NEW YORK – Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder of a semi-pro football player two years ago.
The sentencing in a Massachusetts court after a four-month trial cements a spectacular fall from grace for the 25-year-old Hernandez, who once had a $US40 million, five-year contract with the New England Patriots.
The victim, Odin Lloyd, was a 27-year-old semi-pro football player whose bloodied body was found in North Attleboro, Massachusetts on June 17, 2013, less than a mile from Hernandez’s luxury home.
Lloyd had been dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.
Hernandez glanced to the side and pursed his lips after the jury pronounced the first-degree murder conviction. His mother and fiancee sobbed in the gallery.
Dressed in a sharp suit and tie, he sat down as the jury convicted him on two separate gun and ammunition charges.
The 12-person jury had taken seven days to reach the unanimous verdict.
Hernandez also faces murder charges for the drive-by shooting of two men in Boston in 2012.
The Patriots dropped Hernandez just hours after his arrest on June 26, 2013, nine days after Lloyd was found dead.
He has been in custody ever since.
Hernandez’s mother, Terri, and his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, cried and gasped when they heard the verdict.
Prosecutors presented a wealth of evidence that Hernandez was with Lloyd at the time he was killed, including home security video from Hernandez’s mansion, witness testimony and mobile phone records that tracked Lloyd’s movements.
Hernandez’s lawyer, James Sultan, acknowledged for the first time during closing arguments that Hernandez was there when Lloyd was killed.
But the lawyer pinned the shooting on two of Hernandez’s friends, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, saying his client was a “23-year-old kid” who witnessed a shocking crime and didn’t know what to do.
Wallace and Ortiz will stand trial later.
Prosecutors have suggested Lloyd may have been killed because he knew too much about Hernandez’s alleged involvement in a deadly 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. But they were not allowed to tell the jury that because the judge said it was speculation.
As a result, they never offered a motive beyond saying Hernandez appeared angry with Lloyd at a nightclub two nights before the killing.
Hernandez faces further legal trouble: He is awaiting trial on murder charges in the drive-by shooting. He is accused of gunning down two men over a spilled drink at a nightclub.
