Courthouse bomb threat halts Hernandez’s trial

FALL RIVER, Mass. — The Aaron Hernandez murder trial heated up Thursday as police dealt with a bomb threat called in to the courthouse where the case is being heard, and a report surfaced that Hernandez’s fiancée will testify on Friday.

Testimony was interrupted shortly after noon when alarms sounded and all people in the building were led down stairways to the street exits because a caller indicated that there was a bomb inside the Fall River Justice Center.

Judge E. Susan Garsh suspended proceedings with Susan Duncan, a Bank of America executive, on the witness stand. Garsh also dismissed the jurors, and they were sequestered across the street in an office-building lobby for two hours.

Jeffrey Morrow, Director of Security for the Massachusetts Trial Court, said in-custody defendants were moved to a safe and secure location while court officers executed a search of the building. No explosives were found.

“There is absolutely no reason to believe that the interruption was related to this case,” Garsh told jurors upon return to Courtroom 7.

There will be great anticipation in the courtroom again Friday to see what Shayanna Jenkins might tell prosecutors about what she knows regarding the murder of Odin Lloyd, the landscaper who was dating her sister, Shaneah, before Hernandez allegedly killed him.

She was granted immunity, which means she can be compelled to testify or face time in jail. Her loyalties have been the source of speculation for months as she faces perjury charges for allegedly lying to a grand jury 29 times. Prosecutors have asserted that she carried a box containing the Glock pistol that Hernandez allegedly used in killing Lloyd out of the house she shared with the former Patriots tight end.

The AP first reported that Shayanna Jenkins will be called by prosecutors.

Shayanna Jenkins has appeared in court on multiple occasions throughout the trial, but not of late. On Day 1, Hernandez’s brother, D.J., wrapped his arm around her in the gallery. On the other side of the aisle sat Shaneah Jenkins, who was dating Lloyd at the time of the homicide.

Shaneah has already testified for the prosecution.

Earlier this month, when Shayanna Jenkins appeared in court, she sat next to Hernandez’s mother, Terri, updating her on the growth of their daughter, Avielle. Jenkins also met briefly with Hernandez’s attorney, Charles Rankin, for a closed-door talk just outside the courtroom.

Jenkins was not in court on the two occasions when women testified that Hernandez made sexual advances toward them two nights before Lloyd’s killing.