NFL Player Aaron Hernandez Charged With Murder
ESPNAaron Hernandez has been charged with six counts including murder in the death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd.
He was arrested this morning and taken from his house in handcuffs at 8:45 a.m. The New England Patriots cut him a few hours later.
This afternoon he was arraigned in Massachusetts court and charged with murder, as well as five gun-related charges.
He is being held without bail.
The prosecution says they have constructed a web of surveillance footage that has allowed them to track Hernandez and Lloyd's movements from Boston to the crime scene in Attleborough, Massachusetts on the night of the killing.
They say Hernandez and two associates drove Lloyd to an industrial park within a mile of Hernandez's house.
Lloyd was let out of the car and shot multiple times, the prosecution says, including twice when he was on the ground.
When Hernandez and the two men got home, the prosecution says they walked to the basement and turned the home surveillance system off.
As for evidence, they claim that Hernandez left chewed gum at the crime scene. They also cited tire tracks at the crime scene that matched a rental car in Hernandez's name as evidence.
They claim there was a shell casing left in his rental car. The casing was thrown away by the rental agency, but later recovered. It matched the casings at the scene of the crime.
The motive, according to the prosecution, stems from an ambiguous-sounding beef between Hernandez and Lloyd at a nightclub a few nights earlier.
Lloyd send his sister two text messages reading, "NFL" and "just so you know" before he was murdered.
Lloyd's body was found in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez's house on June 17.
Hernandez's lawyer called the evidence "circumstantial."
The next day Hernandez was questioned and his house was searched by police after a car rented in his name was tied to the case.
As the investigation continued, more connections between Hernandez and the alleged murder came to light. FOX 25 in posted reported that Hernandez was with Lloyd and two friends at a bar hours before the murder.
ABC reported that the security system at Hernandez's house was intentionally destroyed before police could get to it. He also reportedly handed in a smashed-up cell phone when police asked for it.
The prosecution says 6 to 8 hours of surveillance footage were missing from the home security tape.
The Bristol district attorney said Hernandez and Lloyd previously spent time together because their girlfriends were sisters.
The murder weapon was not found.
Here he is arriving in court:
