

Hernandez legal team scores minor victory in court
Posted by Mike Florio on August 27, 2014, 8:30 AM EDT

AP
Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has experienced plenty of losses and disappointments in court as he remains jailed while awaiting trial on a trio of murder charges. On Monday, Hernandez received a rare bit of good news in the Odin Lloyd case.

Via the Boston Globe, Judge Susan Garsh issued a 28-page ruling that prevents the use of evidence culled from certain electronic devices seized by authorities during a search of Hernandez’s home in the days after Lloyd’s bullet-riddled body was found less than a mile away.

The warrant targeted a GPS device that Hernadnez told investigators contained Lloyd’s home address. Investigators serving the warrant took an iPhone 5, a Blackberry Bold cellphone, an Apple iPad, and two iPad minis. Judge Garsh wrote that the authorities “operated under the misimpression that the Search Warrant authorized the seizure of GPS devices when they seized the cell phones and tablets from Hernandez’s residence.”

Prosecutors argued that a warrant authorizing the seizure of a specific cellphone allowed all similar devices to be taken from the property.

The magnitude of the victory for Hernandez and his legal team isn’t known, because the specific contents of the seized devices isn’t known. But with a very high standard of proof in criminal cases, any little piece of potentially incriminating evidence helps the effort to secure a conviction.

 

[royals1922]

Hernandez legal team scores minor victory in court
Posted by Mike Florio on August 27, 2014, 8:30 AM EDT

AP
Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has experienced plenty of losses and disappointments in court as he remains jailed while awaiting trial on a trio of murder charges. On Monday, Hernandez received a rare bit of good news in the Odin Lloyd case.

Via the Boston Globe, Judge Susan Garsh issued a 28-page ruling that prevents the use of evidence culled from certain electronic devices seized by authorities during a search of Hernandez’s home in the days after Lloyd’s bullet-riddled body was found less than a mile away.

The warrant targeted a GPS device that Hernadnez told investigators contained Lloyd’s home address. Investigators serving the warrant took an iPhone 5, a Blackberry Bold cellphone, an Apple iPad, and two iPad minis. Judge Garsh wrote that the authorities “operated under the misimpression that the Search Warrant authorized the seizure of GPS devices when they seized the cell phones and tablets from Hernandez’s residence.”

Prosecutors argued that a warrant authorizing the seizure of a specific cellphone allowed all similar devices to be taken from the property.

The magnitude of the victory for Hernandez and his legal team isn’t known, because the specific contents of the seized devices isn’t known. But with a very high standard of proof in criminal cases, any little piece of potentially incriminating evidence helps the effort to secure a conviction.

Because football truly needs a person of his character

 

[dart]

i bet he's hoping he remembered to make all his killing arrangements on the phone and ipad they're not allowed to present to the jury.

 

[Exe Gesis]

i bet he's hoping he remembered to make all his killing arrangements on the phone and ipad they're not allowed to present to the jury.

If those other two accomplices finger him as ring leader he's still ****ed. Also the cars in his name used for the transport of victims.

 

[dart]

and I am sure they have got all the info they need from those other devices anyways.

even if they can't use the information on the devices directly, from what they will have learnt they will know where/when/what.

then using that they can find CCTV footage to sift through to back them up (say traffic lights and that sort of thing).

I'm sure he's fked either way.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

 

[Exe Gesis]

Hernandez is a class A dummy. No argument there. But the gov is pulling some un-constitutional crap. Basically just keeping everyone in jail until someone cracks. A right to a speedy and fair trial is our right. They are stalling in hopes they can get someone to snitch. Lord only knows what the guards are doing to these guys in jail. No weapon. No real motive. No witness. No case. U have to let him go. Even if u know he did the crime. This is supposed to be America. Innocent til PROVEN guilty. They simply cant prove anything. All the witnesses have been killed off or arent talking.

He is facing multiple murder charges man, you don't get bail with that. If the juror finds him not guilty he will be free soon. Case is taking awhile, I get that. And HE IS killing off the witness, indirectly.

Yep, pretty easy to see that he's a part of something larger and more sinister. Witnesses dropping like flies. But that isnt a crime unless u can prove it. And all these murder charges u speak of? All circumstantial without a lick of real evidence. They are just hoping someone will snitch. This is a high profile case that means big promotions afterwards. They are hoping his bank account runs out before their patience does. It's not constitutional. Either charge the guy and take it to trial (which they are FINALLy doing after way too many delays) or u let the guy free and drop the charges.

I don't know about " a lick". YOu can use circumstantial evidence for murders, it is admissible. And he was at the scene of the crime for this last murder, this mope didn't turn his cell phone off and got pinged.

U can use circumstantial evidence. But I wouldnt call that constitutional. Just like he'll likely be convicted. And that wouldnt be defined as justice. I wish they scrutinized all the cops that shoot civilians with the same fervor they go after a pro athlete.

In Albuquerque you shoot 3 people as a cop and you win an award.
http://www.koat.com/news/apd-officer-involved-in-shootings-wins-service-award/28370392

In Arkansas ur allowed to beat ur wife up to once a month.

 

[Starburns_]

Patriots fans say the darndest things.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Not Patriots fans

 

[Island Bomber]

Patriots fans say the darndest things.

No true Patriot fan is a fan of Hernandez. He took his life and flushed it down the toilet. Took the opportunity of a 10 year NFL career and millions of dollars and wasted it. He can rot in jail as far as I'm concerned.

 

[kaiserchief13]

No true Patriot fan is a fan of Hernandez. He took his life and flushed it down the toilet. Took the opportunity of a 10 year NFL career and millions of dollars and wasted it. He can rot in jail as far as I'm concerned.

Not to mention the people who's lives he ended....

 

[Island Bomber]

Not to mention the people who's lives he ended....

Yeah exactly l should have mentioned that as well. The bloke is a scumbag.

 

[Big Jim 11]

No true Patriot fan is a fan of Hernandez. He took his life and flushed it down the toilet. Took the opportunity of a 10 year NFL career and millions of dollars and wasted it. He can rot in jail as far as I'm concerned.

His life is pretty irrelevant compared to the life of those he took

 

[Exe Gesis]

Aaron Hernandez murder trial gets underway
Posted by Josh Alper on January 29, 2015, 1:32 PM EST

AP
While many of Aaron Hernandez’s former Patriots teammates are preparing to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday, Hernandez is in a Massachusetts courtroom for the first day of his trial on charges that he murdered Odin Lloyd.

The trial got underway on Thursday after a slight delay caused by the failure of one member of the 18-person jury to appear for service. That juror was replaced and the attorneys for both sides delivered their opening statements.

In his opening, prosecutor Patrick Bomberg said, via the Boston Globe, that Hernandez and two other men took Lloyd “to a secluded, isolated area in North Attleborough, a town where Odin Lloyd knew no one but the defendant and the defendant’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins. There Odin Lloyd was shot 6 times. He was killed and he was left in a secluded area.”

Bomberg said that a joint with DNA from Hernandez and Lloyd was found near Lloyd’s body, a footprint at the scene matched Hernandez’s sneakers and that surveillance video from Hernandez’s home security system shows Hernandez, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace returning to Hernandez’s home without Lloyd shortly after the crime allegedly occurred.

Hernandez’s attorney Michael Fee countered by saying that the investigation was “sloppy” and that the evidence against his client is circumstantial. Fee also argues that the prosecution has not found a motive for Hernandez to murder someone he describes as a friend who Hernandez smoked marijuana with frequently.

Several members of the Patriots organization and former pro and college teammates of Hernandez’s are on the witness list for the trial. Wallace and Ortiz will be tried separately.

 

[kaiserchief13]

Circumstantial hey? That joint near the dead mans body with Hernandez's DNA sure is circumstantial.....Even if Hernandez didn't pull the trigger he was there. Guilty as *

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Circumstantial hey? That joint near the dead mans body with Hernandez's DNA sure is circumstantial.....Even if Hernandez didn't pull the trigger he was there. Guilty as ****

That's a fairly weak opening....

 

[Exe Gesis]

Potential Hernandez “stealth juror” spotted, dismissed
Posted by Mike Florio on February 3, 2015, 5:50 PM EST

AP
It could end up being a good thing that the 12-person jury deciding whether former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez killed Odin Lloyd in 2013 has six alternates. They eventually may all be needed.

According to the Hartford Courant (via Deadspin), a female juror has been excused after a private hearing involving Judge E. Susan Garsh, the lawyers, and the juror.

Judge Garsh found “credible evidence” that the juror had “discussed evidence and formed an opinion about it.” Specifically, Judge Garsh found that the juror said that “in the absence of a weapon if would be hard to convict” Hernandez.

It means that the juror may have been a so-called “stealth juror,” who lied about her lack of opinions about the evidence in order to get onto the panel. As noted by the Courant, the defense previously expressed concern about “stealth jurors.” Ironically, this is one that could have delivered an acquittal, or at worst a hung jury.

The next question is whether there are other stealth jurors. Like the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never find out.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Shell casing from Hernandez rental car connected to crime scene
Posted by Mike Florio on February 25, 2015, 11:35 PM EST

AP
It’s not getting much better for the defense at the first Aaron Hernandez murder trial.

Via the Associated Press, Sgt. Stephen Walsh testified Wednesday that a shell casing found in the rental car used by Hernandez matched the shell casings found at the scene of Odin Lloyd’s shooting.

An employee at the rental-car company found the shell casing under the driver’s seat in the Nissan Altima Hernandez had rented. He returned the car the day after the shooting. The casing was put in a dumpster, and police later found it there.

Walsh told jurors that that all six .45 caliber casings had been fired by the same gun.

So while the murder weapon hasn’t been found, the presence of a matching shell casing in the car that Hernandez was driving — and in which Lloyd was a passenger — becomes very strong circumstantial evidence of guilt.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I certainly hope these other reports pointing towards Hernandez being a "career criminal" or being involved in "organised crime" aren't true - the more I read about this particular case, the more he comes across as a really inept criminal. He just doesn't seem anywhere good enough at it to be a career criminal.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Hernandez’s lawyer may have opened the door for evidence of another shooting

Posted by Mike Florio on March 3, 2015, 7:22 AM EST

AP
When fashioning arguments, tactics, and strategies for trial, it’s critical that a lawyer carefully consider the ramifications of every word that may come out of his or her mouth.

In the first Aaron Hernandez murder trial, the former Patriots tight end’s lawyers may have failed to be as careful as they should have been.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports explains the latest fascinating turn in the case arising from the death of Odin Lloyd. By consistently referring to Lloyd as Hernandez’s friend, Hernandez’s high-priced lawyer may have inadvertently allowed evidence of another time Hernandez shot a supposed friend to be introduced.

The prosecution, per Wetzel, has filed paperwork asking Judge E. Susan Garsh to reconsider the question of whether evidence of the alleged February 13, 2013 shooting of Alexander Bradley will be utilized in the Lloyd case. The prosecution contends that Bradley was Hernandez’s “friend and confidante” but that Hernandez allegedly shot Bradley in the face “in an isolated industrial area,” dumped Bradley’s body on the ground, and fled the scene.

Bradley survived, suing Hernandez in civil court for the shooting not long before Odin Lloyd’s murder.

Despite Judge Garsh’s prior decision to prevent such evidence, the prosecution contends that Hernandez’s lawyers have “opened the door” by consistently referring to Lloyd as Hernandez’s friend, with the clear message being that Hernadnez wouldn’t shoot a friend.

Ordinarily, evidence of other conduct by a criminal defendant can’t be used to make the defendant look generally like a bad guy. Rule 404(b) of the Massachusetts Rules of Evidence (like the Rules of Evidence in most if not all states) provides that evidence may be admissible to prove motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident. In Hernandez’s case, the goal would be to show motive — specifically, that Hernandez would shoot a friend over the flimsiest of actual or perceived indignities. Bradley claims he was shot after a dispute over a bar bill that led to Hernandez refusing to take Bradley back to the bar to get the phone he’d left there that led to Bradley making “disrespectful remarks” about Hernandez.

The problem with Rule 404(b) evidence is that it can create a trial within a trial, with the trial of the main case being placed on hold while a mini-trial emerges on the question of whether the defendant did the other thing he’s accused of doing. The bigger challenge comes from the requirement that the relevance of the evidence to the current case must substantially outweigh any unfair prejudice arising from it.

There will be plenty of prejudice to Hernandez flowing from proof that he shot another “friend” under circumstances similar to the shooting of Odin Lloyd. The question becomes whether the prejudice is unfair to Hernandez — and whether the notion of Hernandez having a hair trigger with so-called friends supplies sufficient proof that Hernandez had a similar overreaction to something Lloyd said or did.Judge Garsh will be tempted to reiterate her prior exclusion of the evidence because it’s the kind of ruling that could result in a conviction of Hernandez being overturned by a higher court. The judges on the higher court, however, would have to be able to set aside the overall evidence suggesting that Hernandez truly is a bad guy, and that society may be much better off with him permanently kept out of it.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Didn't know he'd also shot another 'friend'!!! * me.

 

[Exe Gesis]

A joint with Aaron Hernandez's DNA on it found at the murder scene.

 

[nobbyiscool]

A joint with Aaron Hernandez's DNA on it found at the murder scene.

Ironically, if he were still playing, the NFL would be just as concerned about pot use as they would be about... you know, alleged murder and gang crime.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Forensic science has ruined legal defense

 

[Exe Gesis]

Strange developments at Hernandez trial
Posted by Mike Florio on March 27, 2015, 10:03 AM EDT

AP
On Thursday, a bomb threat interrupted the first Aaron Hernandez murder trial. On Friday, things could get even more interesting.

The day has begun with Judge E. Susan Garsh individually questioning the jurors, in the presence of the lawyers and Hernandez. Via Michael McCann of Sports Illustrated, the jurors were standing two feet from Hernandez while fielding and answering questions.

It’s not known what the jurors are being asked, but it’s entirely possible (if not probable) that the judge and the lawyers are ensuring that each juror will continue to serve without bias or prejudice in the aftermath of Thursday’s events, for which an arrest has been made.

Once testimony resumes, Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, is expected to testify. Via Michele Steele of ESPN, Jenkins has arrived in court wearing her engagement ring. Which suggests that she won’t be flipping on Hernandez today, regardless of the immunity from prosecution that she has received.

Then again, the presence of the ring will make her testimony even more credible, if she provides information that hurts Hernandez’s case. Prosecutors believe Jenkins disposed of the murder weapon.



=================================


Hernandez’s fiancée due to testify on Friday
Posted by Mike Florio on March 26, 2015, 5:44 PM EDT

AP
Apart from Thursday’s bomb threat, the first Aaron Hernandez murder trial hasn’t generated much news in recent weeks. The circumstantial evidence points to Hernandez as the killer (or at least present during the killing) of Odin Lloyd, but there’s still no clear motive apart from Hernandez being generally reckless, completely unpredictable, and randomly violent.

Things could get far more interesting soon, when Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, shows up to testify. Per multiple reports, Jenkins is due to take the stand on Friday.

Jenkins has received immunity, which gives the prosecution the power to compel her to testify — or to put her behind bars for contempt of court. The question becomes whether she goes out of her way to be helpful, or whether she has truly flipped on the father of her child.

One factor that could make Jenkins flip? A babysitter testified earlier this month that Hernandez once hit on her. Coincidentally (or not), Jenkins hasn’t been seen in court since March 6.

If Jenkins has indeed flipped, she could testify that she disposed of a box that contained the murder weapon that still has not been found. Prosecutors believe that’s exactly what she did.