Tempers flare at Hernandez trial
FALL RIVER, Mass. − One day after a bomb threat was called in to the Fall River Justice Center, Janice Bassil, the attorney for Aaron Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, exploded in Courtroom 7.
After jurors were dismissed for the day Friday, she shouted at prosecutors and Judge E. Susan Garsh when informed her client would have to continue testifying at Hernandez’s murder trial Monday following four hours of direct examination.
Bassil maintained that she had a conflict with a case in federal court scheduled to start Monday and that she would not let Jenkins, who was granted immunity previously, appear without her present.
“She will be held in contempt if she does not appear,” Garsh said.
Bassil later relented, allowing that James Budreau, a senior partner at her firm, will be in court with Jenkins Monday.
“I have never seen a direct examination drag as much as it did,” Bassil said.
Bassil grew visibly frustrated in the gallery as Assistant District Attorney William McCauley questioned Jenkins. He inquired about everything from the gun she saw in the house she shared with Hernandez − same color and shape as the one prosecutors allege Hernandez used in the murder of Odin Lloyd − to the $500 she withdrew from an ATM while Hernandez was questioned by police. Bassil ran her hands through her hair and pressed her palm against her forehead as Jenkins testified. At the end of the court session, Bassil waited for Jenkins to walk back to the gallery before protesting to Garsh that there were hours of irrelevant questions.
McCauley attempted to interject, but Bassil shouted, “I’m not through! I’m not through!” McCauley asserted that Bassil was “out of order.”
The defense did not object once in a two-hour afternoon session.
Bassil’s outburst ended a wild two-day cycle in the trial. Earlier on Friday, police announced that they had apprehended Paul B. Haddad, 56, from Westfield, Mass. for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to the courthouse just before noon on Thursday. The court was cleared for two hours Thursday due to the threat.
There was then a delay to the start of Friday’s proceedings as a third juror was allowed to leave the case. He was an African-American male, leaving the 15-person jury now composed of 10 women and five men. Twelve will have a say in determining Hernandez’s future while the other three will be alternates.
Jenkins’ appearance was greatly anticipated. She is the 25-year-old mother of Hernandez’s daughter, Avielle. When asked about her sister, Shaneah, who was dating the murder victim at the time of the killing, Jenkins told McCauley, “We’re estranged, kind of.” Shaneah was sitting in the courtroom, next to Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward. She stared blankly as her sister spoke about her. Shaneah Jenkins − two years younger than Shayanna − already testified earlier in the case.
It was the time Shayanna spent with Hernandez’s alleged accomplice, Ernest Wallace, after she dropped Hernandez off at the local police station the night after the homicide that proved most intriguing.
Jenkins said Hernandez told her to give Wallace money. Jenkins drove to a McDonald’s in Rhode Island and gave him $ 500.
“I just remember telling him, ‘Be safe,’” she said.