Ex-NFL star Aaron cleared of 2012 double murder
Victims’ families led from courtroom in tears
BOSTON, April 15, (RTRS): A Boston jury on Friday found former New England Patriots football star Aaron Hernandez not guilty of murdering two men outside a Boston nightclub in 2012, following what prosecutors described as a dispute that began over a spilled drink.
The decision comes two years after another Massachusetts jury found the former National Football League tight end guilty of murdering an acquaintance in an industrial park near his home in June 2013. He is currently serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for that killing.
Except for a weapons possession count, Hernandez was found not guilty of all charges associated with the double murder, including witness intimidation. He was immediately sentenced to an additional four to five years in prison on the weapons conviction and led from the courtroom with tears streaking down his face.
Gasps were heard from the gallery when the initial verdicts were read, and members of the victims’ families were led out of the courtroom, also in tears.
“What won this case was a dearth of evidence that connected Hernandez to these shootings,” Ron Sullivan, a member of his defense team, told reporters after the verdicts.
Hernandez, now 27, was a rising star in the National Football League when he was arrested in 2013 and charged with murdering acquaintance Odin Lloyd. More than a year passed before he was charged with the double-murder, which prosecution witnesses said was the result of his paranoid temperament, which led him to constantly suspect people were disrespecting and challenging him.
The jury heard from witnesses including a friend, Alexander Bradley,
Hernandez
who said that he was in the car with Hernandez when the football star shot dead Cape Verdean nationals Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside the Boston nightclub.
Defense lawyer Jose Baez, best known for successfully defending Florida mother Casey Anthony in the 2011 trial in which she was charged with murdering her daughter, relentlessly hammered Bradley’s credibility, suggesting that he had killed the men and pinned it on Hernandez in exchange for immunity.
He pointed out holes in the prosecution’s case including the absence of forensic evidence tying Hernandez to the shootings — no fingerprints or DNA were found on the gun used in the killing or in the vehicle that Hernandez allegedly fired from.
Baez contended that investigators focused on Hernandez as a suspect because of his fame, and disregarded evidence that pointed away from the NFL star, who had a $41 million contract at the time of his arrest.
“They don’t want you to base your decision on evidence, they want you to base it on prejudice. They want you to say he’s got tattoos, he’s different than us. They want you to say he’s a celebrity, he’s different from us,” Baez told the jury in his closing argument. “That’s what they’re basing their case on.”
Dan Conley, district attorney of Suffolk County, said the not-guilty verdicts showed the difficulty of solving a drive-by shooting.
“Our theory of this case stands,” he told reporters, “It points inescapably to Hernandez.”
“Beast Mode” is returning to the NFL. After a one-season retirement, running back Marshawn Lynch is resuming his career and agreed to a contract on Friday with the Oakland Raiders, according to the NFL Network.
The Seattle Seahawks own Lynch’s rights, so the two sides still have to work out a deal before Lynch is officially a member of the Raiders.
Lynch played for the Seahawks from 2010-15 before retiring. Seattle placed Lynch on the reserved/retired list, which maintained their rights.
Lynch is an Oakland native and played collegiately at nearby University of California before embarking on his NFL career. and the day passed and there was no medals, no podium. It was a bit hard,” Thomas said.
Earlier, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and Jolien D’Hoore became the first women’s madison world champions when they finished the 160-lap race with 45 points, ahead of Britain and Australia, who survived two wipe-outs to take bronze.
The International Cycling Union is lobbying for Olympic inclusion for the madison, where teams of two riders swap in and out and sprint for points every 10 laps.
“It’s a dream to become a world champion. Doing it in the madison is unbelievable, to be the first world champion,” said Kopecky.
The event at Hong Kong Velodrome featured plenty of wheel-to-action and Australia’s Alexandra Manly twice hit the deck after collisions with her team-mate, Amy Cure.
“I must admit after our second crash, I thought we were out of the medals,” said Cure.
America’s Chloe Dygert won the women’s individual pursuit by more than seven seconds over Australia’s Ashlee Ankudinoff, clinching her first individual world title. Her fellow American Kelly Catlin also beat an Australian, two-time defending champion Rebecca Wiasak, in the bronzemedal race.
Russia’s Daria Shmeleva won the 500m women’s time trial with a time of 33.282sec, 0.1sec faster than Germany’s Miriam Welte, while Russian defending champion Anastasia Voynova took bronze.
Shmeleva, 22, moves on to three career rainbow jerseys after she successfully defended her team sprint title alongside Voynova earlier this week.
“I know that I’m a world champion in two events here, but it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Shmeleva said. “If you ask me tomorrow morning probably I can tell you what I feel.”
In the men’s sprint, Russia’s Denis Dmitriev, 31, finally broke through for his first major title with victory over Dutch rider Harrie Lavreysen in the gold-medal final.
“I have two bronze, two silver, but never gold and never this jersey and it was my dream,” said Dmitriev, the first Russian winner in the event since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.