Aaron Hernandez is back in court today for the double murder of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado and the live stream comes from the courtroom on Tuesday, June 24 and his girlfriend and fiancé Shayanna Jenkins may also be appearing to support Hernandez as he has a hearing related to the 2012 murders.
According to the AP, Hernandez is in court for a routine hearing and there will be a number of issues in the case to deal with, including scheduling and issues with evidence. FOX Sports is reporting that a trial date has tentatively been set for October in the Odin Lloyd case and that is the first murder he was arrested for and came after the murders he is accused of and is in court for on Tuesday. Hernandez is facing life in jail and his fiance is also dealing with charges stemming from perjury when she was interviewed by a grand jury in the Lloyd case.
Hernandez allegedly got into a dispute with Lloyd last year that also stemmed from an incident in a nightclub and the night he was killed, Hernandez and two other men, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, drove him out to an industrial park where he was shot multiple times. The prosecution has painted Hernandez as the orchestrator of the murder and the triggerman in the shooting, but no murder weapon has been found in that case. Wallace pled guilty to murder and while Ortiz was once considered an option to be a witness against Hernandez, he does not appear to be reliable after past incidents and drug use.
Hernandez and Lloyd were connected through Hernandez's fiance Shayanna Jenkins, as the semi pro football player was dating the sister of Jenkins. The two became acquainted and started to hang out more and Hernandez also allegedly was involved in some issues regarding illegal guns. Hernandez pled not guilty to the charges in the double murder at his arraignment and while there is plenty of evidence against him, his lawyers said that it does not mean Hernandez committed the crimes and that it must be shown in court. The evidence against Hernandez is not as circumstantial as in the Lloyd case and it includes physical and video evidence.
The SUV that was believed to be used during the night of the shooting was found in Bristol, where Hernandez is from, in his uncle's garage. The gun from the night of the murder was later discovered during a traffic incident and the women who had possession of that weapon said it belonged to her friends that were "football players". There is also video from the night of the shooting that places Hernandez at the nightclub with the two men and it also shows that his SUV circled the area the men were at when they left the nightclub and pulling alongside the car of the men. Later on, the man who was in the back seat of the car identified Hernandez as the man who pulled the trigger.
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